I came to the Full-time MBA at Smith School of Business because ...

I had not originally planned to come to Canada at all. All my target schools were in the United States, but given the political uncertainty, I decided to look at other options. I had begun researching options in Australia, the Netherlands and Canada. There were three prominent, global business schools in Canada that I came across – Smith and two others. It was the nature and structure of the Smith program that appealed to me the most. The Smith Full-time MBA is more team-oriented than the rest. It is fast-paced with a reasonable opportunity cost within one year, and it incorporates case-based learning into its academic curriculum instead of solely relying on it, which I believe facilitates a fruitful learning environment for a more diverse cohort that does not always come from a background in business, finance or economics.

If I could give myself advice from one year ago, it would be “don’t be worried.” You or the people around you get nothing from worrying. The outcome, in most instances, is action-dependent and anxiety-dependent.

The advice I have for an incoming student or applicant would be to try working in teams with people much different than you as much as possible. The program does an excellent job teaching people how to work in diverse teams, but when I look around, being a part of a team becomes the most surprising element for a lot of us.

Through my MBA experience, I am aiming to obtain a more robust understanding of business functions that are untouched for me, like Marketing and Human Resources. The leadership and communication training at Smith intrigued me significantly. My career goals are to enter a private equity firm focusing on efficiency buyouts or a major consulting firm upon graduation to extend a high-stakes 360 degrees business experience.

• Hometown: Indore
• Country of Origin: India
• Prior Industry: Finance
• Career Focus: Finance/Consulting