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When Kanika Rajput received her admit call from MIT Sloan, she was speechless. A dream she had nurtured for more than a decade had finally come true. The news came with an even bigger surprise: she had been awarded the prestigious Dean’s Fellowship, covering 100 percent of her tuition. For someone who began her career outside the traditional undergraduate pipeline, this achievement was more than validation. It was a launchpad into a world of opportunities that would change her path in unexpected ways.
Kanika arrived at Sloan with a clear sense of direction. Having worked across finance, policy, and social impact, she imagined the MBA experience would be defined by rigorous classes and academic depth. What she discovered instead was that the real transformation happens outside the classroom. It is the community, the conversations, and the entrepreneurial energy of MIT that have reshaped her goals and encouraged her to take risks sooner than she had planned.
Before Sloan, Kanika’s career spanned hedge fund management, private equity transactions, and a senior role at India’s Ministry of Finance, where she worked on key high stake projects that unlocked 22 billions in economic potential, including setting up a government company. She also was integral in creating a bilateral investment fund between the Government of India and Government of US, evaluating investments across technology, healthcare, and space. She was the youngest to be nominated alongside top bureaucrats to design the investment framework for emerging and strategic sectors in the country. Alongside her professional accomplishments, she founded NavTarang, a nonprofit that has empowered more than 25,000 girls across India to pursue financial independence.
Sloan recognized her unique mix of finance, government strategy, and social impact, awarding her its highest scholarship. For Kanika, that offer was the freedom to think bigger about her career and pursue her passions without hesitation.
Like many MBA students, Kanika arrived believing that classes would be the most important part of her experience. Within months, she realized the true value lay in the ecosystem around her. MIT’s culture opened doors to the Media Lab, cross-disciplinary courses in computer vision, and a network of peers who brought perspectives from engineering, entrepreneurship, and cutting-edge research.
“The most important part of an MBA is not just the classroom learning, but the kind of incredibly smart people you are surrounded with,” she reflects. “The conversations I have here inspire me in ways that books or case studies never could.”
Kanika always imagined entrepreneurship as a long-term goal. She planned to return to private equity after Sloan, gain more experience, and only then start her own venture. That plan shifted dramatically once she stepped into MIT’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Kanika Rajput
One of her earliest experiences was at the Martin Trust Center for Entrepreneurship. She first wandered in for coffee and ended up staying for the energy and conversations. Watching classmates build startups and participating in pitch-to-match events sparked a realization: entrepreneurship was not something to postpone, it was something to start now.
The broader MIT community reinforced this mindset. Programs like Delta V, the MIT 100K, and the Sandbox accelerator made risk-taking feel natural by providing mentorship, funding, and encouragement. Instead of delaying her ambitions, Kanika decided to embrace them immediately. She is now building an AI-driven venture designed to streamline inefficiencies in investment processes, combining her finance expertise with MIT’s strengths in technology and innovation.
Beyond her own venture, Kanika has embraced opportunities to contribute to the Sloan community. She currently serves as President of the MIT Investment Club, where she brings together students interested in finance, private equity, and venture capital. In this role, she helps organize discussions with industry leaders, facilitates knowledge-sharing across the cohort, and creates pathways for students exploring careers in investment.
She also mentors undergraduates through the MIT Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Club, guiding them on fundraising strategies, go-to-market planning, and the realities of building a venture from scratch. For Kanika, mentorship is both a way of giving back and a way of learning. “I learn as much from the students I work with as they learn from me. Their energy and fresh ideas remind me to stay bold and experimental,” she says.
What stands out to her most is the spirit of collaboration. Rather than competing, students push one another to experiment, test bold ideas, and take risks. That culture has not only influenced Kanika’s own career choices but has also deepened her belief in the value of strong peer communities.
Kanika is now channeling her energy into building an AI-driven venture that addresses inefficiencies in investment processes. The idea combines her deep background in finance with the technical and entrepreneurial resources available at MIT. By streamlining how capital is allocated, she hopes to make investment decisions faster, smarter, and more accessible.
Her coursework across MIT, including in computer science and computer vision, is giving her the technical foundation she needs to complement her finance expertise. At the same time, the entrepreneurial ecosystem is providing mentorship, grant funding, and a steady flow of collaborators who bring diverse skills to the table. For Kanika, the blend of technical rigor and entrepreneurial support has reinforced her decision to pursue this path immediately instead of waiting until later in her career.
Looking ahead, she sees herself at the intersection of finance, technology, and government strategy, using AI to transform the way global capital flows are managed. “This is the right time,” she says. “I do not want to delay what I know excites me most. MIT has given me both the courage and the tools to begin now.”
When asked what advice she would give to her pre-MBA self, Kanika does not hesitate. She would tell herself to stop waiting for the perfect time. “I was always delaying entrepreneurship because I thought I needed more experience or a safer environment. But what MIT taught me is that the right time is now. If you have the passion and the right people around you, you should take the leap.”
Her journey reinforces an important lesson for MBA hopefuls: the value of business school is not confined to academics or even career outcomes. It is also about surrounding yourself with peers who inspire you, mentors who push you to think bigger, and an ecosystem that gives you the courage to act on your ideas.
From winning a full scholarship at Sloan to launching her entrepreneurial journey, Kanika Rajput’s story shows how an MBA can be more than a stepping stone. It can be a platform that transforms not just your career trajectory but also your sense of what is possible. Kanika often shares that she will always be grateful to the Admissions Gateway team for helping her secure her admit, which set the stage for everything that followed.
If you found this advice helpful, reach out to us at admissionsgateway.com or email us at info@admissionsgateway.com.
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