Indian automotive engineer admitted to Kellogg

As part of Honda’s R&D division since 2011, I had the opportunity to work in India, Thailand and Japan. While in Japan I decided to pursue my MBA as I really enjoyed collaborating with global teams to deliver technical solutions for key projects. Moreover, observing how senior management brought in a big picture perspective and seamlessly pieced together components such as finance, strategy and technology to meet organisational objectives provided me with the impetus to equip myself with a formal management degree to take on similar roles in the future.

I started out by reaching out to college seniors and alumni of b-schools to understand the best fit school for me and zeroed in on a couple of colleges. Armed with a good score of 750 in my first attempt I decided to seek professional help to get suitable guidance for the applications. After talking to several consultants in India, I decided to opt for the market leader in terms of experience and top-15 results – Admissions Gateway as many of my college seniors and friends gave great Admissions Gateway reviews.

The first step was to build my resume. Until I began with Rajdeep Chimni I thought my resume was very good but then found out that there is a completely structured and different way of presenting things, beginning with the basic STAR format. I was happily forced to think a lot more deeply about why I was doing the work I was doing and what impact my work had on the organisation. The resume makeover was tiring but amazing.

I then went on to think hard about my short term and long term post-MBA goals. Based on that we were able to shortlist the schools which would be a good fit for me. I would advise building a resume and really understanding your goals before going to school selection.

Then I devoted time networking with college students/alums, i.e. 2-3 weeks before college deadline. Admissions Gateway helped get in touch with 4-5 students from each college so that I could build in the key takeaways from our conversations into my essays. So for any interactions you have please have them keeping in mind how you will leverage information in your essays and interviews later. My counsellor Piyush was tireless and more active than reactive. I think one benefit of a counsellor that I was not aware of before is that you are accountable to someone and work gets done.

I applied to 4 colleges in the first round and I must say the first application was the hardest owing to my inexperience. I would advise everyone to start by June – July to have enough time as it is best to have time on your side. While I was confident of my interviewing skills, the wealth of knowledge I had gained about the academic offerings and college life from students and alums and practice with Piyush helped me quickly establish a good rapport with my interviewer.

I felt really good about my interviews. I got admitted to a good school with $40K but I was on cloud nine when I got the Kellogg admit call on the fateful evening of Dec 14, while I was on the way to a birthday party. Safe to say, the purpose of the party got dual and Christmas came early for me. So excited now to be part of such a brilliantly talented and diverse community and looking forward to the newly built Global Hub in Evanston!

I hope my experience helps some of you and I am happy to connect for a quick call or DM.
Good luck, and may the Force be with you !