Amrutha Srinivasan showed an aptitude for science from a young age. She earned her undergraduate and master’s degrees in microbiology and entered the pharmaceutical field. Throughout the first seven years of her career, she dreamed about pursuing an MBA, but the timing never seemed right. She was busy at work and didn’t have time to apply, so she kept putting it off.
Then Srinivasan met her husband and moved from her hometown in southern India to the U.S. But she wouldn’t pursue her academic goals for another seven years. During the height of COVID-19, in June 2020, Srinivasan’s husband was hired at Google, and the couple moved to Atlanta. Despite a previously successful career in India, she was stymied by visa restrictions and unable to work. The pandemic didn’t help.
“Nothing was working out,” she said.
Srinivasan found out a friend from India was thriving in the MBA program at Georgia State’s Robinson College of Business. Her friend spoke highly of the streamlined curriculum and relatively quick timeframe. That structure allows students to hold down full-time jobs or start new positions while enrolled. Galvanized by her friend’s testimony and eager to spur along her job hunt, Srivinasan began her MBA studies at Robinson in 2024.
Srinivasan’s plan was progressing, but around Thanksgiving, she discovered she was pregnant with a summer due date.
She didn’t want to take a break from school and couldn’t predict what life would be like with a baby. Better to forge ahead and frontload the most difficult courses—for her, finance—before giving birth. Her son arrived three weeks early, requiring an emergency C-section. Because of his premature arrival, he remained in the ICU for nearly a month.
That was the most difficult point in Srinivasan’s journey. She was in a lot of pain as she recovered from major abdominal surgery while adjusting to motherhood. Her confidence wavered.
“I don't think I can do this anymore,” she thought to herself. “I'm going to give up.”
Instead of hitting pause, Srinivasan put her head down and persevered through her third semester. Her husband assumed childcare responsibilities while she attended class from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m., and she studied at night after putting the baby to bed. Despite the support from her husband and friends, she was still sleep deprived. Because of exhaustion and brain fog, she asked her business modeling professor, Nesreen El-Rayes, the same questions over and over.
“She was considerate and would repeat things to me three times if needed,” Srivinasan said. “She helped me through my course, and I appreciate the way she taught us.”
In her capstone course, Global Competitive Strategy, Srinivasan and a team of peers participated in a case competition developed with corporate partners. Her group built a real turnaround growth strategy for the restaurant chain Frisch’s Big Boy and won first place out of 16 teams. Srinivasan had prior business experience in the operations sector. The project forced her to think beyond her comfort zone, changed how she approaches problems, and equipped her with strategy and leadership skills.
“I only saw operations as the start point and end point—but what made the start point? What caused the issue in the first place?” Srinivasan said. “That's something I learned during my MBA.”
Srinivasan graduated in May 2026. She is currently interviewing for program manager roles in the tech industry and aims to work her way up into leadership positions.
If she’d known she would get pregnant, Srinivasan may not have pursued an MBA, but looking back, she is glad she stuck it out.
“It was hard but worth it,” she said. “You don’t have to have everything in life worked out. Just do it.”