Vartika Bansal

MBA 2015
  • Hometown: Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India
  • Pre-MBA: Business development at a solar energy company

Vartika Bansal

Post Graduation Goals:

Technology access and adoption in emerging markets, particularly mobile technology and renewable space.

Favorite GSB Memory So Far:

Eye-opening trip to China with Nobel Laureate Prof. Myron Scholes and 32 other GSBers – dispelled all my pre-conceived notions about China.

Monday
07:00am
Wake up. It’s a beautiful morning and I go for a run.
08:30am
Meet my Data and Decisions study group in the lab to work on an assignment.
10:00am
Finance Class with Prof. Francisco Perez Gonzalez (FPG) – I adore his teaching style and am thankful he makes the subject so interesting. Today we learn about Options and the Black-Scholes Pricing Model.
12:00pm
Lunch with Prof. FPG and two other classmates. I love the GSB for IPO (Invite your Professor Out) to get to know our professors better. Engaged in discussions on world capital markets, family businesses, and life as an immigrant.
01:30pm
Electronic Business class with Prof. Haim Mendelson. We have the founder of HealthTap, Ron, and head of product, Sean, (both GSB alums) in class to share how they built the revolutionary Mobile Health Platform and the company’s future strategy. They also invite the students to suggest monetization ideas.
03:15pm
Data and Decisions class – learning to analyze large data sets using regressions.
05:30pm
Attend my friend Britt and Anu’s LOWkeynotes talk – a communication program at the GSB where students are coached over many weeks to deliver a ‘keynote-style’ talk.
07:00pm
Study time and working dinner in Bass.
09:00pm
Listen to my friend Reinhard’s very inspiring and moving TALK, my favorite tradition at the GSB. Every week, two of my classmates share their personal story with the entire class – what matters, why, and beyond.
10:30pm
Catch up with friends on the way back from TALK to Schwab. I will definitely miss living in Schwab with so many friends.
11:30pm
Call my parents in India. I speak with them every day and these days I have so many stories to share!
12:00am
Work through my emails and prepare for meetings and classes tomorrow.
01:00am
Time for bed!
Tuesday
08:00am
Wake up. Make breakfast and catch up on news.
10:00am
New Business Models in the Developing World – my favorite class this quarter! Today’s case study is about a biopharmaceutical company, Gilead.
12:00pm
It is tech super-day. During lunch, I am going to hear from Marc Andreessen (co-founder of Netscape, Opsware and Andreessen Horowitz) as part of the View from the Top series.
01:15pm
Microeconomics class – we are studying market equilibrium in a perfect competition scenario this week.
03:30pm
Time to get my passport back with a fresh new China visa. I turn this errand into exercise by putting on my jogging playlist and venturing through new Palo Alto streets.
05:30pm
Condoleeza Rice, Jared Cohen, and Eric Schmidt talk about the new digital age as part of the Global Speaker Series.
07:00pm
Attend an intimate small group reception with Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen after their talk. They both candidly field many questions from us.
08:00pm
Study group meeting for a Data and Decisions project – we are working with one of the world’s premier online marketplaces for vintage objects. We have to build an algorithm to predict the selling time of a newly posted item and present our insights to the company.
11:00pm
Come back home and read for history class tomorrow. I love that we can take classes "across the street" - in any school at the university - and I make sure I take at least one class every quarter purely based on my other interests.
01:00am
Time to sleep! Glad tomorrow is Wednesday and hence a light day in terms of classes for me.
Sunday
08:00am
Wake up to a beautiful Sunday!
09:00am
Hit the gym on campus. I am going for a huge brunch later and need to build an appetite!
11:00am
I wasn’t kidding – South Indian brunch at Madras Café with friends. I have missed this food so much.
01:00pm
Clean my room, do laundry, organize my desk, and get ready for a new busy week.
02:30pm
Stanford Dish walk with Virginia and Amita; interesting conversations on the way.
04:30pm
Meet my eBusiness study group to work on our final project. Our project is on Airbnb and the future of the sharing economy.
07:00pm
Call my parents and friends back home in India.
08:30pm
Kick-off meeting for organizing Stanford India Conference 2015. We are trying to organize an India-focused conference for the first time at the GSB.
10:30pm
Catch-up with Sam over tea in Schwab.
11:45pm
Emails and more reading for tomorrow.
02:00am
Bedtime!