Silpa Sarma is a Former Admissions Officer who served as a seasonal application reader for Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, evaluating thousands of MBA applications across industries, geographies, and professional backgrounds. She also interviewed prospective undergraduate applicants as a University of Pennsylvania alumni interviewer, giving her firsthand insight into the qualities that distinguish compelling candidates. Silpa holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics with a minor in Mathematics from the University of Pennsylvania and a Master of Business Administration from Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management.
Before moving into admissions counseling, Silpa built a career spanning financial services and technology in the United States, beginning at The Vanguard Group and later working in quantitative equity research, treasury, and strategic finance at companies including City National Rochdale and Palo Alto Networks. That combination of hands-on admissions reading experience and a finance and technology background gives her a practical, evaluator’s eye for how a student’s application comes together, from the numbers on the page to the story behind them.
As a Former Admissions Officer, Silpa works with students to look past a list of accomplishments and identify the themes, motivations, and qualities that make their story distinctive, helping them choose extracurricular opportunities and craft an authentic narrative that reflects who they are. She brings particular insight to students applying with a strong quantitative or business bent, drawing on her own economics and MBA training.
