Bearcats Mean Business Archive: 2025

Grant Freking: (00:00)
Welcome back to Bearcats Mean Business, the official podcast of the University of Cincinnati's Carl H. Lindner College of Business. We're back from winter break. How exciting. My name is Grant Freking, Manager of College Communications and Marketing at Lindner. Today I'm joined by Vaishnovi Palaparthy and Megha Pawar, two international students enrolled in Lindner's master of Information Systems program. I am so excited to learn about their respective journeys to Lindner and their experiences so far. Welcome Vaishnovi, and Megha. Thank you so much for being here.

Vaishnovi Palaparthy: (00:31)
Hi Grant. Thank you so much. I'm Vaishnovi for people who are listening and I'm pretty excited for the opportunity of getting to speak about, you know, our admissions and our life here at Lindner. And yeah.

Megha Pawar: (00:42)
Hi Grant. I'm Megha, to the people who are listening. Thank you for having me. And I'm, pretty excited to share my experiences at Lindner.

Grant Freking: (00:50)
Well, thank you both again for being here. Both of you have fascinating backstories, and Vaishnovi, I wanna start with you and your path to Lindner and Cincinnati, which is more than unique, I would say.

Vaishnovi Palaparthy: (01:00)
. Yeah, mine is a long story. So, I was working in India and I worked as a cloud DevOps engineer back in India at TCS and everything was going great. And then I got married, so , which is also great. Let me just add.

Grant Freking: (01:15)
Yeah. To clarify. Yes.

Vaishnovi Palaparthy: (01:17)
Yes. So then, basically my husband lives here. So I moved to Cincinnati almost three years ago. And ever since I've been in Cincinnati and I just fell in love with the city. So people think that Cincinnati is like a small city and you know, how is it gonna be? It's not like New York or any big city. What experiences am I gonna get? But to everyone listening out there who's probably wanting to apply, I would say that this city brings in so much peace and calmness. It is also a city, but at the same time it's also a very, very you know, like a calm, slow place to stay at. And with getting your master's started and everything changing in your life, that sort of calmness is actually very, very important, which you will get over here, I assure you. But on a side note, I love snow because in India we don't get to see snow.

Grant Freking: (02:06)
Yeah, you're getting plenty of it right now.

Vaishnovi Palaparthy: (02:08)
A lot more than I asked for, but, yeah, that's pretty exciting. And I fell in love with the city, the culture, the people, the people are so welcoming, they're so warm and yeah, that's my story.

Grant Freking: (02:19)
Yeah. So a little bit of like small town feel with a lot of big city features here.

Vaishnovi Palaparthy: (02:23)
Yes. Perfect. Exactly.

Grant Freking: (02:24)
Okay. And Megha, what about you?

Vaishnovi Palaparthy: (02:26)
So my journey to Lindner and Cincinnati has been transformative. I grew up in Mumbai, India and worked as a research operations analyst at Merkel, where I analyzed market survey data for clients like Nielsen IQ and IRI worldwide to deliver actionable insights. After gaining valuable professional experience, I realized that I needed to enhance my technical and business skills with a deeper understanding. And Lindner stood out to me with the focus on experiential learning and Cincinnati's welcoming community and abundant career opportunities made it an easy choice. Since arriving, I have engaged in research, taken on leadership roles like student ambassador and truly found a second home here.

Grant Freking: (03:11)
That's great to hear. Now, what was it, I guess specifically about Lindner and the city that has made you feel, or what is it about the, the, lemme start over. Danielle. 3, 2, 1.

Grant Freking: (03:19)
Megha, What is it specifically about Lindner and the city in general that has made you feel at home specifically after relocating half a global way?

Megha Pawar: (03:27)
Yeah, so the sense of community and the opportunities at Lindner were key. The faculty and staff made me feel welcome from day one. And the college's focus on hands-on learning, aligned with my career goals. Additionally, Cincinnati's vibrant sports culture, I've attended every football game this year of Bearcats.

Vaishnovi Palaparthy: (03:46)
She did, she did.

Megha Pawar: (03:47)
I think excluding only one because it was very snowy then .

Grant Freking: (03:50)
Okay.

Megha Pawar: (03:50)
And the thriving arts scene and extensive co-op opportunities sparked my interest, making it an ideal place to grow both personally and professionally.

