Meet Carnegie Mellon’s MBA Class Of 2018

aaron-kapur-poetsandquants-classof2018

Aaron Kapur

Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University

Describe yourself in 15 words or less: A caring, hardworking, enthusiastic extrovert who loves sports and fantasy football.

Hometown: Cortlandt Manor, New York

Fun Fact About Yourself: I’ve been to Las Vegas four times, but for each of the visits I was under 21 years old. 

Undergraduate School and Major: State University of New York at Geneseo, B.S. Business Administration

Employers and Job Titles Since Graduation:

Accenture, Project Manager

Accenture, Data Analyst

Moskowitz Jacobs, Market Research Coordinator 

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: I developed a set of templates for the travel practice at Accenture that can be used by employees globally to execute projects. These templates cut project work time by 15-20%.

Looking back on your experience, what advice would you give to future business school applicants? Where to start! Take the GMAT at least 6-8 months before you start any application for business school. This way, if you don’t score what you thought you would, you have time to reassess your application strategy or retake the test altogether. When you finish your application, have at least one trusted peer review the whole package. This is particularly important with essays, since the smallest mistakes can lead to an undesirable outcome. Finally, make sure the people writing your recommendations really know you. Otherwise, it will be hard for them to write a compelling case on your behalf for why you want to attend graduate school.

What led you to choose this program for your full-time MBA? Ultimately, I chose Carnegie Mellon because of the focus on data analytics and the small class size. The analytical rigor of the program will prepare me for any job post-MBA, and this truly helps Tepper stand out from any of the other top schools. I also thrive in a smaller classroom setting. I attended an undergraduate university that housed 5,000 undergraduate and graduate students collectively, and realized that the smaller classroom setting allowed me to engage in class discussions more as a student.

Tell us about your dream job or dream employer at this point in your life? I want to work for a CPG company like Johnson & Johnson, where I could start as an associate brand manager and work my way up through the ranks, ultimately ending up in a leadership management position. The company aligns with my personal core values and is consistently voted one of the best places to work in the United States.  As a brand manager, I would be responsible for a product line within the company, and I would have to collaborate with various facets of the business in order to be successful. The analytical and team-oriented education at Tepper will definitely prepare me for a job like this.

What would you like your business school peers to say about you after you graduate from this program? I would hope that my peers see me as a hardworking student who also knows how to relax and have fun. Ultimately, the people you meet at business school will be life-long friends, and I’m looking forward to the networking aspect of the MBA as much as the academic component.

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