[Intro by Arvind Kumar]
Durva’s global upbringing shaped her worldview and her MBA journey.
Born in India, she spent her formative years in Muscat, Oman, before moving to Mumbai to pursue chartered accountancy. At Deloitte, she got her first taste of corporate life. Then came a pivot to finance at JP Morgan, where she spent three years in investment banking, working with teams across Hong Kong, Singapore, the US, and Canada.
A two-month secondment to JP Morgan’s New York headquarters was a turning point not just professionally, but personally. Living independently for the first time, she discovered a confidence she didn’t know she needed.
Outside work, she mentored underprivileged students, volunteered with the Robin Hood Army to distribute food, and joined Toastmasters to conquer her fear of public speaking.
With a CA qualification and five years of experience, she knew she wanted to pivot from executing client strategies to actually formulating them. That meant consulting or strategy and an MBA was the bridge.
She took the GMAT three times, finally cracking her target score in 2025. Then came the school selection: HEC Paris for its 16-month format, diverse cohort, internship opportunities, and the unique MBAT tournament. ISB for its practical, case-based curriculum and incredible peer diversity.
We worked together with Tweesha as her primary mentor to structure her story without losing her authentic voice. Mocks helped her find the balance between preparation and spontaneity. And attending HEC’s in-person event in Mumbai? It sealed the deal, she knew she belonged.
The result? Admits from both HEC Paris and ISB.
Background and Motivation
Arvind (admitStreet): Can you share about your background? Where are you from, and your upbringing experiences?
Durva: I was born in India but moved to Muscat, which is in Oman, when I was around a year old for my dad’s job, where I spent my preliminary years of schooling right up to 12th standard.
So I was brought up in a Maharashtrian household, but in a Gulf country. So I got to experience a lot, and met a lot of people from India as well as from different states, as well as a lot of local people. This was my initial experience where I was exposed to different cultures, living in a different country, and just being exposed to a lot of different things at a very young age.
And as I progressed through my school, in 11th and 12th, I decided to pursue commerce because things like accountancy and business studies really excited me. Post completion of my 12th standard, I decided to pursue chartered accountancy. The avenues for this were really higher in Mumbai, so I decided to make the shift to Mumbai. In 2017, I moved back here where I started pursuing my chartered accountancy along with my bachelor’s from Poddar College.
While I was pursuing CA, as a part of the mandatory three years of articleship training, I joined Deloitte since I think I always had that in me that I wanted to work with a bigger brand and a bigger name to see how the corporate world actually works. Because I didn’t have any experience prior to this, I was really excited to see what this experience would hold and what all I would learn.
I think this was my first stint, and it really shaped me as a professional because right from just drafting a mail to understanding Excel and the things that happen in corporate, this role really taught me that, in addition to, of course, auditing and accounting-related stuff.
Once I was done with my chartered accountancy in 2021, I decided to pivot into finance because it was an area that I hadn’t really been exposed to during my Deloitte days, and I was really inquisitive as to what it particularly pertains to. Very honestly speaking, I wasn’t really in-depth aware of what it had in store for me, but I was just willing to explore and see what opportunities it had. So in 2021, post-qualification of CA, I joined JP Morgan in their corporate and investment banking department here in Mumbai.
During this experience, I think I got a chance to work with a lot of different teams across different regions, right from Hong Kong, Singapore, US, and Canada, so just across geographies. This really helped me understand not just the work itself, but also how, when you’re dealing with different people, you have to kind of change your working ways and tweak different things when you’re working with cross-geographical teams. I think this experience, in addition to the finance part, really brought out this side, which I hadn’t gotten earlier in my previous roles.
Alongside this, the typical work that we did was like you do in any kind of investment banking: you make pitch decks, you help out onshore teams with any kind of research or any kind of financial analysis that they are required to do. Three years into the journey, I was promoted to an associate, where I also got a chance to lead a team and actually manage juniors and train them. This completely opened up another space, which was actually managing team members and their own personal goals along with meeting the team goals and targets. It was a completely different experience with different challenges that I faced while doing this particular role.
