Indian MBA Students Find a Home at Monroe

Through the past year dozens of Indian students have come to Monroe College to earn MBA degrees. Along with the prestige a degree from an American institution carries, the Indians have found King Graduate school concentrations in Healthcare Management and Finance to be useful to their professional objectives in India.

"The concentrations are very popular with our many Indian students," said King Graduate School Asst. Dean Dr. Roberta Harris. "For example, many students with backgrounds in the health fields are planning to return to India after graduation and open practices in medical and dental clinics," she said, "and the health concentration fits their goals like a glove."

"Also, the finance concentration," she explained, "will enable students to take advantage of the growth of American and multinational corporations based in India."

According to Utpalvarnaba Chavda, a native of Gandhinagar, Gujarat, who has already passed her Common Proficiency Test to become a Chartered Accountant and is now studying for her MBA at the King Graduate School of Business, "An international Masters in Business Administration (MBA) degree is very good exposure for someone in my profession."

Ms. Chavda, 21, is a June 2007 graduate of Gujarat University where she earned a Bachelor of Commerce degree. Upon graduation, she went on to work in the human resources department for Gujarat State Petronet Limited (GSPL), a GSPC Group company and the leader in developing energy transportation in Gujarat. She also began applying to MBA programs in the United States. She chose Monroe because of the efficiency and swiftness of the application process.

"Our King Graduate School of Business caters to international students," said Monroe Executive Vice President Marc Jerome. "They feel particularly comfortable here because we provide individualized support in and out of the classroom."

"Monroe has a very helpful faculty and students are given a lot of personal attention," added Ms. Chavda. "The student-faculty ratio is very good."

But the more than one hundred and twenty Indian students enrolled in the King Graduate School are not the only international students at Monroe. "In my classes, we are broken into smaller teams to work on specific projects. In my team, I have classmates from the United States, the Caribbean, Europe, as well as India."

Although he already had earned both a Bachelor's of Commerce degree in accounting from Gujarat University and an MBA in systems and marketing from Sikkim Manipal University, Kumal Patel, 28, who is originally from Ahmedabad said that his experience working as an information technology recruiter for an American company prompted him to pursue an MBA degree from Monroe College. "I want to learn more about the American education system and American ways of doing business. I want to adapt the best of what India has to offer and the best of what America has to offer and apply it all to a computer software and programming business that I hope to start up when I return to India."

Though their career interests range from banking to launching a trade association for physical therapists, all of the Indian students studying at Monroe share one common belief: the value of an American college degree is priceless.

"The United States has a very advanced educational system in business," said Taral Shah, 24, also from Ahmedabad. "The best commerce is in New York," said Mr. Shah, who already has one Masters in Commerce degree, as well as a Bachelors degree in accounting, both from Gujaret University. His career goal is to return to India upon graduation and pursue a career in banking management.

"India's higher education system is sound and it offers its students some excellent choices," said Monroe Senior Vice President of Student Financial Services Dr. Alex Ephrem, who immigrated from Tamil Nadu, to the United States in 1976. He earned a bachelor's degree in India and then earned a second Bachelors degree, as well as a Masters and Ph.D. from American universities. "But students and their families gain prestige when they study in the United States."

"Monroe College appeals to Indian students on several fronts. It is only a half-hour train or car ride to mid-town Manhattan. Our tuition is very competitive - a third of what it costs to attend some other MBA programs in New York. And our classes are deliberately kept small in order to preserve the tradition of caring established by the college's founders," said Dr. Ephrem. "Our happiness and, ultimately, our success, stems from the success of our students."