Kanupriya Maheshwari Learned To Trust The Process
Kanupriya Maheshwari applied to Columbia, Kellogg and Duke and got interview invites from all three schools. Though she struggled with anxiety and self-doubt during her applications, her tenacity paid off and she is headed to Columbia later this year.
Kanupriya is from the industrial town of Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh, where her father was a pulp plant manager in a paper mill. She grew up hearing about bleach, chemicals and plant machinery and says her choice of Chemical Engineering at Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, was destiny.
In her third year of college, Kanupriya started reading about finance and ended up taking a few courses in it, getting a Minor in Finance with her B.E. in Chemical Engineering. She got hired by JP Morgan as an investment banking analyst in a campus placement.
Even as a child, Kanupriya always had the ambition of starting her own business and when she was hired at JP Morgan, she was sure that an MBA was in her future.
In 2022, while working for a North American beauty client, Kanupriya finally decided that she wanted to start a business in the beauty segment in India. She decided to apply for an MBA and says she chose to work with Admissions Gateway after two seniors at JP Morgan recommended them.
Kanupriya says following Rajdeep Chimni’s advice about how to approach her applications helped them stand out from the amongst other applicants.
“I don’t think anyone knows what ad-com wants more than Rajdeep does, honestly.”
Kanupriya confesses that she was a difficult applicant because she is very picky but credits her counsellor with being extremely warm, patient and accommodating, helping her calm down and motivating her throughout the application process.
“The process is very taxing to your mental health and that really helped me with my anxiety.”
Kanupriya said that she had misgivings about her Columbia application after she had submitted it and was very upset with her counsellor. However, her counsellor was very patient, asking her to trust them and explaining why they thought her application would work well.
“I was very lucky to end up working with them.”
Kanupriya ended up getting offered an admit to Columbia, along with an $80K scholarship. On a work trip to the US last year, she visited the campus, spoke with students and faculty and decided that it was the school for her. Even though she had also been offered interviews at Kellogg and Duke, Kanupriya withdrew her applications.
Her advice to applicants is to get over with the GMAT as soon as possible.
“It’s just the tip of the iceberg and you should be focussing on your applications and your story.”
She also advises applicants to be thick-skinned because the process is very long and lonely.
“Even if you get rejected from your dream school, dust yourself off and move on to the next application.”
Kanupriya however, will be headed to New York later this year, to join her dream school.