30 | Umang describes his thesis project about Public Transit in Nashville and Data Science at Vanderbilt

Umang Chaudhary | Data Science Intern at The General®

Umang Chaudhary portrays inter-disciplinary interest through multiple projects. After doing Earth and Environmental Science, Communication of Science and Technology from Vanderbilt University, he chose to do Masters in Data Science. His vision is to work at the intersection of Environment and Technology.

Umang shows his enthusiasm in his project, where he is analyzing the Public Transit in Nashville. Struggling in his graduation course for learning and building proficiency in R and Python, Umang wants to expand his skills and wants to work in the field of Data Science.

29 | Ayushman Chhabra traces his journey of Majors in Economics and Minors in Computer Science and Maths | University of Toronto Mississauga

Ayushman Chhabra | Teaches at Astro STEM Labs | Studied at UofT

Ayushman pursuing Majors in Economics and Minors in Computer Science and Maths narrates how he chose these subjects and explains multiple opportunities that will come up in near future. He explains the course structure and the difficulties he tackled while studying.

During Covid, Ayushman is passionately working towards expanding his horizon in different fields. He wants to explore all the things he couldn't in these years. Lastly, he anchored his thoughts on 'Learning from who you are'.

28 | Radical Candor displayed by Anisha on Communication Designing

Anisha Subberwal | | Communication Design | Junior Production Designer at ERGO

A recent graduate from Parsons School of Design, New York, specializes in digital design. This includes user experience and interface design, graphic design, illustration and photography. Currently based in New York City. She has previously resided in India, Indonesia, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, London and San Francisco. 

During Covid, she is motivated to work towards being more productive in any place which may or may not be a workplace. She lives by the fact that everything is temporary and exhibits great candor throughout the conversation.

27 | Ananya Sachdev exploring the field of Management through a lens of Sports, Columbia University

Ananya Sachdev

Strategist, Global Sports Business, Rakuten | Podcast Host

Ananya shares her experience in a Sports management course in Columbia University. She elucidates different opportunities to network with C-Suite executives and to network with them. She stresses on how these conversations helped her have a better perspective in Sports.

Now being a part of Global level company, Rakuten, she explains her journey and why she decided to move from the US to Japan. She also describes the obstacles she had to overcome to land a job and hence encourages young students to follow the path of expanding their strengths.

26 | Amiteshwar Singh accepting challenges and opportunities in Computer Science Majors in University of California, Davis

Amiteshwar Mann Singh | A CS graduate from UC Davis and working as Communication and Controls Team Lead at RoveCrest

Amiteshwar from University of California, Davis reflects on different opportunities other than Academic in the university. He explains the importance of literature and humanities subjects in Computer Science.

He shows his inclination towards E-Sports and implementation of AI. He talks about E-coaches (online coaching experience) for different Sports.

25 | Shabad Sobti retrospects his Computer Science journey with Arjun Seth

Shabad Sobti | Engineering Consultant at Levvel.io

Shabad Graduated from University of Virginia, now working as engineering consultant at Levvel.io. He describes his journey from pursuing Economic to shifting into CS and then landing as Engineering Consultant. He retrospect on what went great and what could have been done better.

24 | Mamta Saraogi picturizes her experience at Bates College and Kings College

Mamta Saraogi | Ruggles Research Fellow | Using stories to shape better realities within dynamic communities

Mamta pursuing her Liberal Arts from Bates college and Philosophy Majors from Kings College. With her involvement in two different colleges she was able to nurture her experience and cherish the times at both colleges.

She also talks about how her determination helped her achieve her goals through out these years. She felt happy to connect with people from diverse background expresses the same while the talk.

23 | Pranati talks about how the pandemic changed her responsibilities at Invest India.

Pranati Kohli | Emory University Graduate

Pranati Kohli talks about what caught her interest in economics and how she took advantage of being familiar with Political Science and Maths. All these things helped her land in a company of her choice 'Invest India'. She mentions her interest in coming back to India and working for the country.

She talks about how the responsibilities changed in her company due to the pandemic and how she handled the work load.

22 | Studying at UC Berkeley and working in Product Management

Raaghav Goel | Art Curator, Smithsonian

Raaghav enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley undeclared but with a passion for engineering.

Through his time there, he found out that his interest lay in between technology and non-technology related subjects, eventually finding his career in Product Management.

