Growing up in India, I used to be fascinated by the transformation a caterpillar goes through in becoming a butterfly, spreading its beautiful wings coming out of its cocoon. A wonderful phenomenon for the world, but the pain for which is typically only experienced by the butterfly. I see now that this idea of transformation is something I’ve experienced too, as a Spartan.
As an international student, not only do we have to live up to the competition, but we also need to educate ourselves remotely on the entire system of landing an admission in the college, matching up the expectations and then living in a completely new cultural setting.
The preparation for me started a year before my freshman year. Back home I dealt with all of the excruciating details, like countless interchanges with hard-to-reach consultants, chasing down several transcripts and planning to setup a new life in a part of the world I had never set foot in — this included preparing for the extreme cold climate. (All this wouldn’t have been possible without the required support of my family.)
When I arrived at MSU, I was determined to make it into the Broad College, and I started working on day one. From understanding the syllabus to the grading system of each and every class, I worked hard. I never missed a single career fair; I spoke to every professor during each of my classes and felt honored to be connected with a network of industry veterans and senior faculty alike. On top of that, I worked two jobs as a resident assistant and a teaching assistant to get the right credentials on my resume, alongside tutoring students in CSE — one of the hardest classes at MSU.
By the end of my first year, I had earned a perfect 4.0 GPA with an invite to the Honors College and finally an acceptance into Broad. I’m proud to share that I’ve also secured an internship at Goldman Sachs which would have been a distant dream about two years ago. In this moment, I feel like I emerged from my cocoon and flew.
I can proudly say that I have a home here at MSU and being a Spartan has helped me become the person I am. I have been through a phenomenal transformation already, and I’m holding onto my fascination towards the butterfly — now colored in the Spartan spirit.