Erudite Talks with Alumni-Article 4

Abhiraj Sharma (BTech-2016-Civil), Ph.D.Student @ Georgia Institute of Technology

• Your motivation for giving higher studies more importance than securing a job through placements?

As is well said that the driving force of any human action is happiness and now when I look back at my decisions I can’t agree more with this wise saying. Until my second year at IIT, I was in a sweet spot of my life as most of us are because of the hangover of our achievement (nothing wrong with it) but prospects of future started looking gloomy once I started thinking about internships. The pain of ignorance forced me to walk on the path of exploration and I started this journey with a research-oriented experience. I got a great research experience at TUM, Germany and what I mean by experience is that I know a little more about this way of life. And as it turned out I liked this way of life and felt a longing to explore it even more.

Until now I talked about the inner calling and mind-related aspects of my decisions which I think are the most important factors in making decisions but now I will walk you through the practical aspects which play a very crucial role in making such decisions. The whole process of application starts with giving some basic tests like GRE and TOEFL which costs around 25,000 INR and each application costs around 7000 INR. An indispensable aspect of a good application is “Statement of purpose” where you project your application to others explaining your motivations and your preparedness for the same. Ph.D. applicants are much more likely to be accepted with a stipend (a handsome amount paid each month, usually around 2000$ per month) than MS applicants (usually accepted without stipend). From a financial point of view, the stipend is sufficient to live comfortably and savings are good enough (30,000–70,000 INR per month) if we compare with corporate jobs in India. Apart from finances, there are many other perks of studying abroad like the quality of training, quality of mentors, quality of peer groups, and exposure to the way of teaching and research in outside universities. Other small but important things like experiencing the way of life outside India, the way systems operate, diverse cultural diaspora play their roles over a period of time. And those who are enthusiastic about bringing changes for systems in Indian research and education have a great opportunity to learn from the well established and successful models and adapt them to the Indian ecosystem.

In the end, I would like to emphasize that academia is not just about studying and teaching but is about exploration, nurturing potentials, thinking independently (mostly), connecting your expertise with real-life problems, and seeing changes. Also, academicians are paid well :)

LinkedIn ID:-linkedin.com/in/abhiraj-sharma-96636874