Episode Takeaways

 

Going to UC Berkeley

For him, UC Berkeley had its highs and lows, however it did not match his expectations. In his time in GD Goenka, he was used to small class sizes. Coming from there, a lecture hall of 1700 students shocked him and it took him a while to get used to it. Berkeley is known for being real and straightforward and he loved the experience. As an institution, Berkeley starts preparing you for world outside. It teaches life skills needed to succeed. It has been difficult because of curriculum and extracurriculars, but he found communities of people to resonate with and take on opportunities to learn in the most unique ways

Choosing Subjects and Areas of Interest

His story to UC Berkeley was unique. He went in undeclared and didn’t know what type of engineering he wanted to do. He knew that he wanted to study something involving science and math to solve real life problems. He noticed the contrast between the teaching in India - where teachers hold you accountable - and Berkeley - where you are responsible for your own academics. He went from undeclared to an Electrical Engineering Computer Science (EECS) major, exploring opportunities in the world of engineering. He took different introductory courses and talked to professors, alumni and people on LinkedIn to gain insight into their careers. He eventually realised that Computer Science interested him through a small epiphany moment. When taking higher level classes, he realised that his personality did not align with the classes. Eventually, he spoke to peers about his struggles and someone mentioned taking Product Management as a possible future career. In the end, having a fusion of technology and non-technology related subjects made him seek out to work in entrepreneurship.

Working in Product Management

To Raaghav, it’s like a venn diagram: one is engineering and the other includes non-technological work like design or sales, product management is in between. It involves learning how to build a brand and company, figuring out how products are going to be on the market and interacting with all the roles in getting the product to the market

His 3 Strengths

Perseverance, open-mindedness and having fun  

His Inspiration 

He feels most inspired by his family and peers. His sources of inspiration come from people in and out of the industry, which is great in Berkeley because his class of peers are always engaging in new, exciting activities. He gains inspiration in product management by learning from his mentors, professors and his aunt who are product managers. One mentor, at salesforce got him to read Zero to One by Peter Theil.

Giving Back to the Berkeley Community

He is working with the South Asian Queer and Trans Group on campus to create a platform for queer individuals of South-asian descent. The group helps to host events including alumni panels and TedTalks for members to help them find job opportunities after college.

Advice to High-Schoolers Today

Raaghav suggests that students not stress out about it. It’s okay to be rejected from colleges because it doesn’t matter where you end up. He advises that it’s important to make the most of wherever you are; you’ll be set up for success if you to make the most of it. One should be authentic in their essay writing (advice he got when applying). Raaghav recalls how initially he would write things that he thought colleges wanted to hear, but Edbrand helped him realise that being oneself helps you find the place perfect for you. He didn’t think Berkeley was perfect but now sees it as the only place for him. He also advises that students take extracurriculars one at a time otherwise they may be overwhelmed. One should not do a project or extracurricular just because they think they have to. Having passion for your work will make your writing about it 100 times better.

Life Post-Pandemic

Raaghav believes that until a vaccine comes out, it will be impossible to expect life to return to normalcy. Instead, he believes that restricted movement and semi-lockdown is the only way to survive it until then. Technology will be of great help in helping us track the movement of the virus between people and places. Google has already developed a type of tracker designed for that purpose.

Dealing with Uncertainty

“Make the most of it” is what Raaghav firmly suggests to students facing today’s uncertainty. Even if internships, work and celebrations like graduations have been cancelled, it’s more important to look to the future and finding ways to gain experience in the meantime. Whether it’s enrolling into classes or focusing on hobbies, students should try to take their free time and make it productive in their own way.

21 | Handling a Busy Campus Life and Taking Pride in Leadership Development - with Mrinalini Bhushan

Mrinalini Bhushan, Student at CMC, Eco and Psychology double major.

Mrinalini loved the environment at CMC and dove right into orientation by getting involved in everything and signing up for as many activities as possible. CMC’s core curriculum has also allowed her to take classes in philosophy and literature and explore other such areas of interest outside of her majors. She has also applied her learnings in the classroom to her research work and internships.

Mrinalini conducts interviews for prospective students and says that CMC values qualities like leadership and passion. She advises students to be themselves and have an honest conversation during the interview.

20 | Using Psychotherapy and Expressive Art to Help Teens Cope During Covid - with Supriya Puri

Supriya Puri |

Clinical Psychology MA

Supriya was drawn to psychology in school. She decided to pursue her masters in clinical psychology. Her pursuit is about how to integrate thoughts, feelings and cognition with the body.

She was working in rehab centers and realized the human element was missing. That's why she went into expressive arts therapy. She initiated 'Center for Self' to allow exploration of mind and body.

19 | Talking to an LSR and ISB Grad and a Principal at a Digital Agency - with Megha Chawdhry

Megha Chawdhry | Marketing & Business Strategy, Treemouse

Megha enrolled at Lady Shri Ram College after graduating from Sanskriti School with the intention of pursuing a career in communication design and marketing.

