Welcome to another episode of ‘Crack The MBA’ show. Our guest today is Giriraj Heda who is a first-year student at University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. Giriraj holds a BTech degree in Mechanical Engineering from NIT Karnataka, where he was team captain for the Racing team. Post college, Giriraj worked as an operations engineer at ExxonMobil, where he led and supported oil and gas
exploration projects off the coast of Cyprus, Guyana, and Russia. At Darden, Giriraj has been awarded the Allan and Barbara Staats Fellowship with a $80,000 award. Giriraj has been nominated as the International Student Representative
for his section and has been selected as Community Consultant at Darden. This summer, Giriraj will be interning with McKinsey in their Houston office.   

00:00:00           Highlights

00:00:35           Introduction

00:01:30           Fun Fact

00:02:29           Winning Habits & Influences

00:11:03           Essays: General Advice

00:14:30           ChatGPT & Essay-Writing

00:16:59           Darden’s Essays

00:19:12           Scholarship Essay

00:19:50           Re-applicant Experience

00:24:56           Darden Interview Experience

00:26:23           $80,000 Merit-Based Scholarship

00:27:54           Evaluation Criteria at Darden

00:28:47           Darden’s Unique Identity

00:29:24           Case Method

00:36:07           Impact of Case Method

00:39:31           Flagship Events at Darden

00:41:58           Tradition: First Coffee

00:43:58           Charlottesville Location

00:47:27           Favourite Restaurants & Bars

00:50:55          Housing & Food Costs

00:51:54           Academics: Star Professors & Classes

00:53:45          Consulting Internship Recruiting

01:04:44           Indian Students at Darden

01:09:27           Advice for Prospective Applicants

 Thank you for watching!

—

Nupur Gupta is the founder of Crack The MBA
(https://crackthemba.com), India's leading MBA admissions consulting firm. Every year, Crack The MBA's clients attend ivy league, M7 and other top MBA programs globally. Nupur is a graduate of the full-time MBA program at The Wharton School. She has been recognized by Economic Times among the 'Most Promising Women Leaders', by Business Insider among the 'World's Leading Admissions Consultants', along with other honors. Nupur served two terms as president and two terms on the board of the Association of International
Graduate Admissions Consultants (AIGAC) - the primary industry association in MBA admissions.

Follow Nupur and ‘Crack The MBA’ on our social media platforms for more updates:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/nupurgupt/

https://www.facebook.com/CrackTheMBA/

https://www.instagram.com/crackthemba/

Disclaimer: The opinions shared by guests in this video in no way, shape or form represent advisory provided by Crack The MBA. Each candidate’s circumstances may vary, and our advice is always provided specifically based on an applicant’s specific profile.