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!
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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.
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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.
