From architect to auditor, MICA gets all

Ahmedabad: Priya Salvi, 25, a first-year PGP course student at MICA for the 2022 batch, is an architecture graduate.
“While freelancing as an architect, I realized that along with architecture, my interests also lie in ideation, creation and building on something which I can analyse regularly. Being involved with a startup, I wanted to do something that blends creativity and analytics.Thus, I chose MICA above a few IIMs,” she said.
As MICA welcomed the new batch of students recently, the admission committee analysis indicated that for the communication and marketing-centric courses, the students come from backgrounds such as chartered accountancy, pharmaceuticals, hotel management, fashion technology, law, finance and even Ayurveda graduate.
Prof Taral Pathak, co-chair of admissions at MICA, said that diversity in classroom helps all students learning ropes of marketing communication. Prof Ruchi Tewari, co-chair of admissions, said that they have found many students deciding to make a switch of sorts after finding their calling. “So, it’s not unrelated in big picture – amalgamation of spreadsheets and communication theories provide the students with a unique perspective, which is also seen in their career choices,” she said.
Aravind Balagopal, 22, worked as an audit assistant with KPMG before joining one-year CCC programme. “I perhaps did not find the right path while pursuing my commerce degree. While working as an auditor, I found my love for films. My ultimate aim is to make ad films. My background will help bringing commercial aspects to the table along with creativity,” he said.
In a release on Thursday, MICA officials said that this year’s batch has 51% females – one of the highest in the past few years. Average age of the batch is 21-25 years, whereas 54% of batch has prior work experience.
Highest number of students are from Delhi and Maharashtra (40 each), followed by Gujarat (23), Haryana (11), Madhya Pradesh (9), and Jharkhand (8).