Friday, February 4, 2011

How did I reach here...

Seems, I have taken quite long time to write my next post. Here I am sharing the wonderful moments happened to me in the past few months.

Well, I was seriously trying for July 2010 batch research(PhD) admission in reputed institutes in India. Even my GATE score was decent but not so great, I focused more on getting admission in IIT Bombay and IISc Bangalore. For IIT Bombay, it was my third attempt :) but I never gave up. I prepared well and the admission process, written test and interview, went so good than my earlier attempts. Later, interview panel people recommended me to join MTech and the reason told was my GATE performance. But, I was not interested doing MTech for various reasons.

Next, IISc and it was my second attempt. This time I got call letter from SERC department for PhD admission process. I attended the pre-interview familiarization program there and it helped me to prepare well focusing more on interview point of view. And the judgement day came, I did my best in written and interview. To my surprise, I was shortlisted not for PhD, but for MSc Engg by Research program.

Even the masters program in SERC is research oriented, I was thinking deeply whether to join MSc or not as I am a MCA graduate already. Moreover, I felt difficult to come out from IT industry job after three years of experience and also for various family reasons. But, at last, after analyzing all possibilities and having discussion with friends, I decided to accept the admission offer.

When I was counting down my days, a close friend of mine, shared link stating there is a 2nd round of PhD admission for Mobile and Ubiquitous computing group going in IIIT Delhi. Till that time I was not knowing about IIIT Delhi. So I went thru the institute website, got inspired, applied, got shortlisted and called for entrance test which was scheduled on Thursday 10th July 2010. Due to leave constraints I planned to travel by flight, rather my usual train journey. Of course, that was my first journey on flight on 9th July 2010!!!

The PhD admission process in IIIT Delhi had three components: Written test, Programming test and then Interview. I did well in Programming test and did my best in the other two, also I was very confident this time. And, finally, I got a call on the same day evening saying I was shortlisted for PhD admission. After returning back from Delhi, I had a discussion with my Manager explaining my wishes and to initiate the releasing formalities as soon as possible. Fortunately, all my exit formalities went smooth and my last working day was 23rd July 2010. Later, I joined IIIT Delhi on 26th July 2010 and then after I am called as PhD Scholar~