After college and two years of work experience, she wanted to explore the fundamentals of marketing and strategic communication, which led her to the Indian School of Business to pursue a MBA. Today, she heads Marketing and Business Strategy at Treemouse.

Episode Takeaways

Career in Communication Design and Marketing

Immediately out of Sanskriti, she knew she wanted to pursue a career in communication design and marketing and felt that being in India was a very interesting space to tap into that. The multiple narratives without a unified identity of who’s Indian made her very excited to continue studying in India. Foray on Digital in India had started out in mid 2010 after her undergraduate degree and she thought that it would be great to be part of this incredible spectrum, even though she’d gotten an opportunity to move to the UK. 

Out of College

She spent two and a half years after college working at Drizzlin, a dynamic workplace wherein she learnt the strategy side of a business, and her team taught her to think digitally, among many other skills. However, the market was still evolving and to her, an MBA made sense because she wanted to understand the “nuts and bolts” of marketing and strategic communication. She also hoped to gain from the experiences of her peers, hence ISB appealed to her. Nonetheless, coming from a different professional background took her some time to adjust to the large atmosphere of a business school.

MBA at ISB

The biggest thing that worked for her was that it was flexible and exposed her to a lot more than she had anticipated through electives. She came in wearing blinders about figuring out the larger picture about marketing, but over the course of the program, she became interested in sustainability, finance modelling, and film. These had a significant impact on the career choices she made later on. In the second batch of the Mohali campus, a lot of the faculty was international, so the diversity in pedagogy was incredible. However, since it was a business school that geared towards preparing towards consultancy-based practice, you had to go deep into subjects that may not been at the top of your consideration, a great way to make you push yourself. Nevertheless, what was inspiring was the diversity of experiences and spaces that people coming from different backgrounds had to offer to her learning.

Synchrony between ISB Mohali and Hyderabad

You do have access to resources across campuses, but of course as you spend time on a particular campus, you tend to nurture your affiliations there. As the second batch, it was still half the size of the Hyderabad student body, so everyone was very well connected and rooted; everyone knew each other by name. However, there was a lot of collaboration between students in clubs and events. You could even choose to switch campus depending on your concentration.

Reality Vs. What ISB prepares you for

ISB prepares you to anticipate rigour in your future job. You’re taught how to think in terms of digital mediums for marketing. As an institution, it goes beyond the 360 degree view, showing you all the perspectives of marketing. She joined the strategic marketing group at Godrej, where she learnt how to keep a birds-eye view on marketing, branding, and research. The Godrej Properties was a unique project wherein she wasn’t only doing marketing, but also got to work in an in-house property design studio. From here, she became interested in the design side of marketing, getting involved in the process within a corporate was very different from what she thought it would be.

Role at Treemouse

Treemouse is a company that focuses on understanding the behavioural nuances of people and how these can help solve issues in marketing or product development. Using this approach, the research and work is rooted in understanding people. Her role is to look at the business development side of the projects, and she aligns the behaviours of people with big business decisions. The company works with agility in each project. As a team, she finds that the staff come from different industries and bring new thoughts and approaches to each discussion.

3 Words That Describe Her

Perseverance, generalist, earnest.

18 | Studying Business at Emory and Making the Best of a College Community - with Raghav Gupta

Raghav Gupta | Business Major, Goizueta Business School

Graduating from Modern Barakhamba School in Delhi, Raghav started his journey as a Business major at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School. Here, he has had opportunities that have allowed him to discover his talents as an entrepreneur who is able to identify the best way to help people around him make the best of their abilities.

Raghav tells Arjun about his experience so far at Emory and the advantages that being in a Business school like Goizueta can provide, especially in terms of personal connections.

Episode Takeaways

His Transition to Emory

The best part about the first two years at Emory is that you can take liberal arts courses along with the Business courses. This helped his friends who were not sure about choosing Business as a major, giving them the flexibility to try different subjects. Though he was sure about Business, he had the opportunity to explore Philosophy and Political Science which were his other interests. He enjoyed his class on "Fake News" and also improved his writing through his journalism course.

His Experience at the Goizueta Business School

The faculty at Goizueta is outstanding since cost of living is low in Atlanta and it attracts the best. He had the opportunity to TA for Dr. Jagdish Sheth, a well known Marketing Guru who just received the Padma Shree. The class sizes at Goizueta are small and he enjoyed the case study approach they emphasised. He has taken part in several business competitions and even partnered with students at Georgia Tech to take part in hackathons. The community is diverse in terms of cultural backgrounds. The Indians, Chinese and Caucasians tend to build their sub-groups but intellectually everyone mingles.

