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.