Getting into a b-school is a labour of love for many people out there. For toiling through multiple CAT attempts, persevering through multiple failures and not settling down on the lowest hanging school, aspirants go through a whole lot of struggle to land a position in their dream b-school. If your ultimate goal is one of the top b-schools in India, we know it’s not an easily attainable goal. Because apart from the rigorous selection process, you also have to stand apart from the competition. While this journey is not easy, there are some who find it even more daunting. Going through personal setbacks, professional hurdles and financial difficulties, these people still manage to persevere and attain their goals. In this article, read and view some awe-inspiring stories of people battling all odds to pursue their MBA dreams. Check out these inspirational stories of aspirants breaking barriers and conquering hurdles to join their dream b-schools.
Mental health is often the most neglected when we are put to a grind. For Gayathri, it became too much to handle during her undergraduate years. Studying away from family, the pressure of acclimatizing in new surroundings and proving to others that her decision of not pursuing engineering to go for mathematics was the right one, took a toll on her mental health. To an extent that one day she decided to end her own life! In this video from the REAL STEEL series, sponsored by Tata Steel, we have Gayathri Shankar from XLRI Jamshedpur, taking us through the ups and downs of her life.
“Life is like a winding road but has a consistent graph of learning. I learnt from my experience as I never had any guidance for my career and I did what I felt was right. Taking CAT was one of those. CAT 2018 was my second attempt. After the devastating performance in 2017 and scoring just 77%ile, I just had my inner confidence to buttress upon for the second attempt. While my friends had fantastic scores and amazing calls, I was the only one with zero calls. That was the phase when I was juggling with my college exams and my future career plans. Everything seemed bleak.”
At the age of 5, Reema Raykar was diagnosed with arthritis. With immense pain and constant clinical observation, she spent most of her life taking medical support. Often dejected by her fate, Reema found strength in her parents and determined to go ahead in life, no matter what! Beating all odds, Reema fulfilled her dream of getting into a B-School and pursue the career she wanted for herself. Watch her talk about the journey and the difficulties she faced to reach her goal.
Harsh Sinha had to make a tough choice between taking care of his ailing mother and joining his dream B-School. LIfe is not always fair and is full of challenges. This IIM Lucknow management student has gone through a lot of them in life and keeps pushing the boundaries every passing day. Find out his story against all odds and how he went Big and Bold!
"I started preparing for CAT amongst constant repudiations from almost everyone I knew. My parents, friends and family, all told me that my eyes would get in the way of placements."- Shreya Upadhyay was born differently abled, and faced numerous challenges beginning right from her childhood. She went ahead and pursued Psychology, excelling in it and ultimately deciding to pursue an MBA. In this motivational post, Shreya describes her journey from the small town of Ujjain to becoming a PGP student at IIM Udaipur.
Have you ever wondered what it is like living with a condition that slowly takes your eye-sight away? You can feel your vision growing weak, but there is absolutely nothing you can do about it. The only reaction you can have to such a condition is to accept the situation and move an. Check out how someone with such a condition managed to overcome multiple challenges to crack the CAT and get into IIM K in this video.
“I gave mocks religiously. IMS and CL mocks along with my college IT cell were my refuge for most of my final year. It was here that I became friends with Archit and Mitesh. We pushed each other and fought to better the other. Despite getting placed at Hindalco, I knew MBA was my calling. My favorite section was VA. I regularly scored 99+ in Mocks and loved reading RCs and solving them. DI LR and QA were painful as always but I was improving. But things seldom work out. I was going through a personal shit-storm (my fault) when I gave CAT 2015. I wasn't at my best but I believed I had done decent enough in my weakest sections of QA and DI LR. Fast forward to result day - QA 97.** , DI LR 98.** , VA 88.** OA 95.64%.”- Durga Sathapathy got shortlisted by XLRI Jamshedpur, NMIMS and IIFT Delhi after cracking the CAT on her 4th attempt.
Shyamala Iyer got diagnosed with breast cancer at an early age. The world came crashing for her and all her dreams seemed too far off. But, she took this as a challenge and converted it into her strength. She fought cancer and got admission in one of the premier B-Schools in India. She also got placed through PPO from her college and showed the world that determination and might can move mountains.
Ami Ukey was 8 months pregnant when she sat for her GD/PI round at TATA Institute of Social Sciences, and it was then that she fell in love with TISS. She was at home with her 10-day old son when she got a call confirming her seat at the institute. Ami was surprised but certainly worried about how she would be able to leave her son behind to attend college. Check out how Ami got into TISS and what happened after in this video.
This is the inspiring story of success against all odds of Manavdeep Singh. His journey bears testimony to the fact that grit and hard work alone can make one tide against every force of the world and achieve what one wishes for.Here’s hoping that these experiences help you with keeping up your morale and cracking GD-PI rounds to your dream b-schools.