Age: 28
Specialties: Finance, e-commerce
Hometown: Delhi, India
Other degrees: B.S., chemical engineering and economics, Yale University
Nonwork interests: Fine teas, Indian cooking, squash, golf

Hardeep Walia truly has seen the world. Since childhood, Walia has lived in India, Kuwait and England, and after graduating from Yale he continued his globe-trotting as a consultant at Boston Consulting Group in Chicago. His passion for finance, strategy and high-tech led him to Wharton's campus in Philadelphia, where 46 percent of his peers are non-U.S. natives.

"Hardeep is one of the few people who really knows both technology and business," says assistant professor Balaji Padmanbhan. "The market needs people like him, now more than ever."

The second-year student's résumé is already heavy with high-tech experience, including business development work at Trilogy Software in Austin, Texas, and Microsoft in Seattle, where he will return as a corporate development manager after graduation. "If there's one thing I've learned from [living outside] the U.S., it's that you need to have the ability to adjust," he says. "That's even more true in this tech-driven world."

Walia is co-president of the popular Tech Club, and many Wharton students share his enthusiasm: about one-quarter end up at high-tech, e-business or startup companies.

Average salary pre-MBA at Wharton: $60,000
Average salary post-MBA at Wharton: $155,000