BS (Data Science)
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 Applications, he was navigating a similar period of foundational rigor – searching for a transformative second chance at his career and life.
A 2008 graduate, he initially set out with the confidence to conquer the industry. However, after a decade of building a successful online testing platform, the unforeseen challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic forced a total reset – an experience that tested both his business and his self-belief. Encouraged by his wife to rebuild himself, Rajat enrolled in the program.
Much like Daniel’s early training, Rajat’s journey began with foundational steps that felt simple at first, yet hidden within them was the ‘muscle memory’ he would later need to protect his future and regain his hope.
Upon starting the degree, Rajat found the first semester relatively easy, having been close enough to the material that it came naturally. He even scored a perfect 100 in English, something his wife still teases him about. The real test came with Maths 2. He studied harder than he had in years, attended every TA session he could find, and pushed through until he came out the other side with an S grade.
At the diploma level, the curriculum began to show its hand. Projects arrived alongside the theory – subjects that had seemed abstract on their own started mapping to real applications, and the structure of what he was building became clearer. It was rigorous, but it had direction. The degree level brought deeper, more demanding material, and with it a creeping frustration. He found himself asking the question that most students ask at some point: why does any of this matter?
Design Thinking answered it. The course itself didn’t win him over immediately – he was skeptical through the first two quizzes, unconvinced by what seemed like more abstraction. But the project changed that. Tasked with building a Women’s Safety app, he did something the degree had been training him to do: he went looking for the real problem before trying to build the solution. His wife, a teacher, helped him speak to her students – fifteen and sixteen year old girls who described the calculations they made every day just to move through the world safely, things Rajat had never had to think about. “As a man, you never know,” he says. The app he built afterward wasn’t just a technical exercise, it was the moment the ‘wax-on, wax-off’ finally made sense – all those subjects, all that theory, adding up to something he could actually use.
“They were teaching me all those things so that I can do this.”
Now, Rajat works as a TA for the Software Engineering course, selected for completing his coursework with distinction. He plans to keep doing courses offered by the IITM and looks to enroll in the ES Degree once he graduates. Ultimately, his story is one of resilience and focus. “Now I feel exactly the way I did when I first graduated college,” he says. “I think, okay, I can create big things. I can do wonders.” His final advice to fellow students is to embrace the rigor rather than avoid it. He believes that tackling the tough subjects is the best way to prepare for a competitive industry, where deep knowledge and hard work are the true differentiators.
– written by Nikita Nanduri