Extracurricular Life on Campus

He is president of a social entrepreneurship group. They partner with refugee groups to help set up their businesses. He has also worked with some Indian ladies to help them set up a beauty salon on campus. He is VP of 180 Consulting - they advice clients and have many mentors from the industry since the alumni is close knit. Emory has a lot of support from the Greater Atlanta business community.

His 3 Strengths: Hustle, Humble, Vision

His Inspirations

He was inspired by the autobiography of Qimat Rai Gupta who started off as a small time trader to become the leader of the biggest electrical conglomerate in the world -  Havells. He also admires Ratan Tata for his humility.

Education in Times of COVID

He feels that pre-COVID, students wasted time getting to class and in between classes. But now with online courses he feels everything will come down to being extremely productive. Students can use the saved time on internships and projects. Emory will probably not have in-person classes in the fall. Students are contemplating on whether they will be allowed to take a gap year or semester. Things will become very competitive next year if students are allowed to take a gap year this year.

His Education Startup

His father is a pioneer in online education. Raghav realized that there is a gap between college education and job-ready skills. He also noticed that Java Fullstack is a skill that is in high demand in any job. Anything online has to be based on a framework running behind it and that requires knowledge of Java. Colleges don't teach this as it is a very dynamic field - there are new plugins to become familiar with every few months and this is very specific to each industry. He is planning to hire people on his payroll and upscale them with these skills and then deploy them to his clients' companies. These students will require 600 hours of training and will need to come in with basic Java skills. Their jobs will be guaranteed upon finishing the course. They will get 7 lakh starting salary minimum.

Advice to Students Who Applied this Year

Everything is uncertain. Even getting a grade or a class is uncertain. Just be positive even if college is delayed by a year.

Summarize Your College Experience in 3 Words: Learning, Fun, Learning

17 | Giving up Mechanical Engineering to Become a Historian & Curator at The Smithsonian - with Abeer Saha

Abeer Saha | Art Curator, Smithsonian

Abeer enrolled at The University of Virginia with a focus on Mechanical Engineering. However, after graduation, he realised that his heart wasn’t really in it. This prompted him to make the switch to studying Environmental History. He is currently completing his PhD and working as a curator at the Smithsonian.

Abeer shares his journey through UVA and beyond with Arjun, describing the transition between fields, and even diving into his personal journey with yoga and spiritual practice.

Episode Takeaways

Transition to UVA

UVA exceeded his expectations since it was his first trip to the US and he hadn’t known what to expect. The best decision he made was to stay in a regular undergrad dorm as opposed to special international dorms, giving him a chance to interact with regular Americans. He had signed up for Mechanical Engineering and it wasn't exactly what he had expected. There was a lot of book learning. The hands-on learning with circuits and motors was reserved for the last year of the major and he was disappointed with not getting that experience in the early years. He, however, enjoyed taking classes in different non-engineering fields such as oceanography, philosophy, religion, economics etc.

Transition to Grad School

He is currently doing a PhD in Environmental History. It started with his liberal arts courses during his engineering undergrad. He decided to finish his engineering major but realized it was not his calling. His first job was as a Database Engineer - he picked up SQL and enjoyed his 2 years there. But then realized it was not what he really cared about. He remembered how much he had enjoyed writing a socio-technique paper during his undergrad at UVA on the Yamuna river and its revival. He went back to meet his advisor, who encouraged him to pursue a PhD in the field of Environmental History at UVA. He was always interested in the environment and always felt connected to the Yamuna river. He was interested in the connection between religion and environment. His work in grad school continues to focus on the Yamuna.

His 3 Strengths

Curiosity and a willingness to learn. Perseverance (in order to finish his PhD). Pursues his dreams

Learning from Failures

You can't be afraid of criticism. In India, people fear it but here in the US it's used as a way to grow. 

His Current Interests

He dropped basketball in the US as everyone here was much better than in India and now plays cricket in the US. When he first came to the US, he used to play the guitar but grad school takes up a lot of time so he has not been singing and playing the guitar that much. He is currently into yoga (more on that later). 

His Current Job

As a museum curator, one of things he does is create exhibitions. He has to select objects and present it using certain arguments. Curators also collect objects for posterity. He gets to have very interesting conversations with people in all walks of life while collecting objects. Curators also conduct research. He is working on an exhibition for the Smithsonian's 175th anniversary to reconstruct some technological presentations.

Online Curation during COVID

Many plans have been postponed as museums are places people physically visit. At the same time, this is an interesting time to collect objects for future generations - such as masks and photographs people have been taking during COVID.

