Next up in our series of featured MBA bloggers is Shekmba, author of the blog, “The MBA Roller Coaster.” Please enjoy Shekmba’s thoughtful answers and use them to help you make your way through the MBA admissions process.
Accepted: First, can you tell us a little about yourself – where are you from, where did you go to school and when did you graduate; and what prior degrees do you hold?
Shekmba: I hail from the wonderful city of Bangalore in India. I am an engineer by education and completed my bachelor’s degree from a non-IIT top-tier school in India before heading to University of Michigan for my master’s degree in electrical engineering.
Accepted: Do you have an area of concentration that you’d like to focus on at business school (like marketing, IT, accounting, etc.)?
Shekmba: I am looking to major in strategy and general management at business school.
Accepted: Where do you plan on applying to b-school? What sort of criteria did you use in choosing where you’d like to attend?
Shekmba: I am applying to Harvard, Stanford and Wharton in the first round. My criteria were (in order of priority):
- Great brand name across the world.
- Good general management program.
- Strong alumni network all over the world.
- An environment which facilitates strong bonding among students.
- Located in or near a big city.
Accepted: Have your parents’ success (or lack of success) influenced your desire to go into business? Please explain.
Shekmba: No. I have always wanted to do business since childhood since that is the best way to exercise your own ideas and at the same time generate employment for hundreds or thousands of people. However, the fact that my entire family has always been in business is of course an influence.
Accepted: Do you have topics in mind for your MBA application essays?
Shekmba: Yes, absolutely. I have always been an introspective person, so documenting my life history and listing lessons learned throughout those experiences was not tough. Once I had created an inventory of anecdotes and derived learnings, I chose those stories which fit a particular business school essay. I am striving to use each essay to showcase a different side of me and in the process create a wholesome picture of who I truly am.
Accepted: Good answer – I like your approach. It’s important to make sure that your essays each focus on something different, and yet fit together as a whole. Finally, why did you choose to blog about the MBA application experience?
Shekmba: Well, it really started during my GMAT preparations. I have always reveled in gaining insights into a particular problem or situation which no one else has. I felt that I had some unique insights into GMAT and wanted to share them with the world so that I could help other people. Of course, I also wanted to pay it forward to the forums like BeatTheGMAT.com from which I learned so much.
Writing essays can get pretty frustrating, and if you have no one else around you who can relate to what you are going through then a blog can be a wonderful place to let out those pent-up emotions.
Do you want to be featured in Accepted.com’s blog, Accepted Admissions Almanac? If you want to share your MBA journey with the world (or at least with our readers), email us at mbabloggers@accepted.com.
