So after my four years at Harvard, I said goodbye to my dream of Yale Law and hello to MIT and an MBA. It was a bit unusual for someone to be admitted with such a limited amount of real world work experience. Giving up my summer vacations for internships certainly worked in my favor.

I would like to say that it was my academic reputation and interview skills that earned my internships at four of the largest employers in Boston. But I honestly think it had more to do with the fact that I was going against the grain. Hundreds of students were competing for an opportunity to be...