BS (Data Science)
For most people, a night shift marks the end of the day. For Kaushal Prajapati, it was generally followed by an exam. Before joining the IIT Madras BS Degree in Data Science and Applications, Kaushal had completed a Diploma in Chemical Engineering and was working with ONGC. The job gave him stability, but he soon realised it wasn’t work he wanted to pursue long-term. His interest in Statistics led him towards Data Science, eventually bringing him to the BS Degree. What followed was less a typical college routine and more an exercise in logistics. Kaushal was working eight hours a day, often in night shifts, while travelling nearly six hours every day.
For almost four years, his routine involved finishing a night shift and heading straight to an exam centre. The commute became study time: lectures were watched on the way, while assignments and deeper study were completed at home.
He quickly discovered that enthusiasm alone wasn’t enough. When he first joined, Kaushal took four subjects, hoping to complete the Foundation level in two terms. Python had other plans. Failing the course on his first attempt made him realise that he needed to slow down and rethink his approach. He reduced his course load, adjusted his routine and eventually returned to Python with a very different strategy, earning an S grade the second time around.
“The biggest thing I learnt from the programme was to think from first principles,” Kaushal says. “You have to break a problem down, understand why it works, and figure out what to do when your first approach fails.
You can’t simply memorise something and expect to clear the exam. The programming courses, projects and vivas all make you understand things from the basics.”
His approach soon translated into results. He was recognised for the Best MLP Project at the Diploma level (May 2024) and later for the Best Software Engineering Project (Sept 2025) at the BSc level. The degree eventually helped him enter the field he had been working towards, and today he works as an AI/ML Developer while freelancing as an RL Engineer for US-based labs.
For someone studying largely on his own, Paradox offered a breather. It gave him a chance to turn online connections into friendships and spend time with classmates who sometimes supported him beyond academics. For an online learner, he considers these connections one of the best parts of the experience.
There is one part of his experience he particularly wants new learners to remember. He doesn’t suggest an elaborate productivity system or promise that the programme will always be easy. Instead, he says to focus on learning by doing and, above all, to hang on through the Diploma.
The early stages can feel overwhelming, particularly the programming courses, but he believes the nature of learning changes once students reach the BSc and BS levels.
After four years of work, travel, night shifts, assignments and exams, Kaushal’s journey offers a simple reminder: sometimes progress is less about finding more time and more about making something meaningful out of the time you already have.
~written by Shambhavi Shekhar
