IIM Kozhikode MBA, a COVID Batch & 1 Month of GMAT Prep : How Gowri Cracked Yale & Tepper MAM with $120K in Scholarships 

[Intro by Arvind Kumar]

Gowri already had an MBA from IIM Kozhikode. Most people would stop there. She didn’t.

An engineering graduate from NIT Calicut, she started her career at Societe Generale, diving into automation and data analytics. Then came her MBA at IIM Kozhikode, but COVID meant classes were online, case discussions were virtual, and even her internship happened through a screen. The experiential piece was missing.

Post-MBA, she spent three years in corporate strategy at Mahindra Finance and close to a year at PwC in consulting. She had built strong expertise in financial services. But her long-term goal, working in financial inclusion across emerging markets internationally demanded global exposure.

The challenge? Finding a program that would build on her existing MBA, not replace it. She researched tirelessly, discovering that top US universities offer accelerated or advanced management programs for candidates like her: shorter, more specialized, and focused on specific growth areas.

With just two months to go before Round 2 deadlines, she reached out to us in December. First came the GMAT, she gave herself one month, took official mocks digitally, and cracked it. Then came the real sprint: applications for Yale and Tepper from scratch.

Yale’s MAM program stood out for its business + society focus. Tepper for its strong analytics orientation. We worked together – with a preliminary questionnaire that helped her introspect deeply, fast turnaround on essays, and constant mental support from Tweesha during a particularly tough week when she fell sick.

The result? Admits from both Yale and Tepper, with over $120K in scholarships combined ($35K merit + $5K need-based from Yale, $80K merit from Tepper).

Read more about her success journey:

Background and Motivation

Gowri: Yeah, definitely. I can share my academic and professional experience through a timeline. I did my undergrad in engineering, completing my BTech from NIT Calicut. I graduated in 2018 and then worked for about two years with Societe Generale Global Solution Center, the tech acceleration center in India for the France-based investment bank.

Here, I was heavily involved in the tech aspects, essentially focusing on automation, data analytics, and the space around that. After those two years, I pursued my MBA at the Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode, graduating in 2022.

Right now, I have about three to three and a half years of experience post-MBA in corporate strategy and consulting. That includes about three years in the corporate strategy team at Mahindra Finance, and close to a year with PwC in consulting. So, from both an academic and professional standpoint, that’s where I’m at, a mix of technology and business management experience.

Gowri: Yeah. So, like I mentioned, I graduated in 2022, and the course was pretty heavy from a general management perspective. Over the last three to four years of my professional journey, I’ve gained good experience across corporate strategy and business consulting, specifically within the financial services sector.

Considering my long-term goal, which is to work in the financial inclusion space, specifically across emerging markets internationally, this feels like the right time to gain global management exposure through an international MBA and work across sectors accordingly. With the expertise I’ve built both academically and professionally, it feels like the right time to take that next step and pursue a course internationally. That was my mindset while applying to Yale.

Gowri: Yeah, definitely. From an experiential perspective, during the years I was at IIM, even though we were there physically, the entirety of the classes happened online. All the case discussions and even our internships were online. In the back of my mind, I felt like the traditional experience you get from an MBA wasn’t 100% there.

Thanks for bringing that up, Arvind. This was definitely a big additional factor for me while deciding to pursue a course like this right now. Apart from the classroom learning, missing out on those theoretical and experiential learnings, both inside and outside the classroom, was a major driver.

Application Strategy

Gowri: Yeah, so at the time, while I was researching top universities, I was not really sure if there was an appropriate program that fit my learning and development goals, considering I already have an MBA from India. My thought process essentially involved a couple of priorities while I was researching business schools.

One was definitely that this new program would build on the fundamentals and not replace what I had already gained. Essentially, I wanted a program that values the fact that you have already established the fundamentals, and says, “Now let me provide you with some specific, nuanced learning in certain areas where you want to grow.” The programs I went through value the fact that you already have business experience. Now let’s look at sectorial learnings, let’s say public policy perspectives, or advanced analytics, and things related to AI agents, and those specific learnings that they can provide you.