On Spirituality

He meditates and reads a lot of philosophical literature. Yoga started off as a way of exercising at home in the last year. He found a yoga studio that he liked and has made friends there. It's helped his physical and mental well-being and he has started a yoga teacher training class. During COVID he has been taking yoga classes online. He is a huge fan of the Bhagvad Gita. He started reading it on his flight to the US 10 years ago. It offers a fascinating perspective of life. It resonates with a lot of people from different backgrounds. He also reads a lot of fantasy fiction and recommends people read Brandon Sanderson.

Advice to Students in times of COVID

To those who just graduated and for whom job prospects don't look good, keep in mind that this will pass. Use your connections to get any experience even if it's an unpaid internship. To those who might have to join their first college semester online, it's okay to be disappointed but it's also a new experience and you are part of history going through this. Things will go back to in-person classes at some point. Use this unexpected situation to look for unexpected rewards.

16 | The Trials and Thrills of a Media Relations Manager - with Emory alum, Anushka Pathak

Anushka Pathak | Associate, Weber Shandwick

Anushka studied at Mayo College, and then completed an Economics and Political Science double major at Emory University. She is currently an associate at the PR Firm, Weber Shandwick in Bombay.

Arjun and Anushka discuss her trajectory from studying Business to Economics and Political Science, and why she chose to move back to India at the start of her career.

Episode Takeaways

Transition to Emory

Anushka had attended an all girls orthodox high school, so Emory was a huge change for her. She was very nervous but the warm environment and the support of various mentors helped her adjust.

Her Mentors

Her sophomore advisor who lived in her dorm helped her navigate her transition from business school to becoming an economics major. She helped her explore different academic options. Another friend of hers introduced her to EEVM, Emory’s Entrepreneurship and Venture Management Club, where Anushka worked her way up to Director over her four years at college. One of her economics professors at Emory also taught her how to approach economics as a major, as she had never studied it as a subject in high school. 

Academics

Anushka is a planner, so drifting away from her plan to do business was hard for her. However, as she started enjoying her Economics and Political Science classes over her business courses, she decided to switch streams. She kept her interest in business alive by organising a Business Hackathon at Emory every year, which is a kind of Shark Tank for colleges in the south east. In this competition, students get 48 hours to make a presentation or prototype of a business idea for a cash prize. They then pitch their ideas to CEOs of startups and Angel Investors, who could potentially help them take their ideas forward.  

Her 3 strengths

Organized, Disciplined, Dedicated 

Her Career Trajectory

Anushka was initially very focused on staying in the US but wasn’t able to find any internships in her sophomore year. She then got an internship with FilterCopy in Bombay and had a great experience doing marketing and PR for them. That’s when she realised she wanted to work in India as it was also becoming harder to try and stay in the US. She did a marketing and PR internship with Vogue India the following year and so when she was applying for jobs she started looking at good PR agencies in India, eventually starting working at Weber Shandwick. She really enjoys her career in PR as it keeps her on her toes, and as the spokesperson for a company, she needs to work on a lot of spontaneous content and has to come up with solutions on the go. She enjoys working under pressure and also highlights the importance of communication skills, through both writing and conversation. PR is a great avenue for growth because of news, journalism and crisis management. 

A Message for Students

“Take it day by day. Take a backseat, take a step back and really figure out what you want to do during this time because you’ll never get this time back.” Anushka is spending her time during the lockdown working from home and reading. 

On Her Experience at Edbrand

She enjoyed the brainstorming and essay writing the most and found her calls with Edbrand mentors very productive. She also enjoyed interacting with different students at the office and chatting with them. 

15 | Lessons From a Woman in STEM - with Data Scientist, Lipika Ramaswamy

Lipika Ramaswamy | Data Scientist, LeapYear

Lipika did her undergrad at Bryn Mawr, an all-women’s college where she found the confidence and community that helped her succeed in her STEM career. She then did her Master’s in Data Science from Harvard and is now working at a LeapYear, an organisation that works on data privacy protection.

Arjun and Lipika talk about her experience at Bryn Mawr, her inspiring grit, and how maintaining a sense of community keeps her grounded.

Episode Takeaways

Her Bryn Mawr Experience

The biggest impact that Bryn Mawr (an all women's college) had on her career was helping her realize that she does not see herself as a minority in a man's field (STEM). In her current job she is one woman working with 20 Indian male engineers. Seeing women achieve in college without having to even think about men overpowering the room led to her confidence in her STEM career. The sense of community came very easily at Bryn Mawr and 5 years after graduation she still talks to her friends every Sunday evening. Traditions and experiences in an all women's college are unique when she compares it to other colleges in the US. The alumni network is also very strong - she got a lot of support from them even after college when she had to start thinking about dealing with gender issues.

