Doctor on Covid duty secures IIM-Bangalore admission

AHMEDABAD: Dr Nuhad Bardai’s joys knew no bounds when she received her admission letter from Indian Institute of Management – Bangalore, one of the top 100 business schools in the world as per Financial Times’ Global MBA Ranking 2021.
The letter, which allayed all her apprehensions of not making it to one of the most premier B-schools of the country, came on the day of Eid, which marks the end of holy month of Ramadan when Muslims across the world fast from dawn to dusk.
Dr Bardai, who has completed her MBBS from BJ Medical College in Ahmedabad, was doing Covid duty as part of her medical internship when the final results for Common Admission Test (CAT) 2021 came in.
“I felt as if my prayers were answered. I was doing Covid duty for about a year and found time only between two shifts or during the mandatory quarantine period to study for CAT. Yes, there were apprehensions but I am happy to make the cut in the end,” said Dr Bardai.
Hailing from Rajkot, where she completed her schooling, Bardai belongs to a family of businessmen. Her father ran a business in Africa before moving to Saurashtra.
“I think it is quite out of the box for medical professionals to go on to do an MBA. However, I believe there is a dire need for such people and the pandemic may have shown us why we need better management in healthcare and the medical field,” she said.
Her goal is to eventually go into healthcare consulting and then stating a venture of her own. “So in all, I will always remain a doctor but I shall be utilizing my skills a bit differently.”
She has been a bright student, always making it among the top 10 students at B J Medical college, considered as one of the top medical colleges of Gujarat. In Class 12 she scored 96.4% and ranked at number 30 in the merit list for medical colleges in Gujarat. At that time there were no mandatory NEET exams and admissions to medical colleges were based on Class 12 results and GUJCET score.
Dr Bardai has served about seven duties for Covid-19 as part of her studies. Her stellar performance in academics continued as she scored 96 percentile to not only crack CAT 2021 but get interview calls from top B-schools of the country including IIM-Kozhikode, nine new IIMs, FMS Delhi and NMIMS, Mumbai. She has also cleared the decks for getting admission in NMIMS.
“As a medical science student, I was used to studying for ten long hours. So, it was not a big challenge to study six hours a day for CAT. The bigger challenge was when Covid-19 cases began to rise and we had to step up our efforts and work relentlessly," according to Dr Bardai.
Asked how she managed to crack the personal interview round, the last crucial stage before securing admission at IIM-Bangalore, Dr Bardai said that mock interview sessions prepared her really well for the actual interview.
“Major part of my interview was about the shift that I am making and why I am doing so. And the other part was related to the business and innovation aspect of the healthcare sector. Immense reading in the couple of months prior to the interview about everything going around me helped me a lot. The most important aspect was to be myself and be very confident about what I say," she said.