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.