From my perspective, when I went through the top universities, many of them actually do provide accelerated or advanced management programs, which are nine-month, ten-month, or one-year programs. There are different criteria that you need to qualify for to be able to apply to these, in the sense that there are some courses you need to have already taken in your past academic exposure. That may vary by university, but there are universities that provide these courses for individuals who already have an MBA. So, that was the first priority for me, that it’s not a replacement for the experience I’ve gained. Instead of a traditional two-year MBA, this is what I looked for when I went through the universities and their curricula.

Second, from a longer-term career perspective, getting experience from both a business and public policy perspective, specifically within the financial services sector, was also important for me. That anchor around business and society was crucial. Yale was a no-brainer because the university and the program itself are defined around those two aspects.

Along with that, because I have a good background in analytics and consider that a strong suit, the program offered at the Tepper School of Business also seemed like a strong fit for the way I want to approach my career moving forward. Finally, that’s how I shortlisted and arrived at these two universities to target.

But yeah, there are definitely other universities that offer advanced or accelerated programs for individuals who already have an MBA. And it’s not the traditional executive program where you do it part-time; these are all full-time courses with a shorter duration compared to a traditional two-year MBA.

Gowri: Yeah, exactly. In my research, what I’ve understood is that these courses typically range from nine, ten, to twelve months. In some programs, if you choose to take an internship along with your program, then obviously you come to a sixteen-month duration. But that’s what I’ve come across in my research.

Application Process

Gowri: Yeah. I’ll touch upon all these aspects. To be honest, I really did not have a good background on what the ideal time is to start an application. In hindsight, I could have obviously started the whole process much earlier than what actually happened.

As you mentioned, I ended up applying for the Round Two applications for both Yale and Tepper. The decision to actually pursue these was made by about October 31st, the last day of October in 2025. That essentially left me with close to two months and probably a week until the application deadlines for both universities.

What I did first was set up an Excel sheet to list all the requirements from an application process point of view for both universities. That included understanding if they needed a GMAT or GRE score, what kind of essays they required, their CV specifications, and other details. I listed all of that down. There were obviously some clarifications I needed to get from the Adcom, so I listed those questions on my side as well, and quickly got that under control.

Then, one main thing I had to get through was securing a GMAT or GRE score. Both universities did need a score, and even though Tepper offers the option to apply for a waiver, I wanted to put forward an application with a good score. So, I decided that the month of November would be dedicated fully to GMAT prep, because I was going to take the test in the first week of December. That gave me a one-month time period to prepare.

Because my work was pretty hectic all through those months, I could only focus on one additional thing beyond my job at that time. That is why I planned November specifically for test prep. I had to decide whether to go ahead with the GMAT or the GRE, so one day, I just took mock tests for both. I realized that the GMAT does not require you to memorize extensive vocabulary, words, and meanings. That was a strong selling point for me to opt out of the GRE and go for the GMAT.

Also, since I had prepared for the CAT a couple of years back, a little bit of muscle memory from the quant and DIA sections stayed with me. English was really the main area I had to brush up on and level up. After making the decision to take the GMAT, I planned the four weeks of November day by day, mapping out weekdays and weekends.

In this plan, there were really only two priorities. One was that the entirety of the prep would be anchored around how the final exam is structured, the combination of questions and the distribution of difficulty. The second priority was that whatever prep I did would be timed digitally and done through an online medium. To give context, even though I bought an official GMAT prep guide and did all the prep by myself, I probably only looked at the physical book for one day just to go through the theory aspects of the three sections. The GMAT book gives you an online question bank that largely covers all the questions, along with some additional ones. It also gives you the option to create mock tests for yourself, 45 minutes or 60 minutes with combinations of different difficulties.

I focused entirely on that portal. On weekdays, I created smaller test modules for myself just to get a sense of my weak spots and level up there. Over the weekends, I would take at least one or two mocks from the official mock tests. Beyond that, there are other platforms that give you free trials and mock tests. Because I only had four weeks, I took advantage of exploring all the free mock trials alongside the official ones. It was a process of trial and error, but everything was timed digitally. I attempted questions at an average of two minutes per question; everything was scientifically calculated because I really did not have time to waste on the wrong strategies.