So that’s a brief about me. Something outside of work: I really enjoy swimming. And one thing that also kind of motivated me to do an MBA is I really love speaking and meeting new people and understanding their story and background. That was one personal motivation why I wanted to do an MBA and get this kind of experience, in addition to a lot of different reasons that I’ll speak about as we go through this session.
Arvind (admitStreet): Can you talk about a secondment you did with the New York team?
Durva: So during 2024, I got a chance to go on a secondment experience for around two months to the New York headquarters office. To say that it was a great experience would be an understatement, but to be able to work in the HQ office of JP Morgan was a surreal experience.
Because over here, I was actually interacting with clients and actually made responsible for a lot of things that were happening in a live transaction. Right from interacting with teams to getting the models in place, to actually getting different approvals, and analyzing with different teams and getting things across on time for your client was a very different experience. I had to constantly be on my toes, not just in terms of getting things in a timely manner, but also maintaining quality and being responsible for your own particular self in front of the client.
On the professional front, this was a very great experience, in addition to the personal front. I’ve always lived with my parents in Mumbai, and even in Muscat, so I got a chance to actually live independently and figure out solutions to different problems. It could be right from figuring out basic things like how to reach work, to figuring out food, to just day-to-day things. Living independently really built a confidence that I think I somewhere didn’t know that I needed. This kind of assurance, that okay, I could do things by myself and actually figure out things independently, really helped me grow as an individual on the personal front as well.
Arvind (admitStreet): Right. New York is also a great place to live.
Durva: Yeah.
Arvind (admitStreet): And time outside work and so on.
Durva: Definitely. No, I think the first day I went to New York, I mean, I’d been earlier, but just being there independently and actually having to work is a completely different experience as compared to if you’re coming as a tourist. So it really was a great city, and it really opened my eyes. Every day I used to walk through those streets, I used to just look up and you just couldn’t see where the building really ends.
Arvind (admitStreet): Let’s talk about some of the activities you’re involved in besides work: Mentorship, food distribution drives, and donation camps?
Durva: I’ve always believed that my work personality was like one part, but I also wanted to explore things outside of work because the weekdays were really super hectic and there’s always something going on in your mind. But over the weekend, I tried to get myself involved in different kinds of activities, one of which was being part of the Robin Hood Army.
For the ones who don’t know, it’s an organization that basically collects excess food from whoever says they have some excess food. We take that and we give it to people who are in need. Their main aim is to solve the issue of hunger that is currently there in India.
I was part of the Chembur chapter where the structure was that we had certain sponsors who used to give food on a weekly basis every Sunday. We used to collect it from them and distribute it in an area in Govandi over here, where people were from the underprivileged community and were in need of those kinds of resources. Just bridging that gap and helping out wherever I could was something that I really was passionate about.
Apart from this, another thing that I really enjoyed while I was in JP Morgan was our Toastmasters club, which I was a part of. One of the reasons for doing this was that I just really enjoyed speaking to people, but when it came to public speaking, I felt like I was somewhere holding myself back and I did not really open up that well. That’s the reason that I joined this particular club, and it really helped me develop my skills of speaking in front of a larger crowd, being more confident when speaking, and owning different things pertaining to public speaking.
Apart from this, as I mentioned, I’m also a team lead and I manage juniors and mentor them. This was my first time where I really realized that I enjoy guiding or mentoring students as well as juniors, which is why I decided to join the Good Works group within JP Morgan. It’s related to social contribution, and through this, I was actively mentoring students who are from underprivileged communities.
They had either completed high school or were in their first year of college, just trying to figure out the world. They didn’t have the right kind of guidance in terms of helping them figure out how to build a CV, how to connect or network with people, or how to even find jobs over LinkedIn. Trying to help them, mentor them, and guide them in the right direction was a personal thing that I really enjoyed and took part in. Whenever we had these particular sessions, I made sure to mentor students one-on-one as well as in groups to help them through their professional journey.
Arvind (admitStreet): Right. Very good. I mean, and I think this is an important part of the MBA application process if we were to talk about that on the front of extracurriculars, because it’s a part of you. Some folks have this misconception that because you’re applying, you want to start doing an extracurricular maybe months before an application. But these are things that you’ve been doing for some period of years.