Grant Freking: (04:00)
Awesome. Awesome. To clarify football, you mean American football or are we talking about soccer?

Megha Pawar: (04:04)
American football.

Grant Freking: (04:05)
Yeah, . Okay. Okay. I just, because I know, I know to the rest of the world, football is actually football and not American football, so.

Megha Pawar: (04:10)
Yeah. Right.

Grant Freking: (04:11)
Vaishnovi, what about you? I'm, you know, I'm assuming you came to Lindner not just because of location, but because also because of some other features.

Vaishnovi Palaparthy: (04:17)
Yes. Like obviously like I had everywhere to apply, but I still chose it here. Of course, my home is here and that weighs in, I agree. But then, so my husband's as well a graduate from University of Cincinnati from the BANA program, and he keeps telling me, talking about his experiences and about the faculty and how it transformed his life and you know, how it made it better, which kind of did convince me into coming here, . Other than that, you know, the ranking of Lindner itself is pretty convincing if I'm being honest. And, just being here feels like home right now for me. So, yeah.

Grant Freking: (04:53)
Well, I'll have to give your husband a big thank you if ever meet him one day. Vaishnovi, I'm sure potential and current Lindner students are interested to know how you've transitioned, you know, to to Cincinnati. How has your experience been? I know you've been here for three years so far, but again, iandn your experience is a little bit different than Megha, but how, how has your experience been in the city?

Vaishnovi Palaparthy: (05:12)
It's been pretty amazing, if I'm being honest. of course, like just moving across the globe, it's not easy. And the transformation of, you know, completely new country, new people, new culture

Grant Freking: (05:23)
New climate, as you're experiencing.

Vaishnovi Palaparthy: (05:24)
New climate, yes, there are all these factors, but then also the people here are very, very nice. Let me add something on a side note. The driving here is very peaceful 'cause I've been to New York.

Grant Freking: (05:36)
Oh wow.

Vaishnovi Palaparthy: (05:37)
I've been to Miami and then I decided I'm not gonna drive there, here like people are good. And, other than that, being in Cincinnati experiencing, you know, the October Fest and, you know, stuff like that, it makes you still feel like there are things to do and

Grant Freking: (05:54)
Sense of community is kind of what I'm, what I'm picking up on here.

Vaishnovi Palaparthy: (05:57)
Yeah. I wasn't finding the right word, but yeah, that's basically what I'm trying to say. Other than that, also for people in India who are listening, I would like to say that don't assume that there are no Indians here or there's no like Indian facilities or like Indian community. Cincinnati is so welcoming that there is a rich Indian community which is well respected and you know, you'll still get your food, you'll still get your groceries, everything will be good. That's what I wanna say. Yeah.

Grant Freking: (06:24)
Yeah, it's an important everyday life.

Vaishnovi Palaparthy: (06:25)
Yep.

Grant Freking: (06:25)
Some things to know me. What about you?

Megha Pawar: (06:27)
Yeah, so the transition was smooth. When I attended the orientation with, professor Rokey. I can't explain how thankful I was to him that day because the moment I heard him talk, it felt like we had somebody to fall back to or go to, with all our problems. And yeah, he's been that sort of a person with all of us in the MS IS program and he's the program director. Then also the events that were held in the college, there were too many events going on by the different student clubs and organizations throughout the campus, in TUC near the rec center. And, yeah, the strong support from the staff and faculty and these experiences not only helped me to settle in quickly, but also made me feel truly in home here because

Grant Freking: (07:18)
It's, it's, you're not just here for academics, you're here for the rest of your life or you're not outside the building. So it's great to hear that you've felt that sense of community. Not to say another phrase again, but Yep.

Vaishnovi Palaparthy: (07:27)
I would actually like to add something to what she just said.

Grant Freking: (07:29)
Sure. Yeah.

Vaishnovi Palaparthy: (07:31)
In terms of the sense of community. So for me, like my situation is different. Like I already live with a person here, so I'm not technically alone, but like most of the people who move here are like, they, they, you know, starting out a new life. If you're joining the graduate's program, you're like literally you left off where you were working and you like left everything behind. And you've come here to start a new life in the true sense. And, it's very easy to be, get depressed very soon, feel homesick very, very soon because you are, at the end of the day, you're going back home and you're alone. You're not seeing your family as regularly as you would in back at your home, wherever you come from.