By December 6th, I attempted the GMAT, and it went okay. In the first week of December, I reached out to you. That again left me with about one month for the application process. I may have underestimated the amount of iterations and work that goes into it; in hindsight, I probably should have started the application prep back in November itself. But it is what it is, and we started in December.

It turned out well, thankfully. Looking back at our journey in December, my journey with you and Tweesha, the first thing that really stood out to me was that even though there was a time crunch and I was trying to apply to two universities in a matter of one month, both of you were incredibly supportive. You showed the confidence that I would actually be able to go ahead with the process over those next four to five weeks. That confidence itself was a major factor for me to move forward with you guys versus other consultants I had spoken to.

Once we started the process, a couple of highlights really supported me throughout the journey. I know we will talk about specifics, but I can share those highlights first. One definitely was the questionnaire you had me fill out, the preliminary questionnaire with no boundaries. That really helped me introspect and think very broadly and deeply across my academic, professional, and personal journeys. I eventually realized that this document served as a baseline while I started preparing the essays and CVs for both universities. The questionnaire and the initial three to four days I spent working through those questions were incredibly helpful.

The second aspect was that throughout the preparation of the essays and CVs, I really appreciated how you periodically gave me nudges to orient my thinking process. Essentially, I was able to showcase what was in my mind, my motivations, and my learning goals in the best way possible because you oriented me toward a structured way of establishing my thoughts. Everything was already inside, but you helped structure it, whether following the CAR framework or just thinking through how the story needed to be established.

Those periodic nudges, combined with a very fast turnaround time, were fantastic. Whenever I got back to you guys, Tweesha was able to respond very quickly. It was a very good working rhythm that I had with Tweesha. I was able to think structurally and establish the best storyline for all the essays for both universities. That definitely was a major highlight for me.

Finally, the most important aspect from my perspective was the mental support Tweesha provided. Naturally, with December wrapping up and deadlines approaching, work got incredibly hectic. I fell sick, and I was mentally feeling down as well. Tweesha really gave me the confidence that things were under control and that I could still get everything back on track by taking smaller steps at a time. I valued that support immensely at that moment, and it helped me get back on track quickly.

Largely, when I think about our journey in the month of December, those are the things that stayed with me. By the second week of January, which is when the deadlines were for both universities, I went ahead and submitted all the essays, CVs, video essays, and the applications were done. That was a very verbose answer, but that was my journey over those final two months.

Gowri: Yeah, I’ll talk about that. For Tepper, at least, it was one essay. It was a 500-word essay, which essentially had to establish my motivations, the developments that I want to see in myself, both academically, professionally, and otherwise, and how I plan to pursue and achieve them through this course at Tepper. I had to establish my motivations for pursuing this course, as well as my post-MBA and longer-term career goals. It was a pretty direct question, just one question from Tepper’s side.

With Yale, there were four questions, out of which three were the larger 500-word essays. It was a combination of my motivations, my career goals, and how Yale, or this program specifically, can sort of help there. There was also an open-ended question where you had options, there were three open-ended questions, out of which you could choose one where you felt you could showcase your best self. So, Yale had multiple essays, while Tepper had one, but the high-level theme for both universities was pretty similar. I had to establish where I am currently, what my future goals are, and hence, to bridge that gap, what learning and development goals I have, and how that specific university can help me reach them.

So that was pretty similar. In our process, we started with Tepper’s essay first because their deadline came first. Along with just jotting down my journey and motivations, attending some of the admissions committee discussions really helped me, as well as the materials you had with your insights on those discussions. Essentially, I learned what those key elements an Adcom member is looking for in an essay.

From Tepper’s perspective, it was that strong orientation towards technology, analytics, and proven experience there. Even if you don’t have a background in that, let’s say you’re from a humanities background, what they expect is that you have logical thinking and an analytical orientation. Establishing that was very critical from Tepper’s perspective. Similarly, from Yale’s perspective, I understood that establishing a development sector focus, a strong societal impact, and those types of goals meant more there, along with all the other hygiene factors.