Mentors in Her Life

She worked as a consultant at Ernst & Young in Washington D.C. for 3 years before Grad School. It was very hierarchical but one of her managers believed that everyone in the team should have equal say. She learnt about leadership from him. Finding her voice took a year - to figure out which opportunities were worth voicing her opinion on.

Grad School

While at Ernst & Young, she found working with large datasets on Excel very difficult. She picked up Python to help her improve the process and make something scalable. She learnt to code from the internet and that made her realize she wanted a more formal education in CS, specifically to be applied to datasets. While her undergrad major was Math and that taught her how to structure arguments, she felt the need to move to CS now. At Harvard, she drew a lot of inspiration from collaborators on how to structure her code and her problems.

Current Activities

Moving homes for 10 years she has learnt what she likes and dislikes. After college, she realized she valued connections with the community. So in DC she started working in Farmer's Markets to interact with people in her community. She found that very rooting. In SFO where she lives now she has been working with an NGO to feel part of the community. She loves fresh air and finds running meditative. She runs twice a week.

Current Job at LeapYear

The firm builds scalable differential privacy software. There is a lot of data available out there that is being used for analysis but could potentially harm people's privacy. LeapYear works on how to enable analysis without leaking private data. They do that by adding some "noise" to the data.

Future Plans

At the moment she is in Austin with her sister due to COVID. She is looking forward to going back to SFO which presents a lot of opportunities in tech. She is curious how theoretical ideas are converted to big companies in the bay area. What she does not like about the bay area is the lack of a public transport system. She is curious about the positive environmental impact of working from home in COVID times.

Her Strengths

Focus, Grit and Meditative capability. 

Learning from Failure

She started her new job 4 months ago and half of that has been remote due to COVID. During this time, she asked a stupid question on a public forum and was shocked and embarrassed herself. After this experience, she made a checklist for herself of things that happened before she made the post so she does not repeat that mistake again. 

Advice to High School Kids Applying to College

You are going to hate something about any college you go to so make sure you choose the college for the right reasons. You have to be proud of your decision and you have to be convinced of your choices. You have to be clear why you see things the way they are and be authentic.

Her Edbrand Experience

Edbrand helped her articulate why she chose the schools on her list. She learnt to talk about herself.

Media She Follows

She is a big fan of investigative journalism because it's about trying to uncover things that are being concealed. She enjoyed "Bottle of Lies" about the pharmaceutical industry and she is currently reading a book on the rise and fall of Russian oil. These stories keep her connected to the real world outside her bubble.

14 | Studying Math at NYU & a Ph.D at Cambridge - with Harshita Kajaria

Harshita Kajaria | Ph.D Candidate, Cambridge University

Harshita graduated from NYU, majoring in Math, along with minors in Chemistry, CS and Business Studies! With her goals set, she moved on to a year of work experience before starting her Ph.D at Cambridge.

Arjun and Harshita talk about striking a balance between academic ambition and other priorities and her experience studying at NYU.

Episode Takeaways

Transitioning from Kolkata to NYC

She had chosen NYU because she was familiar with the city, having visited several times. It was overwhelming at first but she took it as it came. NYU was very international so the transition was not too tough. She took very demanding courses from the beginning and found it difficult to keep up with the daily assignments which she was not used to, coming from the Indian system. However, in time she found a rhythm and then started getting out of her comfort zone.

Selecting Her Major

She had applied as a Chem major but was prepared to shop around with Math and CS courses too. The advantage of declaring a major early at NYU is that you then get an advisor from the major department so she declared her Math major in 2nd year as soon as she was sure she wanted to major in Math.

Advice to High School Students Looking to Major in Math

Given you have the aptitude for it, you need to be prepared to put 95% of your time into academics instead of extracurriculars. However she enjoyed the friendships with the other Math majors since everyone was in the same boat putting in the same number of hours together.

Math Tracks at NYU

NYU does not offer Applied Math but within Math there are plenty of choices. You can take the minimum number of classes in your major and then use the rest of your credits to do several minors. She chose this path with the Math major along with Chem, Business Studies and CS minors on the side.The other way is to decide your major early on and do several of your courses within Math itself  - that way you can specialize in specific areas within Math. The classes she took were theoretical. In hindsight, she should have taken Applied Math classes so that she would have more transferable skills. So she would recommend taking Applied Math courses too. 

Opportunities at NYU

College Campus jobs are reserved for US Citizens and those on financial aid. So the opportunities for international students are limited to those based on academic merit, which is what she focused on. Working as a TA gave her the chance to do something outside school work but still stay connected to academics. 

Transition to Grad School

She worked for a year in NYC between NYU and Grad School. She didn't enjoy that too much. Grad school is a 5-6 year commitment so she wanted to be sure about that so she decided to work first. The first year (MPhil) is like undergrad but more intense - in comparison, the Ph.D is like a job. You have a good work life balance. It's rewarding and stressful too. 

