PythaGURUS MBA Consulting: Indian IT Applicant won scholarships worth 3.17 Crores from US Top 25 MBA Programs

This is the story of PythaGURUS’ MBA Consulting applicant who flew to one of the best business schools in the world at the cost of an Airplane Ticket. YES!

An Indian applicant who received 3.17 crores of scholarships from 4 Top 25 Competitive programs in the US.

Why should a business school choose you? What unique quality do you bring to the table? These are some questions that every MBA applicant has to answer at some point between deciding to get an MBA and getting an admission to a business school. But these questions can become a real struggle if you're an applicant from an oversaturated pool like the Indian IT background.

However, your background does not dictate how your MBA applications’ journey will go, and we have the best example for that here, Salika. This is her story.

She was a GMAT Student at PythaGURUS Gurgaon center, and after scoring a 730 on GMAT, she started the MBA Consulting process with us and took services for 5 schools. She had 3.5 years of work experience with TCS, an IT firm, and was keen on applying to the Top US MBA Programs, and ISB.

The whole Journey

When I started the process with Salika, my entire emphasis was to build a Business profile, and remove as much of IT as I could from the profile. I knew that was the only way to crack multiple admits, and scholarships. When we reached the essay stages, her initial responses to essay questions such as ‘Why Kelley?’, or ‘Why MBA?’ were too generic. I call them BROCHURE essays. i.e. If your essay inputs can be used to make school brochures, you are not creating the right story. And this isn’t something peculiar to her. After several rounds of iterations, we finally settled on a story that we thought was worth submitting. It worked and we had 100% interview invitations.

At one-point, Salika had 6 interviews lined up within 10 days.

Rigorous mock sessions, and all the resources available on Interviewninjas.com, I could see that her generic responses to questions such as ‘Why MBA?’, or ‘Why UNC?’ had become authentic, and sharp. She started giving the answers that would truly set her apart, and show the interviewer her purpose and drive for an MBA.

Out of 6 Interviews, she cracked 5, an 83.33% hit rate.

Her Final Results:

1. Two of the five top schools that she admitted to went as far as offering her additional perks such as stipend and insurance over a full-tuition scholarship.
2. Some other US schools that Salika applied to and got into were Emory, Notre Dame, and Penn State. And these admit weren't high and dry, all these colleges offered Salika huge scholarships; including a dean's award from a US Top 25 business school.
3. Emory: $22,000 per semester for four semesters.
4. Notre Dame: $70,000
5. Penn State: Full Waiver + Stipend
6. Kelley: Full Tuition + Health and Dental Insurance under Forte Fellowship

Surprisingly, ISB rejected her. In the same cycle, we had another applicant crack ISB, and we know that Salika’s profile and the overall story was way stronger than the other applicant. However, we know that the admissions process can be a little opaque, and unpredictable at times. While she received a ding from ISB, she also ended up receiving a Dean’s award from a US Top 25 business School, and $88,000 in scholarship from Emory.

Kelley came in with admits at approximately the same time that UNC made their offer. In simpler words, Salika got accepted into 5 of the US top 25 MBA programs with scholarships.

Taking all the offers she had received into consideration, our applicant Salika bagged a whopping 3.17 Crores ofTop MBA scholarships

She became one of our hottest success stories and an inspiration to all Indian MBA applicants.

Here’s Salika’s side of the story:

I worked with Jatin on 5 schools and have 4 admits with a total scholarship of 3.17 crores. Every school I applied to came back with an admit and a strong financial aid(some schools with tuition and insurance and some with tuition and living). My initial drafts of almost all the essays were rejected by Jatin- like, not a change of flow or language but the stories were rejected. he will also ask you to not accept his drafts readily and maintain a two-way communication to let the essay evolve with iterations. I do not think there is a limit to the drafts. We did not lie on any of the essays. there was no exaggeration but I realized that I was picking very wrong stories initially. But He completely changed the pressure points. He was blunt in the interview prep. Will get to the point quickly and tell you to shut up if you are just rambling and not communicating. I am sure other companies are good too. I have worked only with PythaGURUS and will encourage you to speak with him. if he cannot do something for you he will not over-promise.

We knew we wanted to apply to the top MBA Programs with this candidate and her enthusiasm and diligence only made our job easier. However, we did not anticipate we were on a path to 3.17 Crores of scholarships.

Proud of you Salika!