You will be able to understand some of these nuances in your discussions with Adcoms, and obviously from the insights that you had from your discussions with the Adcom as well. Those articles really helped bring out those nuances in the application. From a writing perspective, it took a lot of iterations to restructure the storyline, come directly to the point, structure the context and the actions I took across my past experience, and finally establish that motivation. It took multiple iterations and rework there, and that’s how we got to the final essays. For the Yale essay, because I already had a good baseline from the essay I used for Tepper, I was able to build on top of that and customize it across the different questions from Yale.

Now, if I talk about the video essays, for Tepper, again, it was pretty straightforward. You already know the question, and I guess it was a one-and-a-half or two-minute duration that you had to speak for. Again, it was pretty direct on your post-MBA and longer-term career goals. With the video essays, they essentially just want to see you in person and ensure you match whatever you’ve written, getting a sense of how passionate you are about the path you have mapped out in your essay. You obviously have the luxury to prepare ahead, but what worked for me was just trying to jot down some of the points I wanted to touch upon. During the video essay itself, I just attempted it in one go, talking through those points naturally. I didn’t want a pre-prepared answer that would feel very staged; I wanted to be natural but always touch upon those key points without missing them. That was the way I approached the video essay for Tepper, and definitely, the aspects I covered in the written essay really helped in answering it as well.

From Yale’s perspective, it was a little different. They have a separate platform, and you have three questions you have to answer. You don’t have background knowledge on what those questions will be, just a directional sense of what they can be. For instance, your first question can be something about your goals, the second can be a little more open-ended, and the third can relate to your societal impact aspirations. You might have a directional sense, but you have to think on your feet and quickly come up with a structured answer. Not a lot of intense prep went there, but I just tried to read through the typical questions people got in their applications, thought through the key things I wanted to convey, and went ahead with the video essays. That was the video essay part for Yale as well.

Interview Experience

Gowri: Definitely. In the interview process for both universities, one thing that really stood out was that both were extremely conversational. It really did not feel like they were judging you excessively. They might be doing it in the background, but it completely felt like a very warm, professional conversation with the admissions committee members.

At Tepper, there was an option to choose an interview with an Adcom member or an alum. I went ahead and chose the interview with the Adcom member. For Yale, you do not really know who is going to be your interviewer beforehand. Regardless, both were very conversational.

If I talk about some differences I felt between the two universities’ interviews, let me start with Tepper because that happened first for me. The interviewer from Tepper looked like he had a set of questions he wanted to get through with me. Even though it was very conversational and every question was lively, I knew he had a specific list of things he wanted to clarify. What really helped was establishing a confident, happy self, which sets the tone for the entirety of the interview.

It started off with my career goals and how Tepper can help me reach them, all those fundamental questions from the application. Then we covered what I plan to do at Tepper apart from my studies and how I plan to contribute to the student community. From there, we covered some situational questions, something on the lines of, “Tell me about a leadership experience you’ve had in your past career and how you went about it,” and “What are your values when you think about leadership?” It was a little more open-ended but largely based on past experience. Again, they are looking for a very structured, precise answer to those questions. Finally, it ended with the traditional interview-ending question of whether I had any questions for him. It was a 30-minute interview process, and it went well. I could feel that the interview was going in the right direction, which gave me confidence when I attempted the Yale interview about one and a half to two weeks later.

The Yale interview was an even more conversational and very warm interaction with the Adcom member. The difference I could feel here was that he did not have a set agenda of questions. It felt more like every discussion we were having naturally led to the next question. Here, a lot of the standard preparation you might do probably won’t help as much because the questions felt a little spontaneous from his side. One thing I tried to retain all through the interview was just maintaining that confident, happy self and speaking to him in a very warm, professional way.

We spoke about the books I was reading. He asked me a question, “After one year, if I meet you on campus and ask you if this journey was worth it, what is that one factor you would have achieved that makes it worth it for you?” We discussed very open-ended questions like that. We also spoke about how networking has become very transactional. It did not feel like he was judging a lot of my background experience, because honestly, they have already done that in the written application. Instead, it felt like he was just trying to gauge the personal element and character that you will bring to the community there.

