Madhavi Desai completed her formal education with full scholarship at Purdue University, USA in 1988. Her Master’s degree was in Industrial Sociology & Management. She had the honor of being invited by the Greenwood Press, New York, to publish her thesis in their textbook called, “The Politics of Industrial Recruitment”, 1990. Her study focused on the Japanese automobile industry in the United States.

Madhavi Desai started counseling students from 1986 while she was pursuing her Master’s in America.  Upon her return to Bombay, in the summer of 1989, she observed the number of students who desired to study overseas appeared to have increased manifold, with no individual guidance available. The infrastructure and access to information to assist them had not developed in the same proportion as the growing number of students wishing to study abroad. Looking at the obvious gap in the market for this non-traditional service, she established Madhavi Desai Consulting, which offered a professional turn key service to help students go overseas for their education, maximizing their prospects of financial aid and admissions to suitable universities.

She set up the Bombay office of Madhavi Desai Consulting Pvt. Ltd. (earlier called Universal Consulting) in 1989, followed by the Baroda office in 2002.  This was the first service of its kind in India. It offered complete professional services to students assisting them with identifying universities overseas, maximizing their prospects of financial aid and admissions. She has advised students who live all over India and also those who live in other countries – over 45 different cities in India, and over 25 different countries, such as China, Norway, Singapore Bahrain, Oman, Singapore, Hong Kong, Switzerland, UAE, Qatar, USA, Sweden and UK, to name a few.

In 1996 Madhavi was approached by the Canadian Consulate to be their India Technical Advisor to educate students about Canadian Universities. BRITISH AIRWAYS commissioned Madhavi to write a book - “A Student Survival Guide”, for students going to America. This publication was sent to all students who participated in the All-India British Airways “Wings of Success” scholarship contest in 1992; where British Airways gave away 20 prizes of ten free tickets to the US and ten cash prizes of US $ 1,000/- each.  According to the last count there were over 3,500 students who received the publication.

Realizing that were a huge number of students who required counseling Madhavi decided to make an all out effort to reach out and assist students en masse in the form of seminars.  These seminars impart maximum information about the studying at Universities abroad and equipping students with the necessary information to handle the application process effectively. She has held seminars at the Indo-American Society, Bombay, as well as numerous colleges and Universities all over India – Indore, Calcutta, Delhi, Coimbatore to name a few. Madhavi Desai has been invited to speak and advise colleges and Universities in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Muscat (Oman) as well. The AIESEC has invited her to address their career fairs for four years.  Over the years she has addressed over 18,000 students.

She has written several articles that have been published in the international and various national presses.  Several publications have written about her too.  To name a few:

• Study Abroad, in the AHMEDABAD TIMES
• Study Abroad, in the KHALEEJ TIMES
• Contributor to EDUCATION TIMES
• Study Abroad, column in the BOMBAY TIMES
• Study Abroad, column in the BANGALORE TIMES
• Study Abroad, column in the Ahmedabad, TOI, Saturday edition
• USA Calling column - MIDDAY 1991-93 
• Series on Academics in America, for the SUNDAY OBSERVER, in 1990 
• The SUNDAY TIMES –several contributions
• CNBC TV Channel, Inside India Show – profiled Madhavi Desai
• BUSINESS INDIA, People section, Feb 1996 – profiled Madhavi Desai
• DALAL STREET JOURNAL, Jan 1997 – profiled Madhavi Desai
• FEMINA, in 1991  – profiled Madhavi Desai
• INDEPENDENT -‘Young Turks’ and the same in the all-India SUNDAY TIMES  – profiled Madhavi Desai
• Interviewed by the RADIO MIDDAY – profiled Madhavi Desai