From Abu Dhabi to IIT Delhi to Wharton & Booth With $180k: Yash’s Incredible MBA Admissions Journey

Recently, Simar from our team sat down with Yash for a coffee chat, where he shared insights into his MBA application journey, the lessons he learned along the way, and how he structured his applications to stand out.

Read on to learn more about how Yash cracked two of the world’s top business schools! 

Q1: To start off, can you please describe how it feels to be selected at Wharton and Booth, both with scholarships?

I think it was really exhilarating because the whole process was around 12 to 13 months long for me. It was a difficult journey, starting from giving the GMAT to getting the resume right to writing the essays, managing recommendation letters, then prepping for the interviews, and at the end of such a long and elongated process, getting the final result was just a topping on the cake.

So it was very exhilarating and has given me the chance to take a step back from my work and think about what I want to do in life. That is something I’m looking forward to over the next couple of months. 

Q2: Can you tell us a bit about your background? 

I was born in Dubai. I spent around eight to nine years of my formative years in the city of Abu Dhabi, after which we shifted to Mumbai. As a child, I was interested in the environment, having something to do with addressing issues around pollution and improving the environment in general. With that thinking, I took up the chemical engineering degree at IIT Delhi. I completed my bachelor’s and master’s around three years back and joined BCG.

At BCG, I worked more or less in the area of consumer goods and consumer durables. 

Q3: Can you share some meaningful experiences at IIT Delhi that eventually helped shape your values and who you are as a person? 

At IIT, for around three to four years of my five-year program, I was a part of the board for student publications, which is the student journalism body of the institute. I became the general secretary in my final year, which was the highest position of this student organization.

Over these three years, I got a chance to interview and talk to a lot of diverse members of the community, from students to professors to visiting deans, visiting alumni, and leading this body during the COVID-19 pandemic when we were completely operating online. It required me to think about how one could effectively lead in an online setup when you’re not in contact with your team members, but you have to lead the team to complete the objectives for the year. That journey was a good experience in forming team relationships and effectively communicating deliverables, getting people to give their best. That was a pivotal experience for me. 

Q4: Was there anything specific at BCG that motivated you to start thinking about an MBA? 

So, I started thinking about an MBA around two years into my role at BCG. I felt that I had reached a kind of a peak in what consulting had to offer. I felt that in order for me to move into the industry, I would need to improve my skills in effectively communicating down the ladder in terms of setting a clear vision for the team, so I felt a need to radically improve that area of soft skills that I couldn’t work on at BCG given that we work in small teams. Seeing that as a gap area, I wanted to pursue an MBA. I started preparing for the GMAT post that. 

Q5: How was preparing for the GMAT with a job requiring extensive engagement? 

I was lucky to be on a project that gave me the flexibility to plan my work around my own personal objectives, but during that last one year of the college application process, including the GMAT preparation phase, the social aspect of life took a backseat.

I was unable to meet and talk to a lot of people—something that I usually did regularly before. I think it’s a question of prioritizing effectively, developing a timetable, and sticking to that routine that helped me through the process. 

Q6: You mentioned that this journey helped you introspect and realize what your goals are. Can you briefly discuss your post-MBA long-term and short-term goals?

Yeah. So, I am yet to have a firm view of what life looks like post-MBA, but if all goes well, I imagine a long-term goal to enter a strategy or a sales frontline role essentially in a consumer goods set up. In the short term, too, I would like a frontline role hopefully at a sales organization that is recruiting. 

Q7: What was your application process like with Admissions Gateway? Can you discuss your experience of working with Nisha specifically? 

I think the one thing that stood out was that Admissions Gateway really knew about what it takes, what level of application and details need to be there in your essays, and what kind of essays to get in. So I think there’s a set formula, and Admissions Gateway has that formula with them, and they guide the students to this formula while ensuring that there is sufficient room for the student to mold their narrative into it so that each application, while it is unique, also fits into a set template that is tried and tested. 

It gives the student a lot of security, reducing stress about whether something is going right or something’s going wrong because he/she can really trust the process and the counselors. One thing that really stands out about Nisha is that she was very thorough. There were around 10 to 15 iterations on the first couple of essays, and there was some incremental progress on each iteration, so it was not like we were just going back and forth. It really helped take my essay from 1 to 10, and the kind of insight she showed into the process helped bring out the flavors of the application. This was reflected in the essays as well. So I think she has a special mind in order for that to happen, which really helped me. 

The recommendations were a very well-structured process. Oftentimes, a person is left wondering what the recommender will write. However, the structure and format developed by the team that we could use ot share inputs with the recommenders helped me highlight to them my accomplishments. 

Everyone in the AG team got back and responded whenever I reached out. I think that’s the biggest thing in these three or four months where a student feels anxious, and just having someone to talk to really helps, so I think I reached out to Rajdeep, even counselors outside other than Nisha, and I always found help and support. This made the process easier for me.

Q8: Is there any standout story from your Wharton or Booth interview that you’d like to share? You also interviewed for HBS, so was there anything unanticipated that panned out during the interviews? 

No, I think the beauty of the process, at least for Wharton, given the multiple TBD practices we did, was that it wasn’t really a surprise. In our year, the topic was around selecting an impact community. Among the four or five TBDs I did with the Admissions Gateway team, four of the five times, the group ended up selecting a topic similar to the theme reflected in an actual TBD, so it was simpler for me to drive and participate in that discussion. The topic and process being on expected lines was the key to the clincher.

In Booth, the interview was the longest interview I’ve had. I wasn’t expecting that since most of the interviews last from 30 to 45 minutes. My interview lasted for more than an hour, and we ended up talking even later. It stretched to around one hour 45 minutes to two hours, and this was late in the night because the guy was in Chicago. So, I think the interviews that are with alumni and current students tend to be a little less formal and more conversational or colloquial. I really enjoyed the Booth interview so much that when I got both the acceptances, it was also a question to consider Booth over Wharton. 

Q9: What’s the final verdict?

The final verdict is Wharton because of the larger financial package I’ve got over there and also the better ranking as per the two or three leading rankers. 

Great! Thanks for taking the time. This was really helpful! All the best for your MBA at Wharton, and I hope it works out really well for you!