There is a version of Piush Das’s story on paper that looks like a series of wrong turns. A Humanities student who avoided Mathematics. A college dropout. Someone who spent years studying alone at home, far from any campus. By most conventional measures, this is not the profile of someone who becomes a Teaching Assistant…
The email sitting in Sakthivel’s drafts folder was a long shot and he knew it. Zoho was a real company, a good one, and he wasn’t entirely sure his resume was worth sending. But he sent it anyway, and within two to three weeks, he was shortlisted. A week after that, HR called, and within…
In the classic film The Karate Kid, young Daniel LaRusso is famously frustrated by the mundane tasks assigned by his mentor, Mr. Miyagi. Waxing cars and painting fences seemed worlds apart from the martial arts mastery he craved. In much the same way, when Rajat Goel enrolled in the IITM BS in Data Science and…
Aaruni Kale is one term away from finishing his BS Degree in Data Science and Applications at IIT Madras. He joined the degree standalone, straight out of a BCA he dropped out of when COVID shut his university down. Scared of Mathematics, he was skeptical about the qualifier until a group of strangers changed his…
Currently, 21-years old Darshan Ganatra is living on the IIT Madras campus, where he is a teaching assistant for the MAD-2 course. He is attending offline classes alongside students from the main programme, and also finishing the last stretch of his BS. It started, as most good things in his life seem to, almost by…
Gurneet Kaur Bhullar had a habit of cutting it close. She missed the first IITM application window by a single day. Instead of scrambling for the next term, she waited. She watched videos, read student feedback, and decided she’d apply only if the reviews were good. It turned out to be one of the smarter…
Picture the Cafe Coffee Day on the IIT Madras campus. Throughout the day, the tables constantly shift. Groups of students, working professionals, and visitors cycle in and out, bringing with them different cultures and conversations. But amidst this revolving door of faces, there was one constant: Tanu. “I would spend hours at the CCD,” she…
Gaurav Ginodia’s association with the IITM BS Degree in Data Science and Applications began while he was pursuing his undergraduate studies in Computer Science at the University of Calcutta. As Data Science and AI continued to redefine the future of technology, he focused on strengthening his core understanding of these cutting-edge disciplines. Drawn by the…
The transition from staring at a 13-inch screen at home to a lush, green campus of a renowned institute, filled with students, monkeys, and deer doesn’t just happen. Unless, you’re one of those people who jump at every opportunity, collecting a plethora of experiences that can sometimes be more valuable than a certificate, depending on…
When Aniket Kalra was pursuing the IIT Madras BS Degree in Data Science and Applications, there were nights when he would look up from his laptop and it would be 3 AM, and he had to be at the office in a few hours. He’d been a working professional at a defence organisation for years…