Hi, I am Shrey, a recent graduate from Carnegie Mellon University’s master’sin Integrated Innovation for Products and Services (MIIPS). I earned by bachelor’s in Aerospace Engineering from IIT Kanpur. The decision to pursue higher education is a hard decision for both students, and their parents.
There are a lot of university options available for students in India in multiple countries. All students and their parents want to take the best decision as the university and course a student enrolls in plays a major role in shaping their career.
There are lot of steps involved in the admission process. From taking tests like GMAT/GRE, ToEFL, to preparing a seemingly endless set of documents like portfolios, Letters of recommendation, SOPs, and obviously the documents for visa. To add on to the anxiety, there is an infinity of university and course options available.
Amid these uncertainties, there is a huge lack of awareness regarding the choices of courses offered in different universities. Students usually navigate this journey alone and they get easily influenced by an ill-formed popular opinion. At this point in time, students and their parents require a trustworthy source of distilled information that can help them navigate this information overload and help students take on the most impactful decision of their career.
I was in a similar spot when I was in my final year at IIT Kanpur. I was certain that I want to pursue higher education that would widen my skillset and train me to become a well-rounded individual, but I was not aware which program is right for me – a program that would provide me with the right academic environment and challenge me to perform outside my comfort zone. I wanted to make a tailored decision and not one that is influenced by the public opinion. During this time, I attended a seminar conducted by Wallick Global Consultancy at IIT Kanpur where they talked about international university admissions. This was the first time when I was exposed to career counsellors.
I also approached other career consulting firms that work like big corporations, but I did not like their service. The biggest difference that I observed was that Wallick Global was interested in LISTENING and distilling out the information about my career interests and then help me navigating the choices of courses. In contrast, other firms try to approach this problem using a one size fits all approach – selling their partner universities to the parents and students, not caring about the students’ interests and career.
I started my conversations with Heather and Prashant when I was at a point of decision fatigue and in desperate need of unopinionated advice. I had lengthy conversations with Heather where she identified my career interests and Prashant provided me with course options from the best universities in the world that seems like they are tailored for me. This was tremendously helpful for me as this enabled me to form a well-informed opinion and I was able to choose among the best universities in the world.
On the side the Prashant and Heather also helped me with the test preparations, keeping a check of the deadlines for different university applications, helping me develop my SOPs, portfolios, and preparing me for the interviews. They helped me give a voice to my thoughts and identity and made me confident about my skills which helped me to show the best side of me during the testing times.
I believe that the kind of service offered by Wallick Global Consultancy is unique and I am glad that I bumped into them. Getting into Carnegie Mellon would not have been possible