BS (Data Science)
Today, as an education consultant with a degree from Harvard, Shreya Singhal has seen why most online degrees struggle, and how the IITM BS Degree in Data Science and Applications makes the grade. Having first experienced the program as both a student and a TA, Shreya offers a unique dual perspective: one of a learner building a career, and one of an expert analyzing a global educational phenomenon.
It was back in 2021, during the lockdown, when Shreya first came across the IITM BS Degree.
While pursuing an on-campus degree in Computer Applications, she noticed a significant disconnect between the classroom and the workplace. The curriculum lacked the practical, skill-based training, particularly in modern data science, that the tech industry now demands. She saw the IITM BS Degree, not just as a certificate from one of the best universities in India, but as a signal of academic quality and rigor in a market populated with online courses and MOOCs.
Upon joining the degree, Shreya realised that she got exactly what she was expecting – rigor in addition to courses being taught from scratch, with no assumptions about previous educational experience. The program proved invaluable for her, as it bypassed the traditional barriers created when she opted out of 11th-grade Mathematics – a decision that typically restricts many higher education pathways in India.
She appreciated the course instructors teaching the basics of the subjects before diving deeper into it, and she also had a friend in the degree whom she met at Paradox help her out with some courses, acting as her personal tutor.
“When you have the fire to go beyond what the world says is possible, then you just put in everything that you have,” she says, remembering her own journey.
While pursuing two degrees and searching for internships, Shreya received an opportunity to be a Teaching Assistant for the Python Course, which gave her the chance to work on-campus at IITM. Shreya joined the Drama Club at IITM, working as a director for a stage play. Later, she worked on a joint theatre venture with the on-campus theatre society and Aayam, the Drama Society of the IITM BS Degree, fostering a sense of community and amity between the two.
Crucially, it was during her stint as a TA that she discovered a gap in the team’s research work. She stepped up to fill it, discovering a deep passion for research that would define her career. It eventually led to a research internship at IISC and then finally Harvard for a Master’s Degree in Education.
Looking back, Shreya reflects on how various other universities and online learning institutions promised to replace the traditional on-campus degree and be the future of education, but ultimately failed to do so.
She realised that the IITM Degree was different – it combined the convenience and flexibility of online education with the rigor of in-person examinations and a strong social structure, offering a meaningful educational experience that no other university in India was offering.
Furthermore, she recounts a scarcity of skill-based courses in India, and echoes Professor Andrew Thangaraj, the programme coordinator’s statement that passionate students in India were searching for something more, and weren’t really finding it in India’s higher education system.
For Shreya, the IITM BS Degree was not just a stepping stone, but a proving ground. It gave her the space to rebuild her confidence in subjects she once thought were closed off to her, and the exposure to discover where her curiosity and passion truly lay.
Reflecting on her journey, she realizes that the degree offered no guaranteed outcomes; instead, it served as a platform that rewarded those with the persistence and initiative to claim them.
– written by Nikita Nanduri