From an interview perspective, that is where both experiences were similar, yet different in their approach. My overall preparation and mindset going into both remained pretty similar, but that summarizes my thoughts there.

Working with admitStreet

Gowri: My experience working with admitStreet was incredible, especially given the intense time crunch I was facing. In November, due to demanding work commitments, I chose to focus entirely on my GMAT prep, which meant I reached out to Arvind in the first week of December, just one week before my exam. This left us with only one month to build applications from scratch for my two target schools. Despite the tight timeline, both Arvind and Tweesha gave me the immediate confidence that we could put forward strong applications, completely reassuring me from day one.

A few specific highlights really stood out during the process. First, the preliminary questionnaire forced me to think broadly about my academic and professional experiences, creating a fantastic baseline for my essays. Second, Arvind and Tweesha were incredibly fast with their responses, constantly nudging me to structure my thoughts using frameworks like CARL to bring out my transferable skills and build a cohesive storyline. Finally, beyond the application itself, Tweesha was a huge mental support pillar for me.

During a particularly intense week close to the deadlines when work spiked and I fell sick, she stepped in to reassure me that everything was under control and broke the work down into smaller steps, which was exactly what I needed to get back on track.

Scholarships

Gowri: Yeah, so both universities automatically consider you for a merit scholarship based on your application. Yale released their results first, and I was fortunate enough to get a $35,000 merit scholarship there. They also give you an option to apply for a need-based scholarship in addition to the merit scholarship. For that, you have to establish what additional personal circumstances or needs exist, based on which they should grant you an additional need-based scholarship.

That was for Yale. By that time, I had pretty much made up my mind on the Yale offer. By the time Tepper came through, they offered me about $80,000 in a merit scholarship. However, the program at Tepper was one semester longer than Yale, so the overall cost of attendance at Tepper was already higher than at Yale. Beyond that, the merit scholarship is completely based on their gauge of your application, your scores, your CV, and the overall holistic profile.

On the need-based side, what I went ahead and did was try to establish personal or family circumstances to give them the sense that additional support would go a long way while pursuing my course there. I also tried to establish my strong preference for wanting to take up the program at Yale versus other universities. If you have scholarships from other universities, that can probably help when you are talking to your preferred university. In my case, I was not sure if that really helped a lot, but in addition to the $35,000, I was able to get an additional $5,000 based on the need-based request. I did have to show a lot of my personal funds as well. It depends on individual circumstances and how you put that forward to let them know if additional support can help you go a long way. From a scholarship perspective, that was my experience.

One last thing: along with the merit scholarship, Tepper also gives you an additional avenue through the Forté Fellowship. You can apply for an additional scholarship there as well. I did not go ahead with that, obviously, because as I mentioned, I was already going to accept the offer from Yale. So, yeah, that was my journey with the scholarships.

Advice for Prospective Students

Gowri: Yeah, a couple of things. The hygiene factors, you have to get them right. Essentially, that means having a good conversation already or a relationship set up with the Adcom members. Whatever queries, whatever things that you want to understand, discuss them with the Adcom members. Show that you are interested in their programs and that you’re curious about certain aspects. Those hygiene factors are very important, I felt.

The second aspect is to have a very structured plan. When I say structured, maybe it doesn’t need to be down to the minute detail if that does not work for you, but at least have a structured, high-level plan, let’s say a weekly plan. That really helped me stay on track regarding what things needed to be done by a specific date and what areas I was lagging behind on. Having a structured plan really helps, in my perspective.

And finally, through your process as well as through your research predominantly, just understand what the program is going to offer you and what you want to get from whatever programs you want to pursue. Then, find that strong link between both and establish it in your essays. There should not be any gaps there. That’s the final thing I want to highlight, understand what their value propositions are for their students, understand your own needs, and find the strongest link there. From an application perspective, those are a couple of things that stayed in my mind.

Gowri: Thank you so much for all your support, and I’m happy to help. Yeah, thank you.