Ambika Kumar

MSB ’14
Age: 22
Hometown: Overland Park, Kan.
Major: OPIM and International Business
Minor: International Political Economy

Could you tell me a little about where you’re from and compare and contrast it to Georgetown? Where do you feel more comfortable?
I’ve actually moved around a lot, but I’m most recently from Kansas. People usually think of “The Wizard of Oz,” most probably, when they think of Kansas, but it’s really not like that at all. I’d say Georgetown is a much bigger city. In Kansas, you tend to run into people a lot that you know. In a way, Georgetown is kind of similar in that you’re in this tight-knit community on campus and you always run into people you know, as opposed to living just in D.C. in general. I’d say I feel equally comfortable in both places. I like to move around a lot. Coming to D.C. was a good change for me and I’m actually moving to New York. I lived in Kansas for six years.

What do you do at Georgetown?
Oh man. Well I’d say that typically you’d find me on Lau 2 at any given day, so I do the library a lot. Academically, I’m in the business school. I’m in the case competition team, that’s fun, you get to travel all over the place. I participate in the IRC. And I’m in Innovo Solutions, a consulting club on campus. We’re incorporated. I have a lot of fun. I remember them saying when I came to college, ‘you can pick two out of three: good grades, sleep, social life,’ and I think I’ve managed to balance. So far, so good.

Do you feel at all obliged to busy?
I enjoy being busy. I think most people coming into Georgetown had a busy lifestyle and that’s why they came to Georgetown in the first place. It’s nice to be around people with the same mentality, rather than being obliged to be busy all the time. I will say, however, I actually transferred from the University of Kansas after my freshman year, and the pressure at Georgetown is 10 times that at the University of Kansas, but I think that makes us better people. It makes us work harder, you do better. For example, the business school’s curved; no matter how hard I work, I’m going to be graded on a curve, but at the end of the day, grades don’t really matter, it’s the education you get.

Do you feel you fit in here?
Yeah, I’d say so. I wouldn’t classify one stereotypical fit as a Georgetown persona. You’ve got all sorts of people and anyone could find a group of people they could get along with, you just have to search a little bit.

What was the adjustment like, transferring from Kansas?
I’d say for transfers, it’s 10 times harder than for anyone else. You come in as a freshman, you’re automatically put on this floor of freshmen who are also looking to meet new people. You come as a transfer, it’s not necessarily as easy to make friends with people your own age or year, because they’ve already got set friend groups. So, initially, you make friends with all of the transfers and freshmen. But then transfers have to take the next step of being more involved than normal so that way they can make friends through clubs. So some of my best friends are in IRC or Innovo. It’s definitely an adjustment, but I think it makes you better. I know for me, I applied as a senior [in high school] and got waitlisted and rejected, as is for most transfers. It really makes you value your Georgetown education that much more, having been rejected the first time and then working even harder to get in.

So why did you come to Georgetown? What did you hope it would help you accomplish?
I came here for the business school, I absolutely loved it. I had known for years that I wanted to get into business. No regrets, I love my major and everything about it. It’s funny, I told my interviewer that I wanted to join The Corp because I had never come to Georgetown and seen the campus, but I had read all about The Corp online and thought I’m going to join this club — and I never ended up applying. So that’s technically why I came, but I love the business school.

What are your plans after Georgetown?
I’m moving to New York; I’m going to work in Credit Suisse, in their IT division.

Before you finalized your plans, did that question ever annoy you our stress you out?
I was stressed out as a junior. I interned with them, and especially in the business school, there’s this huge focus on having a significant internship the summer before their senior year, so they at least have a job offer coming into their senior year. It’s really stressful, especially for business students, because you don’t really have a leg up when it comes to skills, because all the companies say, ‘Oh, we’re going to train you when you come as an intern,’ so it doesn’t matter if you don’t have any business skills. No matter whether College, SFS or NHS, they’re on equal footing with you, so you don’t have any differentiation factor, as supposed to somebody in the college with a psychology major, who has that in their back pocket.

What’s the hardest thing you’ve ever done?
I had an internship after my freshman year. I worked for Northwestern Mutual, which is an insurance company, and I sold life insurance. Yeah, so I’m licensed to sell life insurance in the state of Kansas and Missouri, if you ever need any financial advice. Given that I was 19 years old at the time, it’s really hard to sell insurance to older individuals who think of you as a child. In addition to that, it was my first internship ever and it was mind-boggling. A lot of people quit. The turnover rate for that internship — it’s a top 10 internship — was horrible. I’d say about half my interning class quit during the summer. I stuck by it and I ended up selling five life insurance packages. Five or six. And essentially, it was nice, because I wasn’t the number one salesperson, but given my year, I was high up there. And I don’t want to go into life insurance; I have no plans to go into sales, I want to be in the tech industry. But I think first of all, not quitting, and second of all, having that experience in my back pocket was nice.

What do you like most about Georgetown?
I love the campus feel. I would not trade coming to Georgetown for the world. You can just meet all different types of people from all over the world and it’s given me opportunities to be successful.

Interview by Mallika Sen