Mumbai

Meeting people at NMIMS Mumbai

NMIMS's flagship campus is on V.L. Mehta Road in Vile Parle West, inside SVKM's education hub next to Mithibai and NM College, so your social circle in Mumbai often spills across three institutions that share one neighbourhood.

The story of NMIMS Mumbai

Shri Vile Parle Kelavani Mandal, a Mumbai education trust, started NMIMS in 1981 as a management institute. It began small, with a single management programme, and grew one school at a time.

NMIMS became a deemed university in 2003, which let it design its own programmes and admission process. It later received Category I status from the Ministry of Education, the highest level of autonomy for deemed universities.

Expansion followed fast: Shirpur in 2007, Bangalore in 2008, Hyderabad in 2010, Navi Mumbai and Indore in 2017, Dhule in 2018 and Chandigarh in 2021. Today NMIMS runs 17 schools across eight campuses, with about 40,000 students and 900 faculty.

What the campus is like socially

Mumbai campus life is dense and fast. The Vile Parle buildings are vertical rather than sprawling, local trains and autos do the commuting, and Juhu and the cafes around Vile Parle are where groups unwind. Because Mithibai and NM College sit in the same SVKM complex, people regularly mix the three up, and NMIMS students get used to correcting them.

Each school has its own personality. SBM feels corporate and placement-focused, MPSTME is engineering-heavy, and the Kirit P. Mehta School of Law has its own moot and fest calendar. Academic rules are strict, so attendance and assessments shape the semester as much as clubs do.

Traditions every NMIMS Mumbai student knows

• NMAT season: MBA hopefuls take NMAT by GMAC, which allows up to three attempts in a testing year, so retakes and score strategy are a shared rite of passage.
• Vaayu: An NMIMS fest that brings cultural and competitive events to the Vile Parle campus.
• School-run fests: Instead of one university-wide fest, each school runs its own events, from business conclaves to law fests and tech competitions.
• Committee recruitment: Student committees and cells run their own selection rounds at the start of the year, and getting in is a big part of first-term life.

Campus lore and insider spots

• The Narsee Monjee mix-up: NMIMS, NM College and Mithibai are separate SVKM institutions on the same block, so outsiders often credit NMIMS with things that belong to its neighbours.
• From one programme to 17 schools: NMIMS started in 1981 as a single management institute and now spans management, engineering, pharmacy, law, commerce and design.
• Eight campuses: A Vile Parle student can end up with friends in Shirpur, Indore or Hyderabad through inter-campus events and exchanges.

How to find your people here

At NMIMS Mumbai, the clubs and societies are the fastest way in, especially in your first semester when everyone is still building their circle.

Fests and societies at NMIMS Mumbai

Signature fests

• Vaayu

Societies worth knowing at NMIMS Mumbai

• School of Business Management cells: Student-led committees and clubs in finance, marketing, consulting and social initiatives, competitive to join.
• MPSTME technical clubs: Coding, robotics and engineering clubs that run hackathons and competitions.
• Kirit P. Mehta School of Law moot activities: Moot court and debate work that fills the law calendar.
• Social initiatives: SBM describes social sensitivity as its credo, and students run community and green campus projects.

Careers, internships and placements

NMIMS has strong links with industry, with more than 1,300 companies connected for internships and placements. The MBA at SBM is the best-known placement story, drawing banking, consulting, FMCG and tech recruiters, while engineering, pharmacy and law students run their own tracks.

Mumbai itself is a career asset. Internships in finance, media and startups are a train ride away, so many students build experience during term instead of only in the summer.

Notable alumni

• John Abraham: Actor and producer, listed among NMIMS alumni.
• Aruna Jayanthi: Technology executive and former Capgemini India CEO.
• Kunal Shah: Founder of CRED and Freecharge, who enrolled in a part-time MBA at NMIMS before leaving in 2004 to build companies.

Rivalries and eternal debates

For MBA aspirants, NMIMS sits in the constant comparison with Mumbai rivals SPJIMR and JBIMS and with Symbiosis in Pune. NMIMS students usually win the scale argument, while rivals push their own placement lists. Closer to home, the friendly rivalry with neighbours Mithibai and NM College plays out at fests and in the canteens.

What NMIMS Mumbai is talking about now

NMIMS keeps adding programmes and campuses, and recent years have seen it rebuild its online offerings after a UGC restriction was lifted in 2024. On the Vile Parle campus, NMAT results, placements and fest season set the mood.

Meeting people at NMIMS Mumbai by interest

A lot of friendships here form around a shared interest rather than a class or a hostel wing. If you are into running, reading and book clubs, food and cafe hopping, and music and jamming, those pages cover where that scene actually happens in India and how to find people near you who are into the same thing.

Colleges nearby

NMIMS Mumbai sits close to Mithibai College, SP Jain Institute of Management and Research, and Symbiosis Mumbai, all part of the same Mumbai student scene. Cross-college friendships often start at inter-college fests, hackathons, or shared-interest communities rather than in class.

Similar campuses across India

If you are looking beyond your own campus, students at OP Jindal Global University, PES University, Plaksha University, and Presidency University Bengaluru share a similar campus culture, and Zyber works the same way at each: showing you verified people nearby who match on interest, intent, or timing.

Zyber on campus

Zyber is built for meeting people nearby in real time, with verified profiles only. At NMIMS Mumbai, that means showing you people near you who share your interests or your drive, whether or not you overlap on a class or a society.

New to NMIMS Mumbai? Start here

If you are just starting out, these freshers guides are written for exactly this moment: first week of college checklist, how to choose societies in college, making friends beyond your branch, and internship in first year.

See meeting people in Mumbai, events in Mumbai, the freshers guide, the Meet People pillar, or read what Zyber is.