Welcome to another episode of ‘Crack The MBA’ show. Our guest today is Keerthana Wuppulur who is a first-year student at Harvard Business School. Keerthana completed dual bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Madras. Joining ITC, she became a member of a start-up like founding team where she setup a first-of-its-kind greenfield US FDA approved plant to cater to nicotine derivatives in smokefree product category. Thereafter, Keerthana joined Unilever, becoming the youngest and first female manager to head the world’s biggest manufacturing unit of Pears soap bars. At HBS, Keerthana has been awarded over $115,000 as financial aid scholarship. Keerthana is a member of sustainability club, food and agriculture club, women’s business association and iLab. In a departure from traditional recruiting efforts, Keerthana is not sitting for consulting or tech placements and is instead applying to become a Rock Summer Fellow and is founding a startup, Next-Zero, where she’s building a carbon accounting software that will cater to the Indian B2B market space. 00:00:00 Episode Highlights 00:00:45 Introduction 00:01:56 Fun Fact 00:04:33 Winning Habits & Influences 00:09:27 Social Entrepreneurship Ventures in College 00:12:03 Experience Working with CTM 00:14:07 How to Approach the HBS Essay 00:19:10 HBS’s Evaluation Criteria 00:21:12 Identifying Key Essay Anecdotes 00:22:35 Approaching Career Goals 00:24:37 HBS Admissions Interview 00:30:36 Wharton Team-Based Discussion 00:33:50 HBS’s Unique Identity 00:35:08 HBS Class Profile 00:37:26 Section X 00:39:43 Dating at HBS 00:40:41 Flagship Events 00:42:51 Boston Location 00:46:56 Food Scene 00:49:05 Extracurricular Activities 00:50:47 Favorite Spot on Campus 00:51:40 Biggest Challenge at HBS 00:52:33 The Case Method 00:57:02 5 Ps of the HBS Classroom 00:58:21 Star Professors & Popular Electives 00:59:37 Speakers at HBS 01:01:16 Entrepreneurship Post-MBA 01:04:59 Rock Summer Fellow 01:07:30 Resources for Aspiring Entrepreneurs 01:09:14 Internship Recruiting 01:11:21 Parting Reflection 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.