B-school aspirants use WhatsApp for counselling

Pune: With the admission season just round the corner, the students are all geared up to find an institute of their choice. However given the scarcity of authentic information on topics such as admission process, placements of the students etc, the situation is quite aggravating. In order to help such students, Shiksha.com, an online portal has initiated a counselling sessions for business school aspirants with campuses via WhatsApp.
Commenting on the initiative, Prakash Sangam, business head, Shiksha.com said, “Through the Shiksha Campus Rep programme, we are striving to help students make an educated decision about their choice of campus. The direct rendezvous with students ensures that information communicated is authentic and lacks bias.”
Since mobile internet is growing by leaps and bounds in India, especially in tier 2 and 3 cities, Sangam said, “WhatsApp has ensured that we are able to reach out to students beyond the vicinity of tier 1 towns and engage with them directly. We will continue to innovate with our Campus Rep Programme to ensure that we are able to touch base with a maximum number of students”.So far, Shiksha Campus Reps from business schools such as JBIMS, Wellingkar Institute of Management and KJ Somaniya Institute of Management studies and IIMs such as Ranchi, Udaipur and Kashipur have participated in the sessions and have answered a slew of questions from the students seeking admission to these colleges.
Talking about the experience, Siddharth, a student looking for a seat at Welingkars said, “I am shuffling between college classes and tuitions for various subjects and exams round the clock. This hectic schedule leaves me with no time to sit in front of a laptop or desktop and participate in an online discussion. WhatsApp chat discussion has helped me to connect with the current student reps.”