Taking the Plunge

By Kunal Agarwal - June 17th, 2011

Category: CCMBA 2012| Introductions

May 20th – Get introduced to the CCMBA program.
May 22nd – Speak with current full time students to understand the CCMBA
May 25 – Schedule to be interviewed
June 2nd – Fly back to New York after a month long vacation in Asia (India, Thailand, Indonesia)
June 3rd – Interview with Duke
June 8th - Get accepted in CCMBA program!!
June 16th – First blog on “The Fuqua Experience”

Going by the hectic life standards that I live, it’s been a rather crazy but eventful month. Before the 20th of May I had very little knowledge of the CCMBA, all I knew was that it was an MBA where you get to travel the world. Now, this travel bit I have accomplished through visiting numerous countries, stories about which would not be appropriate to mention here. However, In my mind I’d always pictured the traditional MBA route to be a 2 year “get out of work life” and into “college mode”. And that’s the route that I initially took.

As soon as I got on the wait-list of some schools that I had applied to, I took a much needed vacation to escape the worries of the MBA application world. During this time I heard from the Admission Office at Duke where they formally introduced me to the CCMBA program. The more I heard about the program the more captivated I became. To attain perspectives of the current CCMBA entrepreneurs, I even connected with a few of them to understand their experiences and what they were able to get out of this program.

I was amazed at how the program and I “fit” so well with each other. I mean, there really is a program where I can keep my job, grow my start-up, live in new york city, or bangalore, or chicago, and also explore/learn about different countries and their business world !! Sign me up!

I feel the CCMBA is great for me as I already have numerous commitments. I’m sure all of you remember those “why our university/ program?” questions from those lengthy applications. Answering that question with the CCMBA was never a problem. It just sat so perfectly amongst everything else I have going on. I never had to make up a reason to sound like this was the right program for me.

My current focus is on growing my start-up (yuuze.com) and with the CCMBA I will be able to accomplish that, by learning to apply knowledge to the different real-life situations I face everyday. The global outlook of the CCMBA is what enticed me the most. I feel learning in and about the current financial hubs of the world will enlighten me with ways on taking my businesses international successfully. I am also really excited about the incredible mix of similarly motivated CCMBAs of 2012 and I hope to add to and learn from their individual experiences.

I’m taking the plunge into the MBA world through this very unique route and I’m certain it will turn out to be exactly as I imagine.