Ph.D Through a Business School

There are several streams (both Qualitative and Quantitative) in the Business school which is why she chose this program (Operations) to apply her Stats, CS and Math skills. The best part of Business school is that you are always engaging with the real world rather than just working on theory. Her project is part of the National Health Service in England using their data to do research. 

College Education in Times of COVID

She thinks the big lectures will not be possible in person. She thinks colleges will move to small group style lectures. You might miss out on the great professors giving lectures but the quality can still be maintained in smaller groups taught by other lecturers. 

Advice to Students in Times of COVID

It's very important to keep engaged as this too will pass. Don't postpone your studies because of COVID. It's better to seize the opportunity and go on as normal.

Her Strengths

Hardworking, Motivated, Ambitious

Failures She Has Learnt From

There were several. During the fall semester of senior year she became too ambitious. She took on too many extracurriculars, research projects, honors track, the GRE and grading for professors. As a result, she froze during the GRE exam and did really poorly. That taught her that she needed to prioritize and learn to say NO to things.

13 | Studying Business at Ross UMich - with Bharat Chopra

Bharat Chopra | Incoming Investment Banking Analyst, RBC Capital Markets

Bharat Chopra graduated from St. Columba’s School in Delhi before heading off to UMich to study Business. He is now about to start a job as an investment banking analyst at RBC Capital Markets.

Arjun and Bharat talk about how beneficial it was for Bharat to have been exposed to a liberal arts curriculum in his first year, and how important it is to make connections and strike an appropriate balance between academics and social life at Business school.

Episode Takeaways

Transitioning to UMich from Delhi

Freshman year was culturally and academically tough. Change from the CBSE system was a challenge. UMich is a big school but there are a lot of international students so he felt comfortable. He did not choose Ross Preferred entrance as his father wanted him to try a liberal arts education first. He really appreciated the liberal arts classes he wouldn’t have normally chosen to take such as Psychology, Public Health, Creative Writing. It was good that these were required courses besides the Econ and Math classes to gain entry into Ross in the 2nd year. During this time, he discovered that he really enjoyed writing. He decided to apply to Ross in the 2nd year but also to choose a path that was qualitative and not just quantitative thanks to his exposure to the liberal arts in freshman year. 

Life at Ross

The first two years at Ross are very different from the last two years. In general, Business at Ross is more competitive compared to other UMich majors. There are 600 students in Business each year. It can be intimidating to be surrounded by students who applied and got into Ross under the preferred program. You have to learn how to perfect your resume and network to get that first internship. There is healthy competition. 

His Academic Experience

He realized he was strong at Math. The way they teach Math at UMich is very thought provoking. Originally, he thought he wanted to study Accounting, but once he joined a couple of investment clubs and realized investment banking is both quantitative and qualitative because it involves working with people in a team, he realized this was his true interest. Ross helped him get better at teamwork as he had been a shy kid in high school. He managed to get an internship with RBC last year which then led to a firm offer. The BBA at Ross is not a STEM major as compared to STEM majors at NYU Stern or UPenn Wharton. 

Lessons from Failure

He thinks he has learnt continuously through failures. He had preconceived notions about socialising and academics in college. He realized in UMich how to strike a balance. He attended his first party only in 2nd year because he always thought he had to choose academics over socializing.

His 3 Strengths

Quantitative, Communicative, Team Worker

Advice to Students who are Applying for a Business Major

Before he went to UMich, he did not know how big a role social skills play in Business school. More than tech knowledge or business knowledge, you need to be comfortable around people. He found that his peers in business school already had entrepreneurial experience in high school - through competitions etc. Colleges are looking for teamwork skills from business major applicants. 

Advice on Coping with the COVID Situation

He is heading to his RBC job in NYC and is preparing himself for the H1 visa lottery for next year. But if it does not work out it's okay - uncertainty has to be accepted. So much is outside of our control. It's helpful to not think about it.

His Business Influences

He is influenced by Ray Dalio who wrote the book Principles. He likes the idea of a personal board of directors to whom you can tell everything and who won't judge you. Stephen M Ross after whom Ross school is named had a pragmatic approach - he believes when things are uncertain, let them be, keep trying and things will work out - don't overthink.

12 | The Value of a Liberal Arts Education in Math and CS - with Ashir Borah

Ashir Borah | Computational Associate, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard

Ashir Borah graduated from DPS RK Puram in Delhi and then completed his undergrad at Dickinson College. While there, Ashir used the liberal arts curriculum to push his boundaries. He is currently working as a computational associate at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.

