52. She turned a no into $50K. Here’s how. | Surina Diddi

In this episode, we invited Surina Diddi, who spent nearly a decade in finance, from equity research at UBS to investment banking at Lazard and Scotiabank to private equity in the renewable energy and energy storage space.We talk through Surina’s experience negotiating an additional $50K on top of her MBA scholarship at Chicago Booth School of Business. We get into how scholarship pools actually work, why the admissions officer relationship matters more than most people realize, and how she used a real job offer pipeline as leverage. We also talk about what she'd do differently: applying earlier and to more schools.We Cover:• How MBA scholarship funds are actually allocated and who controls them• Why pitching your credentials alone isn't enough, and what actually moved the needle• The role of persistence after a flat no• How a real job offer pipeline became negotiation leverage against a business school• Why Surina deliberately avoided naming a specific dollar amount• The Forte Foundation and other pre-MBA fellowship programs worth knowing aboutConnect with Surina Diddi: https://www.linkedin.com/in/surina-diddi-28824219• Over many years, Surina has mentored lots of people pursuing careers in finance and admission to top MBA programs, often helping them secure scholarships. Feel free to reach out to her on LinkedIn if you think she can support you.For more:• Book free consultation call with Alex: https://calendly.com/alexhapki/call• Get our free negotiation worksheet: https://www.yournegotiations.com• Read our weekly newsletter: https://yournegotiations.kit.com• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yournegotiations• Gerta's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gertamalaj• Alex's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhapki