BS (Data Science)
Zeyuan Song, based in Oklahoma, discovered the IIT Madras BS program while searching for remote computer science degrees. What truly convinced him was IIT Madras’s proven reputation and track record of producing industry leaders, developers, and CEOs across India and the US. “I knew the university was at the top, and I thought the program would be high quality,” he says. That assurance made him confident he was joining something truly rigorous.
For someone balancing a master’s degree and research work alongside the BS, the decision to enroll felt right. He had chosen IITM expecting high quality, and the program delivered.
While Song excelled at the Foundation level thanks to his background in Statistics and Mathematics, the Diploma level’s programming requirements revealed a hidden hurdle. “In the beginning, I was just memorizing code to survive,” he admits. As the abstract theory piled up, the distance between what he knew and what he could actually build grew. It wasn’t until the projects began that the gap finally took shape, transforming from an obstacle into a clear path toward mastery.
Projects felt less like classwork and more like real-world problems, having to turn vague requirements into working code, defend his solutions to industry professionals, and ensure everything worked under real constraints. The BDM Project pushed him out into the real world to talk to local shops and work with whatever data he could realistically get. It was uncomfortable, but also “an intriguing experience.” But there was another gap too: distance and time zones. Most students were in India. He was in Oklahoma. Most live sessions happened at hours that belonged to the middle of the night.
He discovered a simple truth: when you commit to the work – even at midnight, even across mismatched time zones – the community commits to you. Song found that he wasn’t alone in those late hours; instead, he was met by instructors whose ‘friendly and hands-on’ live sessions turned complex code into a step-by-step conversation. Their presence transformed his isolation into a shared mission.
Later in the BSc level, the group projects paired him with other students, and despite the distance, they collaborated smoothly by dividing their work into clear parts and rallying around shared deadlines. What felt remote on paper felt remarkably real when the work demanded it. But this community couldn’t sustain itself on meetings alone. It required a personal commitment that extended far beyond the semester.
He learned something fundamental about sustaining yourself through intensive learning. Three hours. Every single day. “I still guarantee that I have at least three hours every day to learn something. Because once you go to a job or research, you may suffer from the lack of time to learn new things,” he explains. Data science doesn’t stand still, which meant his commitment couldn’t either. This discipline came from understanding that the program’s momentum had to come from him, carried forward even after the semester ended.
His final reflection captured it all: “The most important point is to grasp every opportunity to learn more, to experience more, and to collaborate with more students and interact with more instructors. The IITM platform is so fantastic. You need to seize any opportunity to enrich yourself.”
The gap between knowing and doing? Zeyuan walked across it. And discovered that the journey was as important as the destination.
– written by Nehansh Kesharwani