Durva: Yeah, no, it makes sense. So I think I would say don’t join these, of course, they do help in your application, but just find things that really personally interest you and you would enjoy. Personally, I really found things that were close to my heart, like mentoring and solving the issue of hunger.
That’s the reason that I decided to join these things, even before I think I decided to pursue an MBA. So these are things that I’d been doing from before, and they just kind of fit into the application process. Just find things that really interest you and you’re passionate about. In the long run, if you want to do an MBA, it probably fits in, but just don’t do it for the sole goal that it’ll be a point on your MBA application.
Arvind (admitStreet): Let’s switch gears a bit. When did that thought of doing an MBA come to your mind? And what was the motivation?
Durva: So I think initially, I always wanted to do it. I think a lot of people always want to do it. But it’s somewhere during your professional career that you realize that, you know what, I think it’s time that I want to explore something else.
For me, it was when I went for my first secondment to the India office, where I got a chance to actually see end-to-end deals, like where clients would come to us with a particular strategy in mind, for which they wanted certain funds to be raised. They used to reach out to us, and we used to help them structure that deal end-to-end, actually starting from them reaching out to us to dispersing that particular amount to them. After this experience, I realized that we were just helping them structure their own particular strategies that the client had devised already; we weren’t really formulating any different plan, or we weren’t really strategizing for the client.
What I really enjoyed about this entire part was finding out what was that particular client strategy, and why were they trying to implement this at that point of time. This inquisitiveness really made me realize that maybe I wanted to be on the other side of the table and be on the client side, where I could actually formulate these strategies for the client and implement them and see them come to the market.
I realized that if I stay within J.P. Morgan, I can grow to another level, but the kind of work that I do is always going to be implementing strategies for your clients rather than actually devising them. That was my initial hint that I think I need to pivot into another role, something on the sides of consulting or strategy or operations where I could be in the industry and help a particular company grow to another level through these strategies. That was my main professional reason to pursue an MBA.
Apart from this, on the personal front, I think one of the reasons that I really hold, and I’ve always, even when I had my initial conversation with Tweesha (admitStreet), I told her this, is that I’m a CA, and the way the CA course is structured is more of you learning and giving exams. So the learning pedagogy was very different. When I went through the MBA curriculum and the courses, I realized that the learning pedagogy is extremely different and a very practical-based experience. You have peer learning experiences as well as case-based study experiences. It’s a completely different way of learning, which I had not been exposed to earlier. Just my personal interest to be able to experience this form of learning was one of the reasons that I decided that, in addition to my professional reasons, I think personally, I would like to experience this.
Application Strategy

Arvind (admitStreet): How did you go about the GMAT preparation, and how many attempts did it take?
Durva: Yeah. I think before I started the application process, I thought GMAT was the hardest hurdle. But once I started the application, I realized that, okay, that was still something manageable.
Speaking about GMAT, like you rightly mentioned, I got my target score in the third attempt. So I started back in 2023 and 2024. I took some classes and started preparing. But I think my first attempt was just an attempt I gave just to see how the exam is. I don’t think I understood what the test really requires or what are the tricks and how you basically play around with those particular questions, because GMAT is a completely different exam as compared to the kind of exams I had given earlier. It seems like, okay, it’s just MCQs, you know, you just have to select one of the options, but it’s much more than that. It’s much trickier than that.
In 2023 and 2024, I studied by myself and took some classes, but I think still I was not very sure on what is the right path, or there were a lot of conceptual gaps that I noticed that I had. So in 2025, I took an online course. And the materials I had, I started practicing with that.
I think one major change that I made in my approach in 2025 was I really focused a lot on the error log that everyone says you’re supposed to maintain, just to get an understanding of where I was lacking and also to avoid making those repeated mistakes. Because a lot of times it happens that you make a mistake and you move on. But that’s not the thing. You need to really understand why you have made a particular mistake, log it, and also make sure that you do not repeat it.
So having a very structured error log for each of the sections, and making sure that I go through it every couple of days, is something that I did and something I changed during 2025. And which is when I gave my third attempt and I kind of got the score that I was looking for.
