10 | Life at Williams College as a Math and Data Visualisation Student - with Arjun Kakkar

Arjun Kakkar | News App Developer, NJ.com

Graduating from DPS RK Puram in Delhi, Arjun had a valuable undergraduate experience at Williams College. Studying at a liberal arts college such as Williams allowed him to stay open to possibilities and make decisions that best suited his personal and professional growth.

Arjun and his namesake talk about the experience of transitioning from a small liberal arts college to a large university, and how important it is to introspect as you make big decisions for your career.

Episode Takeaways

Transition from DPS RK Puram to Williams

Williams integrates you into the community very well. They put you into a group of 20 students with whom you live, which inculcates a feeling of family. He was comfortable around people in India but in the US it was challenging - he had to change the way he interacted with people. He was academically prepared, showing interest in maths, philosophy, sciences, and photography. So he enjoyed taking a variety of courses, something that is typical of a liberal arts college. He enjoyed the tutorial system at Williams that helps you think about the work in depth and broadens your perspective. He used to struggle writing emails to professors but learnt to do that from friends. The social communities on campus did not feel competitive, the athletic culture is strong and the community is inclusive and welcoming. He, however, spent most of his time in academic pursuits.

Liberal Arts College vs. Large Universities

If you want to go into academia, then at a large uni you would take a large variety of courses in your major to prepare you for grad school. But at Williams you have to do only 10 courses in your major and then you are free to take whatever you want. So you would need to find a way to fill in the gaps in depth. There is a fantastic math community at Williams. He was interested in applications of math in different areas. He took courses like Computational Biology and his thesis was on vegetation patterns using applied maths. He landed up at UCLA for an Applied Math PhD straight after Williams. This was a dramatic change, much bigger than the move from DPS to Williams. UCLA has a rigorous program but professors didn’t seem to care as much or were not as invested in teaching as they had at Williams. He ended up realizing that the Applied Math PhD was too technical and not as application oriented as he had imagined. In hindsight, he should have waited a couple of years before going into grad school to see if he was right for it. So he quit grad school and thanks to his liberal arts experience he transitioned to a teaching job for a while and then found an organization that was investigating the role of pitch in music. This appealed to him as the data analysis was being used and presented in a very unique way.  Though he did not have experience in web development and coding, he decided to join them because he was confident of his ability to pick up those skills on the job.

His Strengths

He is inquisitive, likes to work with people who bring different strengths to the table (at Williams he had a great experience on a research project with a large group); he is interested in people and their stories

Advice to High School Students Preparing for College

Focus on genuine introspection. Think of what you have appreciated in life until this point. Focus on what genuinely interests you. He is a big proponent of liberal arts colleges. He advises students to research their colleges - he did not do his homework on UCLA and that did not work out for him. He appreciates the fact that Edbrand encouraged him to understand himself through his personal essay when applying as an undergrad.

Advice to Young Graduates

He was in a difficult position a couple of months ago between jobs. He advises others to be free in their expression. Include all the things you are interested in in your search for a job or school. And persevere.