life…at ISB…

Sep 29, 2005 | ISB | 5 comments

Life at ISB took a different turn for a lot of people today. We just completed with our bidding system for the electives. With 4000 points in everyone’s kitty…to be distributed over the 4 terms…people displayed fabulous levels of game theory concepts. Here are a few of them:

  • If you bid at 800 for a course and it clears at 400, you get 400 back. Hence, some dudes came up with the grand idea that if they bid 1000 a piece for 4 subjects, they will surely get all of them. And then will get points redeemed based on the clearing price. What they fail to understand is that everyone is thinking the same way…!

  • No no…is their argument. Even if everyone thinks the same way…everyone gets screwed. Right?…wrong…! with 200 people expressing an interest in marketing and only 120 landing with a course of their choice (at the high bids) there will be 80 odd people who shall have the points to play the same game in the next term. And then the original set will get screwed…!


Anyways…after a day of horrible rumor management, collusions of the highest order…and ‘underpromisin – overdelivering’…the results came out this evening. Some disappointments…a sense of relief primarily.



The term is coming to an end…and so are the core courses. From now on begins a revision path…building on the concepts of these 6 months. With an all FIN portfolio…I shall be against the top brains of the batch. And its not going to be easy. Lets see how it goes…

Life…at ISB…has a lot to learn from…!

~a

5 Comments

  1. Amit on September 29, 2005 at 3:16 pm

    Folks who have bid unreasonably high in term V have nothing to lose. Reason: Most of their points will be returned. Plus, the bids for next few terms will be much lower I am sure. Plus, there are some subjects in term V which you cant do without. Can you do Finance without Fixed Income or F&O. Or say losing out on Mkt. implementation (& Managins mkts in term 8 too) for somebody who is planning on a mark major. Hence the system is inherently inefficient because it doesnt penalise speculation.
    Just check one thing: all those who have got all 5 subjects they bid for, how much points do they have in their kitty before points are returned to them. I know many with 15,20,30 points. Now that surely isnt being rational. But they will be on an even footing as others for the next terms.

  2. ankur on September 29, 2005 at 5:14 pm

    I agree…however respectfully disagree with some of the above as well. time will tell what happens…as of now…chill..

    ~a