The Journey from IIT Mandi to EPFL

My Path to Graduate School

Heading towards the new beginnings of my PhD at EPFL, I look back at my amazing B.Tech. journey at IIT Mandi that led to this

Beautiful Start

I remember coming to IIT Mandi on 1st August 2017, completely oblivious to what the future holds. Mandi is an amazing place to be at for one’s Bachelor’s Degree and Computer Science was something that I always wanted to learn. I started in Mechanical Engineering with my eyes set to switch to Computer Science the next year and wasn’t thinking of what I would particularly do after the B.Tech. in CSE. Luckily, it all worked out and CSE welcomed me with open arms.

Finding Myself

Competitive Programming or Web Development? Entrepreneurship or Software Engineering job? Industry or Academia? It is normal to get such confusions (not limited to these) during B.Tech. Not wanting to be limited by my options down the line, I set out to build a diverse profile by trying out things and with time, find myself.

I started Competitive Programming in the first semester itself. It is one of the best ways to improve programming skills and boost one’s confidence in implementation. Web and Android Development were next. Annual Hackathons were always a treat to evaluate the development and implementation skills. I also enjoyed Capture the Flag events held at IIT Mandi. Research projects during the semester were always good to try out. I also tried Open Source development and applied to Summer of Code in Space (unfortunately, it is a long sad story!).

It was during the Semester Exchange at RWTH Aachen University, that I found what I loved doing. I did two student research assistant jobs in parallel and I loved it when I found ways to tackle problems that I initially thought I couldn’t solve. Teaching was something I always liked. So, research was the way to go. And at that time, I decided to keep Ph.D. as a probable future path.

I would like to point out here that if someone has not done/is planning not to do the Semester Exchange, it should be fine. There are plenty of ways to get research experience and recommendations. Just trying to make the best use of semester projects, research internships and the MTP (B.Tech. Project). It would be better to work with multiple professors to increase the number of strong letters of recommendation you can get.

I still had to decide between an industrial job or directly applying for / joining Ph.D. This wasn’t very hard to decide for me. After I did a software engineering internship, I could see that I would not be able to do it every single day of my life. It would be unfair to say that this was the sole reason. Somewhere in my mind, there was this regret of not being able to complete my college life normally. Having a bit more of student life was very important to me.

One important thing that kept various paths open was keeping up with academics. I had heard from a lot of people that the grades did not matter. But, I never let my grades go down. This helped me loads with my graduate school applications.

My Grad School Applications

Having now made up my mind, the graduate school applications finally started. The first step was to research about the available Ph.D. and Masters Programs. I decided to apply only to European universities because I really liked Europe. I did not want to go to US or Canada. Also, I decided to only apply for Ph.D. programs exclusively this time.

After going through the available programs of all the top universities of Europe that accept students with a Bachelor degree, I created another spreadsheet with the list of professors that I would be interested in working with at those universities. It is not a trivial task because it involves going through the recent and relevant publications of each professor whose research looks interesting. Anyway, that’s life! Nothing good is trivial.

Due to the ongoing pandemic, and the unstable network connectivity, I could not appear for the GRE, even though I prepared for it. Therefore, the next step was to contact each of the universities that were requiring GRE, to check if they would be waving off the GRE requirement in the face of the pandemic. I also did not have to appear for TOEFL, since the universities I decided to apply to did not require it for me (graduated from a university where the language of instruction is English).

To make my applications strong, I was able to get two letters of recommendation from the professors I worked with from RWTH Aachen, and a third from one of my professors at IIT Mandi, with whom I did multiple projects and courses. These letters of recommendation, in my opinion had a clear impact on the universities' decisions.

The most important part of my application was the Statement of Purpose. It took me more than a month to perfect. Every few days after completing a draft, I could find something in the SoP that I could make better. The next part was to get it reviewed by multiple people, multiple times. I had a wonderful set of people who gave me very constructive feedback on my SoP and ways to perfect it.

Another thing that helped my applications was talking to the professors. I contacted professors at the universities that I was applying to. Some never replied, which I totally understand. But, those that I really wanted to work with, did reply.

Finally, I made a very common mistake. I stalked the profiles of people accepted in the programs that I was applying to. The profiles were so good that I started to self-reject myself. Fortunately, my brother was able to talk me out of this. The main idea here is that these profiles make up only 5-10% of all the accepted applicants. So, never compare your profile with others selected, and never self-reject! I learnt this lesson on time. I hope you do too.

The Wait and The Tough Decision

It is a long wait from the day of application submission to the date of the decisions. I used to check my email all the time. Finally, it arrived. The first decision, and the first acceptance! I really cannot describe the amazing feeling when I read “It is my pleasure to be able to inform you that you have been accepted.”

And then came another, and another. From my dream places! I never for once thought that I would have the option to choose between two of my dream places. Wow! Max Planck Institute and EPFL. I have always made spontaneous decisions. But, this one was really tough. Both the places are amazing. Funding was great. Both the advisors were doing very interesting work. It came down to mainly where I wanted to be at. So, I chose EPFL! There was an equal probability to choose MPI.

The Backup

It is not that I wasn’t rejected from anywhere. I was rejected by one of the universities, though I never expected to be rejected from there. Univesity decisions can be really unexpected sometimes. And I knew this. Moreover, we were going through a pandemic and no one knew what was going to happen next. A backup was essential. I never gave up on the possibility of a Software Engineering job. I did a decent job during my internship and secured a full-time position. I was all set to join the company until I received the offer from MPI and EPFL.

The New Journey

Lausanne is an amazing place. My advisor and lab-mates are wonderful. My brother is not too far from here. A month and a half has gone by in a flash since I arrived here and I look forward to the rollercoaster ahead!

Thank you for reading. Please let me know what you think about the post. :)

Rishi Sharma
Rishi Sharma
PhD Student at EPFL

Currently exploring research interests in Computer Science.

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