Three stars

“My father has a PhD and is currently a Professor in Economics. As a child, he used to give me real-life examples on Economics, which gravitated me towards this field. I was pretty sure I didn’t want to do medicine or engineering. It eventually boiled down to choosing either a Bachelor’s in Physics or Economics. I chose the latter.

I had a fairly good idea on the area I wanted to work on. While writing the SOP for IIM admission, I mentioned my topic of interest along with the names of professors I wanted to work with. Luckily, I ended up working with all of them. The entire admission procedure at IIMs is quite long and rigorous. There is a basic entrance test in the beginning which I didn’t have to give because I had GRE. I directly gave the area test, which came after, where I was asked questions specific to economics. And this was followed by an interview which leaned more towards practical applications, mathematics and modeling rather than just being a verbal communication.

I was working at Deloitte, Hyderabad back then, where I had joined after my Master’s through campus placements. But very soon I realized I wanted to switch back to academics. My PhD primarily deals with international trade, with a focus on the role of bilateral agreements in migration and services trade. I am quite blessed that I got a very supportive supervisor. She is like a role model to me. She does have a lot of…