Arjun and Ashir discuss what it was like to study CS and math at a liberal arts college and how important it is to go beyond your comfort zone to discover your true capabilities.

Episode Takeaways

Transition from DPS RK Puram to Dickinson

His original plan was to study in India but once he overheard Arjun's conversation with his twin brother who was applying to the US, that got him interested in the US too. He eventually had 3 identical financial aid offers from colleges that he had no idea how to choose from. Dickinson appeared to be in the middle of nowhere and that made him anxious. He has no regrets about his choice though. One of the things he had a hard time adjusting to was the American way of saying "What's up?" without expecting an answer and conversation as a follow up.

His Liberal Arts College (LAC) Experience

He came in with a view to only take Math courses but his advisor pushed him to explore other options. She pushed him towards CS though he did not like it in school. He is very glad he chose an LAC so that he had the flexibility of choosing a lot of courses without committing to his second major straight away. For example one of his most favorite courses was wheel work ceramics as part of the art requirement. He declared CS as a major in his 3rd semester as he decided on it later as opposed to Math which he declared as a major right away to get priority registration for classes. He liked the mix of Gen Ed classes to keep his load light while taking rigorous classes in other areas.

The Mentors in His Life

Today he is a statistician. But in his first Stats exam he got a C which made him want to drop the class since it was not a required class for the Math major. But his professor who knew him personally talked him out of it. This conversation was only possible since the college was small and the professor knew him well. Had it been a TA at a large university he would not have been able to convince him the same way. He credits his advisor as being like a second parent for him but unfortunately he passed away from cancer. That motivated him to find out more about cancer and led to him working in the bio lab at college. Today this path has led him to his job in cancer research at Broad Institute.

His Strengths

Perseverance, Work Ethic, Kindness

Advice to Students Today

Be kind to yourself. There is a lot of uncertainty today and that is scary. Reach out to other people. He feels people have more time for each other in the time of COVID than before.

His Failures

He was selected by the department to do summer research but he felt frustrated during the process because other people were achieving more in their research than him. Just because someone has been selected does not mean there is not a lot of failure behind getting there. So he believes he should go easy on himself a bit. People should not try to hide their mistakes. He does not believe in trying to look busy and overloading yourself.

11 | Studying Psychology and Leadership at Claremont McKenna - with Saloni Dhir

Saloni Dhir | Talent and Executive Search Associate, Schaffer & Combs

Saloni Dhir is a Shri Ram Moulsari graduate who went on to Claremont McKenna to study organisational psychology. She is currently working at an Executive Search company called Schaffer and Combs.

Arjun and Saloni discuss her early days at CMC, how she got interested in the field of leadership and organisational psychology and the future of education in these times.

Episode Takeaways

Early days at CMC

Claremont McKenna (CMC) is situated in a small town, very different from the hustle and bustle of Delhi. However, there is a tight knit college community and the college puts in a lot of effort to help you settle in with orientation leaders, mentor groups and even a camping trip during orientation week.

Academics at CMC

The academic environment was very out of the box with a lot of readings that helped you critically analyse what you were studying. Saloni knew she wanted to study psychology and took many advanced classes in her first year. She learnt a lot from her professors and by working on group projects with seniors and juniors in her class. Saloni did overload her classes in order to be able to study abroad at Oxford for an entire year but this changes from student to student and you do still have time to decide what you want to study.

Psychology has many sub departments but she found her initial classes in organisational psychology very interesting and she took courses studying leadership and human resources and also did her summer internships in the same field of interest. She did her thesis on leadership studies and CMC helped fund her research and provided a great environment for practical learning.

Career

Saloni works at Schaffer and Combs, an executive search company where she definitely applies what she focused on in college. She works on strategy consulting, CEO and COO searches for different companies and finds it engaging to talk to different people and work on evaluating them for positions. She believes that a good leader can work with people, has good communication skills and practices perseverance. Psychology and Economics became STEM majors in her junior year and the college curriculum changed and added more classes in research methods and statistics to make the major more quantitative. This gives her a STEM extension on her OPT that will also allow her to apply for her H1B visa.

Career Resources at CMC

CMC has a great centre for career development where students can show their resumes and they also provide grants for students to explore their interests before finding jobs. The CMC alumni network is also very useful and even though you will face many rejections in the job search process, do not lose hope.

The Future of Education

CMC has great professors and the small class sizes help as students have good relationships with their peers and professors that make the shift to virtual education easier. For people who've just graduated it’s important to connect with your networks, be active on LinkedIn and reach out to people who have been through the process, they’re always happy to help.

Experience at Edbrand

Saloni really enjoyed brainstorming ideas for essays and college lists and appreciated Edbrand’s support when she applied ED to CMC.