Shubhra Agrawal Trusted Her Instincts.
Though Shubhra Agrawal always knew she would get an MBA, she confesses she was
very under-confident while applying, even though she had a very strong application.
“My view of the world was that any school that will take me, I’ll just go.”
Shubhra applied to Harvard, Wharton, Kellogg, Booth and Columbia and was offered admits from each one, except Harvard. She was also offered a $50k scholarship at Booth.
Shubhra grew up in a family full of engineers, many of them from the IIT’s. Her older brother went to IIT-Madras and as a school student, Shubhra decided she wanted to study at an IIT too, specially one of the older ones as she felt they were more prestigious.
She loved math and logic and ended up getting a B.Tech in Electronics & Electrical Communication, with a minor in Computer Science, from IIT-Kharagpur.
In campus recruitment at IIT, Shubhra won a consultant position at BCG and spent almost three years at the firm before she moved to CoinDCX Ventures, one of India’s largest and oldest cryptocurrency exchanges.
Shubhra had known while in college that an MBA was in her future and had already taken the GMAT just before she left BCG. She spoke with a number of admissions consultants but decide to work with Admissions Gateway after a close friend recommended them very highly.
Shubhra says working with the right consultant is crucial.
“They understand how to tell your story.”
She says just getting the resumé right took more than a dozen iterations and she struggled initially because she had never evaluated her career from a strategic angle before but her counsellor helped her think differently.
“I was used to a more operational, case-to-case way of thinking about my career, so it required a mindset change.”
With her counsellor’s help, she was able to build a resumé that highlighted the expertise she had built. Shubhra says that because admissions essays are not the traditional writing style, she would also not have been able to evaluate whether her essays were working or not, herself. She says her counsellors at Admissions Gateway gave her precise feedback about what was working, what wasn’t and helped her tell her story succinctly, within the word limits.
“They were able to hear my stories from me and then bring them out in a much sharper manner.”
Shubhra says that though no individual part of the application process is difficult, the entire process is long and relentless and having to learn about each school demands consistency, time and effort and she felt exhausted at the end of it.
Her advice for anyone considering applying to business school is that the question of an MBA is very personal. She recommends getting both perspectives, from people who have done it as well as people who haven’t. However, she cautions that in the end, you have to make your own decision about what is right for you.
“It’s a personal call about whether you want to have that experience or not. Just listen to your gut feeling.”
Shubhra trusted her instincts and the result is that later this year, she will be headed to Wharton.