Arvind (admitStreet): You had three target schools in mind. You applied to two, and you got into both of them, and you didn’t end up applying to the third one. So let’s talk about how you arrived at that school mix and what are some of the factors that you considered to look at your target schools?
Durva: Sure, I’ll first talk about HEC and then I’ll talk about ISB, and how we decided to go for those particular schools.
Coming to HEC, I think even when I reached out, I was always focused that I’m looking for top European B-schools, something which has a good alumni base and is just known for its brand value. HEC really stood out for me for a couple of reasons.
I think, firstly, the duration. It has a unique structure where it has two intakes as well as the possibility to do it in 12 months or 16 months. The 16 months felt like a good duration and a learning pace that I would be comfortable with. So, the duration really stood out for me.
Secondly, I think the course structure, the way they teach, the overall case-based studies, as well as the possibility to do different kinds of tracks where you actually meet people within the industry. While I was doing the application process, I also found out about MBAT, and I was really blown away that there is something like this that you could be a part of. Not just participating, but actually conducting that entire tournament is in itself a different challenge. These different aspects, like the professors as well as the different extracurricular activities that HEC offers, stood out. I really felt like I couldn’t find another school that would give me this kind of wide range of activities and things to be involved in.
Apart from this, HEC always says it’s a very diverse program, and it’s like 90% diversity. You meet people from different backgrounds. As I had mentioned earlier, one personal motivation was to meet different people and learn from their professional experiences. The diversity really played in my favor, as it ticked off one thing that I was looking for from an MBA program.
One additional thing, just probably like a tip, HEC also offers you the possibility to do an internship during its program. That was something that I was really looking for because I am looking to pivot into an entirely different field as compared to what I was doing pre-MBA. I felt like the internship would really help me to experiment with a different role, understand what actually happens in it, and also provide the possibility to enter a different market. The possibility of doing an internship is an important thing; whenever students or whoever is planning to do an MBA are looking at target schools, please make sure to look at this particular aspect as well, which is something I wasn’t aware of earlier but realized as I was looking at schools. So, those were my primary reasons for HEC.
Coming to ISB, it’s a name that has really grown in the last 15 years or so. Similarly, when I was researching courses and went through ISB’s brochure to understand the way they teach, it was, again, exactly what I was looking for: a very practical, case study-based approach and not a theoretical kind of way of teaching. That really excited me. I also spoke to a few alumni and heard from their experience what the school was like. It was very similar to what I was looking for in terms of the ability to do different things. ISB has a lot of clubs and a lot of different things that you could do, and you meet people from different backgrounds. When I was going through ISB’s diversity, I saw there are people who are lawyers, who are doctors, who are from really different and various backgrounds that come over here, and you can actually learn from them. That, again, checked off my boxes.
Just having a school within India which offered the same kind of course structure that international universities offer was what played to ISB’s strength for me at a personal level. That’s the reason I decided to also apply to ISB, because it was a school where I really, really liked the entire course curriculum, and I was genuinely surprised to see that it had so many similarities to what international programs are currently offering. Right.
Arvind (admitStreet): You also attended a networking session with the HEC Adcom in India, in Mumbai. How was that experience? What did that teach you about the school and the professors?
Durva: Sure. So I think that was a very great turning point, I would say. I didn’t realize the importance of attending these events until I actually attended one. It’s not just that the Adcom will remember you from that particular event, but one key takeaway that I had during that program was we also got to meet a lot of people who had just gotten into the January intake. Over here, I got to meet people who would actually be part of the cohort and the people that I would be interacting with on a day-to-day basis.
I really felt like I could be a part of that entire community and that I could fit into that particular group. Just getting that sense of affirmation, that, okay, I really enjoy being in this community, getting those positive vibes, and just feeling like you fit in, was something that happened during that event. It really reaffirmed my belief of fitting into HEC and that it really is the place that I want to be.
