Exclusive MBA Interview With Wharton Alumnus

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Allwin Agnel is the CEO of PagalGuy.Com, an online youth community, primarily targeting MBA aspirants in India. Allwin Agnel (MBA Wharton 2008), the founder of
PaGaLGuY.Com was featured on the Young Turks program on CNBC in May 2005. The firm was also nominated as one of the ‘hottest start-ups’ in India by the Tata group. In this interview, Allwin shares his experiences at Wharton with MBA aspirants.


1. What is the difference between doing an MBA from India and doing an MBA from a foreign university?
The three key differences are the people, the curriculum and the costs of doing an MBA.  In terms of people, the US universities are far more diverse than any of the others.  From my experience of studying in the US
, the people are incredibly more diverse and the curriculum more cutting edge. The costs however are high as well, which make the Indian MBA a great value for money.


2. What is the average cost of an MBA in US (both education and living expenses included)? How did you finance your studies?
The average cost of an MBA in the US varies from school to school. Some of the private schools are extremely expensive and sometimes they have a differential fee structure for international students. The costs including living expenses can vary from INR 30L
to INR 75L
I studied at Wharton, which had tied up with Citibank to provide collateral free loans for all the admitted students. I used the loan to finance my education in the US.

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3. What is unique about Wharton? How does it score above other business school in US?
Wharton is very diverse, analytical and has cutting edge curriculum. It has the highest number of electives of any business school and allows you the option to study extremely interesting subjects under the very best professors.  With nearly 200 electives and with over 250 professors, the school is a powerhouse of knowledge and encourages its students to strive harder in every field.

While I can’t compare Wharton to the other business schools, it is because I haven’t had a chance to attend any of the other schools. One of the key areas Wharton generally has a lead is its diversity. In the class of 2010, 40% of the class is international and over 72 countries are represented. Wharton also usually tends to have a high representation from women – in the class of 2010, 36% of the class is women.
From more of my personal experience, I also feel that Wharton has a very strong alumni network even in India and that I feel is unrivalled amongst any of the other top schools.


4. Is there a word of caution/ advice for an Indian applying to Wharton?
For somebody applying to Wharton, I believe that there is no better advice than to research the school well. Wharton is very applicant friendly and offers many ways of getting in touch with the adcom and also current students. Initiatives like S2S which is a forum and the adcom blog at http://adcomblog.wharton.upenn.edu help you understand the school and its character.
My belief is that someone who is serious about Wharton should take the time and effort to know the school and also to put in the very best application they can. International students should preferably apply in Round 1 or 2 while striving to put in their strongest application.

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5. Is the job scenario in US favorable for Indians? Is it easy/ difficult to find a job after graduating from Wharton?
Historically graduates from top schools don’t have too much trouble finding jobs and the same is true even right now. What has changed is that certain sectors aren’t hiring – esp the ones like finance. However people are now looking at alternative career options and they are considering working in other industries.
Companies which previously could not find a way to voice itself amongst the students are being proactive since the top guns aren’t hiring as much.


6. You already owned a business before joining Wharton. What unique qualities/ skills has Wharton instilled in you that have helped you understand your business further?
Scale. It is one of the things that I never took seriously prior to attending Wharton and it takes an all together different meaning after school. One of the advantages I enjoyed of attending business school was that I was fairly cognizant of problems I had faced in business and looked towards ways of solving them. Since I was running pagalguy.com while I was away at school, I was constantly working towards understanding how better things could be run, how better you could scale the company and the thousand other thoughts that cloud your mind on a given day.
My experience is that it is usually a mix of smaller things that come together to enhance your understanding of business and Wharton helped me clarify those things and put it all together.


7. What were the extracurricular activities/ clubs/ that you enjoyed at Wharton?
At Wharton I did suffer the problem of fighting with too many choices. At one side, I was a part of the professional clubs which included the technology club, entrepreneurship club, venture capital club and their likes. On the other hand I had joined the Dance Club, the Aircraft club and a bunch of other ones.
Beyond the regular clubs I spent time to learn to fly aircrafts and got myself a private pilot license and also jumped out of aircrafts on other occasions! Splendid memories of my time at Wharton.