Akshita Jain Overcame the GMAT
Akshita Jain almost went to Indian School of Business and struggled with the GMAT, taking it five times but later this year, she’s finally headed to her dream school; Stanford.
Growing up in a family that ran a commodity trading firm, Akshita was always interested in business and hoped to be an entrepreneur some day. She got a B.Com Honours degree from Lady Shri Ram College in Delhi University.
Upon graduation, Akshita was looking for a consulting job and the prospect of working in a small firm really appealed to her because of the opportunities it would offer her to grow. So she applied to and got hired by Kepler Cannon, a boutique global strategy consulting firm, as an associate consultant.
Akshita says an MBA was always something she aspired to and her parents were very keen for her to study beyond graduation. She gave the GMAT while still in college and was offered an admit at the Indian School of Business. She deferred the admit as long as she could but once she had two years of experience at Kepler Cannon she decided to turn down the offer.
It was at this point, amidst COVID, that Akshita also got her first taste of entrepreneurship, founding her own apparel resale e-commerce platform promoting sustainable fashion, called Screw New.
Meanwhile, wanting more international exposure, Akshita had decided to apply for a US MBA and was giving the GMAT again in preparation. She had also been promoted to Chief of Staff to the CEO of Kepler Cannon. All of this meant she was not able to give her startup the time and attention it needed and she ended up shutting it down a year later.
Akshita says she considered other consultants when she was looking for help with applying for an MBA but decided to work with Admissions Gateway because she knew people who had worked with them and got into the schools she was applying to.
“It’s easier to believe results and a track record than it is to believe someone’s word.”
She says that when she told her counsellor at Admissions Gateway that she had a 730 GMAT they asked her to take the test again but she refused as she had already taken it five times.
“I told them that in no world was this happening again.”
Akshita confesses she has never been good at competitive exams and says she struggled with the exam.
“The GMAT has been a long, long battle. It has probably been a harder battle than the whole applications process combined.”
Akshita says Admissions Gateway was critical to her successful applications and her counsellor was always on top of things, kept her on track and was very honest with feedback, helping her brainstorm about the themes in her essays, like sustainability and women’s empowerment.
“They added value not just in terms of editing but also giving ideas to where the essay could go.”
Working with Admissions Gateway, Akshita applied to Columbia, Wharton, Kellogg, Stanford and Harvard. At the end of the process now, she has some useful advice for MBA applicants.
“Once you have the GMAT out of the way, the ease with which you can approach the applications is unparalleled.”
She recommends reattempting the GMAT quickly once you’ve had a bad attempt so that you’re not starting from scratch.
“It’s very easy to get demotivated. Picking back up once you’ve just given a bad attempt is much easier.”
Finally, Akshita recommends aiming high and being ambitious with picking schools to apply to. Though she received admits from Kellogg and Columbia after Round 1, she remained focused on her dream school and in Round 2, she secured an admit to Stanford, where she is headed later this year.