Its ISEP season in AIM right now. Including me, 40 students have been declared (on the basis of GPA) eligible to go on exchange. Since AIM has tie ups with a number of good colleges around the globe, all eligible students can go on exchange if they opt for it.
Going on exchange is not free. It has some undiscountable costs:
1) Air fare and living expenses, which goes up to 300K INR in some cases.
2) The extra pressure of finishing MRR in less than 10 weeks (Others will get 18 weeks).
3) In all probability, one opting for exchange will not be able to attend campus interviews.
4) Those opting for exchange will not be able to attend elective on offer in final sem.
I've decided not to opt for exchange mostly because of reason number 4.
I firmly believe that the choice of a school for ISEP (International Students Exchange Program) should be guided only by its "fit" with my short term & long term plans. e.g If I want to specialize in finance, I'd look for the electives on offer and faculty, as well as college's reputation in finance. In some cases, the Reputation of college may overwhelm everything else (who would not like to go to Wharton or Columbia).
However, the way my batch mates are selecting their school, really perplexes me. Barring a few, most of them seem to be die hard believer in hindi saying, "Tu Chal main aaya" (U please proceed, I'll follow). Or may be I'm wrong, they are all making intelligent choices, only i'm not able to see it.
Whatever! Why should I be worrying?
Hmm... may be because I'll miss some of them as they used to take level of discussion in the class to next higher level.