Vaishnovi Palaparthy: (08:09)
But the college actually takes effort to make sure you don't feel that way. As she said, various cultural, various clubs, various, various events keep happening so that, you know, the students mix, the students meet each other and the students like they mingle with each other and make good friends so that, you know, these friendships like they last for a lifetime is what the college looks at. And of course, speaking about the professors and our, godfather, which I would like to say Professor Rokey , he'll definitely, you will never feel alone for a minute. Other than that there are like services, like the CAPS and everything, who's there to help you and not make you feel awkward even once mm-hmm . So, you know, there are all these things that just, you know, add confidence to your choice of actually coming to UC and like if you'll not even question your decision even for a second , that's how comfortable we feel. Yeah. Let's just put it that way.

Grant Freking: (09:04)
Like, thank you both for sharing that. It's very refreshing to hear.

Vaishnovi Palaparthy: (09:06)
Yeah.

Grant Freking: (09:06)
Let's zero in a bit on the MS IS program. If, if you don't mind that each of you are enrolled in. Megha, what is it about this program that you felt would not only meet your expectations academically but also prepare you for the next step of your professional career? I'm assuming you don't wanna be in school forever. So what about your professional career?

Megha Pawar: (09:22)
So the MSIS program at Lindner offers the perfect balance of technical and business skills. Courses like web development with.net and information technology management are directly aligned with the industry needs. The program's small cohort size fosters close connections and personalized learning while the one-year format ensures a good return of investment. Additionally, the emphasis on real-world projects, co-op opportunities and networking has given me the confidence to take on challenging roles in the tech industry.

Grant Freking: (09:56)
Awesome. Vaishnovi?

Vaishnovi Palaparthy: (09:58)
So of course I've spoken to people who've studied in the MS IS program before and I actually do have a couple of friends who graduated from UC. And when I spoke when I spoke to them about this and about joining masters here and why specifically MS IS, it's because MS IS actually offers a holistic approach to the program and the way the course is designed and the type of electives we are offered, the type of course subjects we have, everything actually, if you put it together in one plate, it makes like the perfect, you know, meal, if I would put it that way. You know, there's enough balance of subject and also professional experience. And most of our professors are our adjunct professors here who basically work full-time and also come here to teach us. And they have like a lifetime of experience. What can get better than that?

Vaishnovi Palaparthy: (10:51)
Like they literally, speak to us about whatever we are learning how it's actually used at work every day, which is actually kind of important 'cause you can only understand so much with books, right? You, and then you gotta go out there and work. So they actually help us focus on, you know, where we are supposed to be focusing at, looking at working on, and they are so helpful, so understanding they'll not judge you no matter what. Like if you don't know the most basic things, they are still going to take the time out to explain it to you. I, myself have experienced that a lot of times and they don't make you feel, you know, because people here come from different backgrounds. Like I, she herself came as an analyst previously and I'm a cloud engineer. Like there's no relation between these two . Yeah. But we are still in the same program and we are still doing very well. It's because of the way our professors are making sure that we learn. And that is something in Lindner that I am very, very happy about. And I will tell it a hundred times to people listening that they need to, they need to know that what great stuff is actually happening here and these are things you don't know until you don't start studying here.

Grant Freking: (11:58)
Right.

Vaishnovi Palaparthy: (11:58)
So yeah.

Grant Freking: (12:01)
Yeah. We can promote as much as what you just said in marketing, but until you're in actually in the program and experiencing that, that's, you know, yeah.

Vaishnovi Palaparthy: (12:08)
It's like a risk at the end of the day, you're just putting in a lot of your time, your career, like your future career, everything based on this degree. And I understand the type of fear people might have. Like what's gonna happen next? Is this the right choice? I should have taken that program probably, or this, but this program actually will give you the comfort that you've made the right choice.

Grant Freking: (12:28)
Right.

Vaishnovi Palaparthy: (12:28)
That is something I can assure.

Grant Freking: (12:30)
Right. And it, I'm assuming it's very helpful for those professors that you spoke about that have not only the academic experience, but their professional experience.

Vaishnovi Palaparthy: (12:37)
Yes.

Grant Freking: (12:37)
They can come in fresh off, you know, talked about having night classes tonight.

