As a recent B.Tech Computer Science Engineering dropout, I knew I needed to find a new path that aligned with my interests and goals. Once I got over the whole issues I've been facing, I started researching various fields, ideologies and exploring my options. I had both comfort and depressions from these. I looked all over the web, scrolled through profiles of people whom succeeded in each field and asked my previous teachers and well wishers for recommendations. With my passion for technology and data, I decided to pursue an online bachelor's degree in data science and applications from IIT Madras, one of the top technical institutes in India. So here in this post I will be sharing my views on why I chose this degree and what I plan to do moving forward.
First and foremost, I was impressed by the curriculum and the new online bachelors degree mode offered by IIT Madras. I have been scrolling through many US, UK university websites in the past but there were no options in the past. Kudos for IIT Madras for achieving this in india. Being an online degree is the primary reason I chose this because after going to Vidya (my previous college) for the past 4 years, I have significantly lost my interest in traditional college degree. And due to this reason, I had spend more time to prepare for IITM Admission than I have even spend for any exams at Vidya.
I was working for the past 6 months without any degree qualification. I worked as a freelance web developer, digital marketing consultant, marketing cordinator, Junior Corporate Trainer etc.
This gave me enough confrontational situations a.k.a revaluating opportunities to think about whether or not I should proceed in life without a degree. Don't take this in the wrong sense, the IT Sector values skills way more than qualification, but during the past 6 months I've met a lot of highly skilled people and I have also discussed with them the dark sides of career without a degree. I met people who struggle from being paid less even when they are of higher skills just due to the fact that the person next to him has a higher degree qualification during interview or promotion. I opted to re-join for a degree was because I got the feeling that one day or another my career will be kept dragged down due to the lack of an academic degree even if I attain the relevant skills for the industry. IIT Madras has a strong reputation in the field of computer science and technology in india, which will give me a competitive edge when it comes to job opportunities and career advancement.
What will happen to my BTech Degree?
I haven't really given it much though. I have accumulated 30+ backlogs over the years during my time at Vidya. I did look into options of university credit transffers and all, but the cost related to the process was above what I can afford for the time being. Being a person who never actually thought of personal finance during my fully self-less social service endevours in the past, I struggled a lot to recently.
I may end up changing my mind in the later years and try regain the degree through any credit transfer systems but I am not working on it for now because it costs a lot to of money, time & effort to complete the whole transfer procedures. It is better to spend my time upskilling and exploring new opportunites than spending time backtracking and dusting my old problems.
Have I gone through the preliminary stages of admission? Did I get admission?
Yes, I am glad to annouce that I received my Admission Letter Today (March 8th 2023) to join the foundational level of IIT Madras Online Bachelors Degree. I joined the qualifier training batch in January 2023. I spend the first 4 weeks learning weekly curriculum on the IIT Madras portal. My Qualifer exam was on February 26th and I was qualified for the admission. I completed all the admission application formalities and just received the admission letter today.
What is IIT Madras Online BS Degree Program?
It is a new mode of Online Bachelors Degree Program initiated by IIT Madras in 2020. There is really a lot to take in, so instead of me describing, I would suggest you to go through their brochure.
Know more about them here : https://study.iitm.ac.in/ds/assets/pdf/Brochure.pdf
What are the Benefits?
The IIT Tag : Yeah, Can't really skip out on the fact that it is being provided by IIT. Going through blogs, articles, community forums, etc we will see a lot of haters who says that this is not worth the same of offline degree but I can definitely say that I have done the research and there will be absolutely no-one to ask you why you completed your degree online instead of offline. Ok? The Degree Certificate they issue does not differ from normal degree certificate. And Ministry of Education has already passed on ACTS that give equal importance to online and offline degrees.
Flexibility & Multiple Exit Points : Depending on the courses completed, the learner can receive Foundational Certificate from Centre for Continuing Education, IIT Madras or Diploma(s) or Degree from IIT Madras.
Growth in Data Science Domain : Quoting from IITM brochures itself,
Decision making is increasingly becoming data driven within the commercial sector and the government. There is a large quantity of data readily available for this at present. Smart devices connected to the internet bring more input sources, apart from those generated by humans as they interact with services and one another. Data driven decision making involves the analysis of large volumes of data to identify patterns and build predictive models. This requires a combination of skills ranging from computing, statistics and mathematics, and is broadly labelled data science.As formal academic programs in data science are only just emerging, there is a huge gap between the demand for data scientists and the supply of suitable qualified applicants in the job market. The throughput of traditional classroom programs is limited and will not be able to provide the numbers needed to meet the upcoming requirements. Online teaching has the potential to train much larger numbers, but delivering scale without diluting quality has proven to be a challenge until recently
What are the Challenges?
Cost : Being at cost of around 3 Lakh Rupees for the whole 4 year program, Finance will be the primary struggle which I have to find ways to overcome. Retaining Interest : Having already dropped college half way in the past, it is always a challengeing quest to take on. But I hope with the recent changes in my mindset and the knowledge that this degree means a lot to me, I will give it a lot of effort.
Boredom : If going through courses, pre-recorded videos, tutorial links and more infront of a Computer for the next 4 years sounds exhausting, This is one of the challenges I will be facing in the upcoming years.
Lack of Complete IIT Madras Perks : Being an online distant degree student, we may not receive the same amount of perks which Regular IITM students experience such as Placement Prorgammes, Events, Talks, Campus Entry, Classmate Interactions etc.
Life Getting In The Way : Having already spend a significant amount of time learning, at the current age, I should be working, earning and providing for the family. This is what usually happens, This is what usually people expects and yes, This is what most of the people will keep asking me in the next years. I have mentally prepared for getting such questions and I think I can answer them.
Anyways, I will try to keep posting updates here, I also have plans to post about other interesting things in this blog which I am still working on.
Thank you for reading, wish me well.
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