Apart from this, additionally, during the event, they tell you a lot about the program, things that you were not aware of earlier. One more thing was the impact of trying to attend these kinds of events, even if it’s not in person. Before I attended this in-person event in Mumbai, I had earlier attended a call with one of the recruitment managers. When I went to the event in person, she actually remembered me and was like, “Oh, yeah, hi, we’ve connected over mail and exchanged certain emails.” Having that kind of connection matters; they do remember you, and that really stands out because they realize that you are genuinely keen on that particular school.
To offer a tip to any prospective applicants: just feel free to go through their pages and reach out to Adcoms as much as you can. I reached out to a couple of Adcoms, and all of them were super helpful and very responsive. They get back to you very fast, and they are also really proactive about having coffee chats and just meeting over a quick Zoom call. Do that and try to understand more about the program, not just from the perspective of understanding the curriculum, but also to help you decide whether you really fit into that particular program and could actually grow with the cohort.
Working with admitStreet
Arvind (admitStreet): So let’s switch gears into your working experience with us. Tweesha was your mentor through the process. Talk about how the process was: the different aspects, CV, essays, even interviews, etc.
Durva: Sure. So I think, after the admit, the first thing I told Tweesha was I couldn’t have done it without you guys. The team has been super, super helpful, both you and Tweesha.
Talking about the overall process, it was a very structured process. I reached out to you back in July or so, and you first reached out to me with a certain questionnaire, like, “Okay, let’s start with this. Let’s understand your overall background.” It was just to introspect into my entire journey and fill out different kinds of questions and answers to that. That was my first step of getting a hint of what was going to come during the application process.
So the first step started with this questionnaire, and giving my CV for a brief review to understand whether it was in line or what kind of changes were required. These were my initial steps that you had suggested. Then, as we began the main application process where we actually started writing the essays and reviewing them, it was extremely structured in the way that I remember Tweesha planning out the deadlines for each of the schools for the essays and for the CVs. There were specific deadlines for each portion. Okay, CV we have to get done by this day, first draft by this day; the first draft for essays would come by this day.
And it was not just from my end, but there was also a lot of proactiveness from your end. If you said that you were going to give me comments on a specific date, you did give me feedback and comments on that particular date. There was a very particular timeline that we were following, that, okay, this is the day that you have to get back to us. It really helped me stay within the timeframe that we had set for ourselves and meet the application deadlines, which is extremely important if you want to apply in a particular round.
One thing that I also mentioned to Tweesha was you really made the application process in such a manner that even though you helped me and guided me through the process, in the end, when I now read the essays or the CV, it feels like, okay, this is all me, this is my story that I have put forward. What I really liked through the process and of engaging with you, Arvind, and Tweesha, was that you just made sure to nudge me in the right direction, rather than telling me what has to come into my CV or essays.
You just gave me the right direction to think on what lines I should be thinking or what kind of things I should be including, rather than telling me, “include this, include that.” It was more of thinking at a broader level, thinking in this manner, and trying to figure out some kind of personal experience which is in this particular line, rather than telling me to do this or do that, or straight away changing my essays completely. That really helped a lot to keep the essays authentic while also bringing structure to the entire essay.
Lastly, one thing that I really liked about Tweesha and you was that your feedback was very straight and to the point. It was like, “This is not working out, this needs to be changed. If you want that, you need to really work on this particular area.” Getting that particular feedback and constantly being reminded that this is what you need to tweak in order to get your essay to that level where your story reaches the Adcom was super helpful. I would say that when you’re doing that application process by yourself, you’re just writing, you’re reading, and you don’t see where there are gaps and where you could improve. Tweesha and you really helped me see those areas and really bring out the entire application, which really helped me get that admit.
Arvind (admitStreet): Right. Thank you. I think it was primarily Tweesha; I was more in the final reviews, just more as a quality check. But that’s a great point that you mentioned, we don’t ask you or tell you what to write, because at the end of the day, it’s your story, your experiences, you’ve been there and done that. Neither do we write the essays, unlike, I mean, some consultants are into that practice, which is not ideal, because it’s your experience. It’s best that it comes out through you. We are here more to nudge you, guide you, ask you questions, and so on.
It has to be a two-way street, right? At the end of the day, even with what we do, if you keep track of the timelines, the action plan, and so on, it works. It was great to work with you as well, because I know you were also busy with your job and you had to juggle multiple things, but you made sure that you were able to work on the feedback or ask questions if something was not clear. So, it’s great.
