Should I trust placement averages or talk to recent alumni about actual outcomes?
Talk to alumni.
Placement averages published by MBA colleges are marketing documents, not data. A single 30-minute conversation with 3-5 recent graduates (batch of 2022-2024) delivers more decision-relevant intelligence than every placement brochure combined.
Why Published Averages Mislead
The core problem is that colleges report mean salaries, not medians. Five hires at ₹80-90 LPA from a consulting firm like McKinsey or BCG pull the reported average well above what the median graduate actually earned.
Most brochures also omit the unplaced rate at graduation (reporting instead end-of-season stats, after months of extended placement activity), the domestic vs international compensation split, and whether that "average CTC" includes joining bonuses or variables that rarely materialize in full.
Sector-wise medians are almost never published. Knowing that the finance cluster at a given college placed at ₹18-22 LPA while the consulting cluster hit ₹28-35 LPA is far more useful than one blended headline number.
Brochures flatten all of this.
What Alumni Actually Tell You
Alumni conversations surface the median batchmate experience, not the top-decile story. Ask the right questions and you learn which recruiters like HUL, Goldman Sachs, or Morgan Stanley paid advertised numbers versus negotiated down post-offer.
You learn PPO conversion rates by company (5 actual hires versus 50 matters enormously), whether certain roles were title-inflated, and what the bottom quartile of the batch ended up doing six months after graduation.
Career trajectory data is especially valuable. A peer who graduated in 2022 can tell you where batchmates are now, not just where they started.
That 1-3 year post-MBA arc reveals whether the college's brand compounded or faded quickly in the job market.
What to Ask (and What to Look For)
| Question | Why It Matters |
|---|---|
| "What was the median salary, roughly?" | Cuts through mean inflation |
| "Which recruiters paid advertised rates?" | Reveals offer reliability |
| "How many were unplaced at 6 months?" | True placement health signal |
| "Would you choose this college again?" | Surfaces regret honestly |
| "What are 2-3 weaknesses I should know?" | Forces candid framing |
Most alumni will answer these questions. People who went through a hard placement process are usually willing to warn the next cohort.
How to Find Them
LinkedIn search filtered by college name and graduation year 2022-2024 is the fastest route. IIM alumni chapters exist in every major city and are often open to aspirants. PaGaLGuY and Reddit's r/Indian_Academia threads also have active alumni participation for specific colleges.
Send direct messages with specific questions rather than vague "can we chat" requests. Specific questions get replies. Generic ones get ignored.
The Honest Bottom Line
Five to seven candid alumni conversations per target college give you a ground-truth picture no brochure provides. This is not extra effort.
This is the minimum research standard before committing ₹20-35 lakhs in fees and two years of opportunity cost to any program. Published averages are a starting filter, nothing more.
Pro Tip: When messaging alumni on LinkedIn, mention one specific number from the college's published placement report and ask if it matched their batch's lived experience. That framing gets honest, detailed responses faster than any open-ended question.