Megha Pawar: (12:40)
Yeah, yeah.

Grant Freking: (12:41)
They come, they might be coming off, they're teaching at night too. They might be coming off at five o'clock, like, Hey, listen to what happened to me at this job I work at. Yeah. And, and relaying those sort of issues and real world problems to you.

Vaishnovi Palaparthy: (12:52)
I would actually add something to the same thing. So we've had, professors who work and who are also coming back to teach us and like if we actually faced a problem in class, because we do like these in class lab sessions and activity sessions with real software and we faced like a, like some dead end. They actually tell us what actually happened at their work and how they got over it. And like, you know, and the way they tell it, it makes us remember how to not do it again. So this is the type of teaching you want to have in your life. Right. So yeah.

Grant Freking: (13:24)
Excellent. Have more of a bigger picture question for the both of you, and I'll start with you Vaishnovi. How would you differentiate information systems from similar but different areas of study? I think people outside of, you know, you're in the program, I do marketing for the program as well as many others, but maybe confused with BANA or some other.

Vaishnovi Palaparthy: (13:42)
Yeah.

Grant Freking: (13:42)
Similar programs here.

Vaishnovi Palaparthy: (13:43)
Mm-hmm .

Grant Freking: (13:43)
At UC or elsewhere. How would you differentiate IS?

Vaishnovi Palaparthy: (13:46)
So, as I said IS, is is, it's gonna be mine forever, but Oh, so my husband did it from BANA and I'm doing IS we chose different programs. Even though I knew what he studied it, it would be very easy for me to just get his help and, you know, study and get through. But then I specifically chose this program on my own and not wanting to get into that. It's because, as I just answered as well, that this program gives a completely different approach. There is analytics and it's very easy to get, confused between BANA and IS the way the courses are designed. We have a lot of similar subjects. We mostly in our class as well, we have BANA students sitting with us. That's, that's the amount of similarity we share. But also we are different at the same time because, we do other subjects as well, which are, are at this point of time in market, have a lot of demand.

Vaishnovi Palaparthy: (14:41)
And that's how adaptive this course has been. So what I would like to say about how is it different, but also same, but also different kind of a thing is.

Grant Freking: (14:49)
. Yep.

Vaishnovi Palaparthy: (14:52)
Basically, it can look lucrative to, you know, get confused like BANA, IS or, MBA and stuff like that. But this program offers like a good amount of, you know, knowledge in terms of, books I would say, I don't know how to put it, but like in-class knowledge, but also real world practical experience. Like we are preparing, in future and we are not sure what type of job roles we are looking at, but we are prepared to be analysts if we get an analyst role. We are prepared to be a data engineer if we get a data engineer role. We are also prepared to be a web developer role. I mean, get a web developer role. I mean,

Grant Freking: (15:24)
Yeah.

Vaishnovi Palaparthy: (15:24)
So that's how the program is getting us ready. Like there are multiple roles that we can adapt ourselves to because of the type of courses we've chosen and the type of courses that they offer.

Grant Freking: (15:34)
Right.

Vaishnovi Palaparthy: (15:34)
So we are not like, you know, directed into one direction to study just this. So Yeah.

Grant Freking: (15:40)
Sure. Yeah. It's not too rigid. Megha, how would you classify IIS

Megha Pawar: (15:43)
So as Vaishnovi said, yes, it's very easy to get confused between BANA, is and all, but, is has more of a technical focus too with respect. Like that is the differentiating point between BANA and IS we have a little more technical edge over them. Yes, it is prepare, it has prepared us for, various roles like data engineer or maybe, front-end web developer or maybe mobile app developers because we have done subjects like, exam and web services, et cetera. yes, we do have similar courses with them, such as data angling and et cetera. But yeah, it is similar but still different, with the approach that we have. , they do more of case studies. We do have a subject which had case study, but we are more sort of hands-on experience with sub like projects and everything.

Vaishnovi Palaparthy: (16:45)
Yeah. As she said, the types of, the type of projects that we are doing, like in the previous semester, we've, we've been done with one semester. So we've already built a website, fully functioning website.

Megha Pawar: (16:54)
Mm-hmm .