Durva: With both of you being HEC alumni, there were a lot of things that I also learned about HEC while that entire process was happening. That was also really very helpful, a few things that probably, through my personal research, I would not have found out. That was also definitely a brownie point, and thanks a lot for that as well.
Interview Experience
Arvind (admitStreet): We will talk a bit about the interview process at HEC and ISB. I see it is quite different in terms of the format, the kind of topics, or even the questions asked. Wow, what was your experience like during the interviews?
Durva: So I’ll probably speak about the HEC interview, which I think was a really different experience. I mean, when I found out from earlier admits that you need to make a presentation, I was first taken aback a little bit. I was like, “I need to make a presentation? Okay, but on what?” Just anything.
The first 10 minutes of your HEC interview are going to be a presentation that you have made on a topic of your choice, structured the way you want. Those first 10 minutes are all you, and they just want to basically see how you structure that entire presentation, how you present it, and how well you’re able to convey your points and speak in that 10-minute time given to you. So I think it was a very different experience.
For HEC, we have two alumni interviews, and for me, both of them were very different. The first interviewer was from a consulting background, and my presentation was around a plan to develop a particular part. She really nudged me and asked a lot of questions about the plan, how successful it would be, what the different revenue drivers would be, and just a lot of questions about the plan itself before we went into the main interview experience. Whereas for the other interview, they didn’t really ask me a lot of questions on that particular plan, but were chatting more around other aspects and questions that they wanted to cover in the interview.
To give a brief structure, once the 10-minute presentation was done, for the first interview, I was just asked in general about my personal motivation to do an MBA. I think one question that professionals who have slightly more experience, like five years in my case, get asked is, “Why at this particular point? What made you decide to do it at this particular point in your life?” That was a question that was common across both interviews. Other questions could be, “Why do you want to do it in France? You do know there’s a language barrier that is there, right?”
What I have realized is you just need to be very authentic and be able to answer with your own personal reasons during these interviews. They don’t want answers that are rehearsed and prepared; they just want to have a conversation and understand your personal motivation for doing an MBA rather than getting some rehearsed answer where it doesn’t seem like it’s you, or doesn’t align with the application you have sent across to the school. Your interviewers do have your essays and CV, so they do know a lot about you already, but they just want to make sure that everything aligns and your motivation to do an MBA is very solid. I think HEC was a great experience and a very different experience, I would say, as compared to ISB.
Coming to the ISB interview experience, it was my first in-person interview experience, so it was really different. First, we were asked to answer two behavioral questions, where they give you a situation and they just want you to type out whatever you think you would do in that particular situation. There are two questions, you have roughly 20 minutes, and you have to type it out on your laptop. This is just you thinking out loud about what you would do had you actually been put into that particular situation, and giving your most authentic answer there.
Once this segment is done, you’re taken back to the main waiting room where all the other interviewees are, and you are called in whenever the interviewers are ready. There are usually two to three interviewers; in my case, there were two who were asking different questions. One interviewer really wanted to know what my weakness is. He asked me for one weakness, I gave an answer, and he was like, “Okay, but I want to know one more.” You really have to be on your toes whenever you’re in these interviews. You probably prepared for the XYZ question, but they could really ask you something completely different, so you just need to be able to think on your toes at that particular moment.
I think you just need to convince the interviewers with your answers, and again, it shouldn’t feel rehearsed or like something that doesn’t really align with your application or the essays you have sent to the school. In the ISB interview, one thing they wanted to know particularly was, “Why do you not want to stay in your current role? JPM is a really good brand name, you have solid experience here, and you could grow within this firm, so why not that?” They were really focused on understanding what my motivation was to leave a really great role with a good company and go for an MBA, which is a huge investment. They did ask, “Why do you want to make such a huge investment? What is your personal motivation to do so and leave a good company?” ISB really focused on that aspect.
