Admission Story: Yash Inaparthy, IIM Udaipur, 99.2 Percentile, CAT

Yash Inaparthy is a student at IIM Udaipur and currently studying MBA. He had appeared for the CAT exam and scored an excellent score of 99.2 percentile. He completed his graduation in engineering from IIT Hyderabad with a 6.63 CGPA.

Yash Inaparthy Profile

Current institute: IIM Udaipur
Graduation College: IIT Hyderabad
CAT score: 99.2 percentile
10th Percentage / GPA: 9.6 GPA
12th Percentage / GPA: 95.20%
Graduation Percentage/GPA: 6.63 GPA
Work Experience: Wells Fargo EGS (India) Solutions, 7 months as Analytics Consultant

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Yash Inaparthy Admission Experience

Did you avail of the benefit of any reservation?

Yash Inaparthy: “General (No reservation)”

Describe the general setting of WAT / GD (if any)?

Yash Inaparthy: “It was in 2018-19 and we had to report in a hotel of the college's choosing for the CAP process (multiple new IIMs pool in resources and conduct a common admissions procedure - IIM Udaipur is one of them). We had a Written Ability Test (WAT), followed by a Personal Interview (PI). Upon arriving at the venue, we were all separated into groups based on First come first serve. An examination hall was allocated where the WAT topic was given. Once entering the hall, you are required to sit according to your tag no (provided at the venue) and start writing when the invigilator suggests you to.

30-45 minutes were allotted to us for answering the question. The question was in the form of a scenario related to current affairs at the time. We were asked to complete the entire process in the above said time. They gave an A4 sheet to fill up the answer (both sides). though there isn't any limit to writing answers - it doesn't matter if you fill the entire sheet, what matters is how you write the answer.

Tips - Break down the question into smaller fragments and then answer; Try and construct a story with your answer; Add multiple sides to your arguments (like mention pros and cons, show two sides of a story based on multiple perspectives), etc. Be creative and don't give regular reasons (the more common the answer the less differentiating you will be); I always choose a controversial stance (which not many people choose) and back that topic so I stand out and it has worked well for me so far.”

What was the WAT / GD Topic?

Yash Inaparthy: “What role Technology will play in the coming future?

In addition to this, I also wrote on how one can leverage the upcoming technology in businesses and what would be the probable outcome.

No harm in writing more, as long as it is relevant to the question asked. "

What were your answer/points put forward for the WAT or GD respectively?

Yash Inaparthy: “One can think along the following lines:

Technology enables us to create systems that ease our day-to-day activities. Eg: Payment systems: Barter system (what if desired good doesn't exist) -> Invention of metal coins (difficult to carry and make) -> invention of notes (fraudulent transactions/fake notes) -> Debit/Credit cards (hacking problems) -> UPI (backed by blockchain).

Through this we see an evolution in payment systems, wherein at every step technology helped us overcome a certain problem and make the system better and more convenient.

Similarly, I wrote along the lines of how different existing technologies could impact the business world at the time. (Online education was up & coming - I suggested to market this technology in countries/areas where the local education system wasn't efficient but internet 4G had penetrated like India to make use of this technology)”

Describe the general setting of your personal Interview.

Yash Inaparthy: "There were 4 professors from various newer IIMs in each panel, and there were 4 panels conducting interviews simultaneously. It was an offline interview. Interview duration depends on the type of conversation. Interview duration doesn't determine the outcome of the interview. A longer duration interview doesn't mean the candidate gets selected. I recall my interview lasting for 35 minutes (give or take a few).

It was a stress interview. Once I entered the room, I was asked some basic questions related to the information I mentioned in my profile sheet. Following the basic Q&A, I was pressured to answer about various current affairs and asked to take a stance. Upon taking a stance, I was grilled further and asked to explain why I took such a stance and they tried to convince me that my answers were wrong.

I understood that they were pressuring me to doubt my stance and revert my stance. I stood my ground and didn't waver no matter how convincing their argument, I countered with another argument to prove my stance. After 20 or so minutes of this debate, they decided to drop the topic and then started quizzing me on various basic math questions (being an engineer) and puzzles. After such an argument it puzzles your mind and exhausts you. I calmed myself by drinking some water and then answered them all.