Vaishnovi Palaparthy: (16:55)
We've hosted a website. We've, at the same time we have also done system analysis projects in which we are literally seeing the skeletal structure of a particular process or something. We've also done like statistical computing projects of like, that's a subject that I took that's a, that's a subject that Megha didn't take actually. She's taken data wrangling and I took stat comp and we've like, I've created HTML pages and websites, but we've also done Core Python and coding. So that's what like I'm trying to put out here that, you know, you get a lot of experience and the type of projects that we actually get to do, it just brings so much more experience to the table that, you know, it's something that you don't wanna forget.

Grant Freking: (17:38)
Now what recommendations, and, Megha I'll start with you. Would you have for fellow international students who may be considering the Lindner College of Business? Whether it's, you know, fellow students from India or anywhere, what, what, what sort of priorities should they take? And then also how would Lindner factor into those priorities?

Megha Pawar: (17:57)
So my advice to them will be to embrace every opportunity. Engage with the community, participate in the networking events. Like Lindner hosts a lot of networking events, like Data Science Symposium. We have career fairs now. We have a OBAIS night wherein we will have, various companies and we can engage with them. We have Friday seminars, which are done by Professor Rokey. And that is especially only for the MS-IS cohort. So, yeah. And don't hesitate to seek help when needed. The faculty, staff, students, alumni, everybody are incredibly supportive and most importantly, stay curious and open to new experiences. It'll make your journey even more exciting.

Vaishnovi Palaparthy: (18:47)
Okay. So my recommendations to people who are going to apply firstly would be, of course check out the curriculum check out the website, see how everything's going. That's like the most basic thing.

Vaishnovi Palaparthy: (18:57)
So when it comes to curriculum there are a lot of options for our electives actually. It's just you can keep scrolling and then they just keep coming.

Grant Freking: (19:03)
Mm-hmm .

Vaishnovi Palaparthy: (19:04)
Because that's the type of offers offering we get from college. I would like to say that, don't assume that probably this subject is not something that I have been working on so it doesn't align with my work experience or something. I would actually motivate them to take the new subject. It'll give them more experience. And the faculty here, I can assure you, are going to make sure that you learn. There's a lot of encouragement here for making sure that we learn something out of what we are doing, because that's basically the core point of doing your masters. And, don't try to, judge based on the city or you know, it being a small city, because I understand the excitement, like, you're moving to U.S., So you want to live here, you wanna live there.

Vaishnovi Palaparthy: (19:48)
Don't do that. Like, I get it. But I would definitely tell that the type of course and the type of curriculum is something that will really, really help people no matter what background you're coming from. So that would be my number one recommendation to make sure that, don't even, think about, is it gonna be good? I'll assure you that it's gonna be good. That is one thing. And for the people who already applied and like are gonna come in for the summer or for fall, my recommendation would for them would be something similar to what Megha said. There are so many events happening in terms of academic and non-academic, focusing on the academic part for now. There's like so much professional experience that you get to interact with. And as she said, professor Rokey, he arranges Friday seminars and stuff like that in which there are like real working people who are taking the time out to come and speak to us and to, you know, show us how it's going to be in real world and how they are going to, how their needs and our needs actually coincide basically.

Vaishnovi Palaparthy: (20:51)
So what I would say to the people who already applied is be excited, make sure you mingle, make sure you go to these events. Make sure you network, which is, professor Rokey's favorite word.

Grant Freking: (21:02)
Mm-hmm .

Vaishnovi Palaparthy: (21:03)
Networking, . So make sure you network and don't try to limit your opportunities on your own because there is, so, there's a lot to offer here. And grab every opportunity you get.

Grant Freking: (21:16)
My thanks to Vaishnovi Palaparthy and Megha Pawar for sharing their experiences today on Bearcat Mean Business. If you enjoyed today's episode, please consider subscribing or leaving a five star review for Bearcats MeanBbusiness on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

Grant Freking: (21:29)
Attention UC undergrads. If you are interested in learning more about the highly ranked graduate programs at the Lindner College of Business, be sure to attend the Lindner Graduate Program Showcase, being held Thursday, February 13th from 4 to 6:00 PM at Lindner Hall. Attendees will hear from current students have access to personalized guidance from Lindner's graduate programs team, and receive free food and swag. Seats are limited. So click the link in this episode's description to register. Thanks for tuning in. Go Bearcats.

Megha Pawar: (21:56)
Go Bearcats.