Both interview processes really depend on the school as well as what you have conveyed through your essays and CV. One tip I would give to everyone is to be confident and just have a conversation with the interviewers rather than making it like a Q&A. They’re just trying to understand your goals and whether what you’re trying to achieve is something that the college can help you reach. Just have a conversation and do not stress too much about it; they are just trying to understand your motivations and whether it aligns with the school.
Arvind (admitStreet): How did the mocks help? I think you did mocks with both of us: me and Tweesha.
Durva: The mocks were very helpful. We had three mocks over a span of, I think, three to four days. For the first mock, I was really underprepared because my thought was that it has to be more conversational, so preparing won’t really help out a lot. But what was happening in the first mock was I was kind of blanking out; I didn’t even have pointers in my mind. If asked a certain question, I didn’t even have pointers ready.
That’s when Tweesha told me that you don’t really need to rehearse or prepare each and every answer, but at least have a few bullet points on the top of your mind, like for “Why MBA,” you need to know, okay, pivoting into strategy or your personal reasons. Just having those bullets really helped structure my interview much better. When I think about the first mock compared to the second mock with you, you gave a lot of good feedback on how I could structure it in a better manner and things I could change in my presentation.
By the time I reached the third interview, I had rehearsed so many times that Tweesha said, “You know, it’s going good, but don’t make it sound like you have rehearsed a particular answer. It has to come off really naturally.” It’s about trying to find that good balance of being prepared, but not to the level that you have literally learned your answers by heart.
One tip that really helped me, which Tweesha gave me, was to just have pointers ready in your mind. For any kind of question asked, if they ask you your strengths or your weaknesses, you don’t need to have an entire script ready, but you just need to have those bullet points on top of your mind. That tip really helped me through that entire interview process and made my actual interview go much smoother than my first mock with Tweesha.
Advice for Prospective Students
Arvind (admitStreet): Let’s wrap it up. What are your tips, insights, or pieces of advice for applicants looking at an MBA program?
Durva: First, whenever MBA applicants or anyone planning to do an MBA is thinking things through, I think you just need to figure out “Why an MBA” and “Why now.” Have that really clear in your mind. Through this entire process, I’ve realized that schools are really keen to understand that very well. They want to genuinely understand if you are just doing an MBA because a lot of people are doing it, or if you have your own personal reasons for wanting to pursue it. So just have your reasons for “Why MBA” and “Why now” fixed in your mind.
Secondly, research the different schools that are out there. While programs could be really good, you also need to understand whether you would fit in well into that particular program. It is not just about a program being good, but it’s also about you fitting into that program and actually growing with your peer group as well. That is from the program perspective.
Third, speak to people as much as you can. While an MBA brochure tells you a few things, when you actually speak to alumni from different colleges, or even just speak to consultants, you get a lot of different perspectives which are not reflected through college websites or different kinds of statistics on the web.
Specifically, reach out to the Adcoms of the schools that you’re targeting, because they really remember you. When your application actually goes in for consideration, if you have met that particular Adcom at any event or networking event, whether offline or even online, they really remember you. When your application is being evaluated, I feel that is also a thing that is considered, as it shows your interest in that particular school.
So just make sure to attend these events, understand the school, and interact and network with people. That really helps a lot. I cannot stress enough that I personally wasn’t aware of how important this is before I actually did it, met people, and went for these networking events, but it’s super helpful.
Arvind and the team really helped me keep track of all the different events that were happening for different schools. Because there are a lot of schools that you’re considering and a lot of events happening, there’s a chance to miss out. Arvind’s team helping me keep track really made sure that I attended the important ones and spoke to the Adcoms myself. So just make sure to do that.
Arvind (admitStreet): Right. Good. Thank you again for your time, and all the best. I’m looking forward to you doing greater things in the future.
Durva: Thank you. Thank you so much, Arvind. And again, thank you very much to your team and for all the support that they have given me. Like I mentioned, this would have definitely not been possible had it not been for Tweesha and you. You have been super helpful, and I would always love to stay connected with the team. I’ll keep you posted on how my journey is going, and for anything else, I’ll always reach out to you as a really great mentor to have.
Arvind (admitStreet): Absolutely. And it was our pleasure working with you. All the best.
Durva: Thank you. Thank you so much.
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