During the interview, they initially checked if my information in the profile sheet was accurate or not. ( Always write what is true and don't make up/forge information in the profile sheet. If caught you will be permanently debarred from the process). Then during the stress interview, they wanted to check how strong my resolve is and if I can be made to retract my decision. that didn't happen. Finally, they wanted to check my composure after a heated argument and how well I can regulate my emotion. Everything that happens in the interview is for a reason and nothing is personal. You just need to anticipate why they are doing something and how it can be countered."

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Mention at least 5 interview questions that were asked to you and your responses to each of them.

Yash Inaparthy: “Ques. Run us through your profile & why you chose MBA?

Ans. Graduated as an Electrical Engineer from IIT Hyderabad, and worked as an Analytics Consultant with Wells Fargo for 6 months, post which I switched my industry to work in the Non-IT sector. I worked in a startup as a Business development executive and learned that I loved this line of work and hence after a year of working as a freelancer, decided to get my MBA from a reputed university in order to open up more opportunities for myself.

Ques. What aspects of Business Development did you like?

Ans. Firstly, it's a client-facing role and it reverberates with my extrovert personality. Being in business development provides you an opportunity to work in an autonomous environment and its rewards are based on meritocracy.

Ques. Why are there so many creative arts courses in your UG curriculum? were you studying to be an engineer or arts professional?

Ans. I wanted to check out and learn all the courses, the institute was offering, and not just stick to EE courses, and it’s not that I didn't take any EE courses. I took all the relevant courses and on top of that, I took courses like cinematography where we were given guidance under Director M.K. Raina.

Ques. You now sound like an Arts student and not an Engineer.

Ans. With all due respect, I believe I sound like myself. I can't be differentiated into an engineer or an arts graduate. Sure, I have graduated as an EE graduate but I refuse to let my education define me. It’s just a part of my life and not my entirety. I want to do more and hence MBA will give my wide interest a much-needed focus.

Ques. Then why do people do graduation and take streams, should we invent a new stream for you?

Ans. The current system is flawed at multiple levels but at the same time also has its advantages and that will be a never-ending conversation as you are a part of that system and I am not. So in this case, me not being a part of the system, I can think objectively and I believe a stream or a degree shouldn't become the person's identity rather should speak of his competence. For example Me! I ranked AIR 1200s in JEE-Advanced in 2013 and joined IIT Hyderabad as an EE. I was ranked among the top 10,000 students out of 2-3 lakh students applying that year. which shows my competence and my ability among all those people. Furthermore, I am here now a part of CAP and I know that I will be selected in one of the premier universities and be a top-grade professional. This is what my degrees tell about me - my competence. Not everything."

Mention 3 reasons why you chose this college over other colleges which you converted.

Yash Inaparthy: "The campus of IIM Udaipur was way better than any other newer IIMs that I had converted. I understand the importance of a good campus and its effect on placements and mental peace. IIT-Hyderabad has a beautiful campus and it's huge - this did wonders for my mental peace and such high-ranked and prestigious universities will cause you immense stress and it’s very important.

The growth in average placement packages was consistent, also the medians and top 25% packages were in my range. I knew I would be one of the people who would get in the top 25% package and this figure was suiting my ROI needs well.

IIM Udaipur is known for Research, and it’s the youngest IIM to be a part of AASCB accreditation, QS, and FT rankings. All this is due to a strong academic research foundation. Professors' active in research can give fruitful learnings and such rankings can help invite A-list faculty from legacy IIMs easily. (another thing I learned during my time at IIT-H as to how important research is for students). "

What was the reason for you not converting other colleges? (if any)

Yash Inaparthy: “I couldn't convert other older IIMs - BLACKIS, because of their focus on diversity. I am a general category, male, engineer (least diversity points). So even if I did well, I had to put in extra effort to get converted there. On top of that my CAT score was 99.2 percentile, which is not easy to get a call from various older IIMs.”

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