Kruti Mehta

University of Chicago, Booth School of Business

“Happy to be here!”

Hometown: Sugar Land, Texas

Fun Fact About Yourself: In college, I ran a semi-popular Instagram page where I documented myself learning to cook by challenging myself to eat a home-cooked meal for every meal for a full month. What started as a fun challenge to save some money ended up fueling a huge passion for cooking!

Undergraduate School and Major: I graduated from the Business Honors Program at The University of Texas at Austin

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Director of Policy & Advancement at Zeta Charter Schools in New York City

Aside from your classmates and location, what was the key part of Chicago Booth’s MBA programming that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you? I try to choose pursuits that offer an outsized opportunity for growth relative to time spent. Early in my career, I pursued consulting and my work at an education non-profit startup was based on this measure— I knew that if I gave it my all, each opportunity would allow me to experience personal and professional growth at a faster pace than I might have in other environments. This philosophy around growth and time is what brought me to Booth, where the analytical rigor, ability to flexibly take courses from the get-go in subject areas that are new to me, and strong community will push me beyond my limits and deliver the kind of accelerated growth I am looking for in my next chapter.

What course, club or activity excites you the most at Chicago Booth, and why? I am truly excited and honored to be a part of Booth’s Civic Scholars Program. Through this cohort, I’m looking forward to learning much from and alongside my peers about applying my MBA degree to supporting amazing organizations in the social sector. I’m also excited to dive into the world of investing, which is new to me, through the Impact Investment Fund. Finally, I can’t wait to join Booth Outdoor Leadership Development (BOLD) so that I can see the beauty of our world and develop into a stronger outdoorswoman with my fellow Boothies!

What has been your first impression of the Booth MBA students and alumni you’ve met so far? Every Boothie I have met has a passion, be it professional or personal, that they are thrilled to be working on and share with you. Everyone is also so down-to-earth. That combination is killer—it just makes you want to be around Boothies.

What makes Chicago such a great place to earn an MBA? Chicago is such a beautiful and diverse city where there is something for everyone. The city is alive and the people are kind. The location also serves as a perfect launchpad for the many travels (I hope) to embark on over the next two years!

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: I took a complete leap of faith in myself when I left my consulting job to join Zeta Charter Schools, a startup opening high-performing public charter schools in the most underserved areas of New York City, in its second year of operation. Three years later, I am so proud to have been part of a team that led the nation in safe school reopenings after COVID-19 school closures, expanded access to free and excellent education across NYC, and continues to push the status quo of what is possible in the nonprofit world.

What is one thing you have recently read, watched, or listened to that you would highly recommend to prospective MBAs? Why? I have two book recommendations. The first book I recommend is Designing Your Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans. It is a terrific and interactive book that really helped me to organize my goals and ideas for the future I wanted (while also giving me tools to continue doing this over time, since life, of course, changes all the time). The second book I recommend to all prospective MBA candidates is Speed and Scale by John Doerr, a venture capitalist at Kleiner Perkins. We all have a role to play in solving our climate crisis, and I think every prospective and current MBA student should consider what their role in this endeavor will be, regardless of the industry. This book is a fantastic primer on the problem at hand and the role that businesses must play in the solutions we pursue.

What other MBA programs did you apply to? Harvard, Stanford, & Wharton

What advice would you give to help potential applicants gain admission into Chicago Booth’s MBA program? Even if you are not 100% sold on applying to an MBA program, I recommend starting a running list where you can jot down ideas, stories about yourself, observations about the world, topics or questions you find interesting, and advice. Really, start it now—it does not have to be organized at all! About a year before I even decided I wanted to apply for MBA, I started a note on my phone titled “Interesting Things”, where I could quickly jot down any ideas that came to mind that I thought might be useful in some way in the future. I certainly learned through this process that inspiration can come at the strangest of moments. This running list was incredibly helpful to me when it came time to actually tackle my applications, and I think I would have missed out on making many observations about myself had I not had the opportunity to read my stream of consciousness over time.