NEW DELHI: A sizeable 16% of students who pursued BS Data Science and Applications programme at Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM) have secured admission to prestigious institutions such as Harvard, Cornell, the Georgia Institute of Technology in the US, and Aalto University in Finland or have received placements, promotions, and internships. The online degree programme, initiated dru ring the Covid pandemic in 2020 has 28,013 students enrolled at present.
What sets this programme apart is its flexibility and commitment to equitable access, exemplified by the complete waiver of fees for all female students with annual family incomes of less than Rs 5 lakh per annum.850 students have so far received offers for masters and PhDs in some of the top global universities, an additional 2,000 have received job offers and 1,200 have received internship opportunities.
The degree programme has also attracted 418 foreign students from countries such as the US, UAE, Singapore, Australia, the Netherlands, and neighbouring Bangladesh. The annual intake average is around 10,000, which include 26.2% females, 53.4% college students and 13.6% working professionals.
Shreya Singhal, completed her class XII with a background in biology, but found herself ineligible for a BTech programme. With her B S degree from IIT-Madras, Singhal is now poised to embark on a journey at Harvard, delving into learning innovation, design, and technology.
“It was in 2021 when I was in my second year of bachelor of computer application with IP University (Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha U niversity) in Delhi. However, I didn’t find it interesting. I had biology in class XII so could not go for BTech, though I wanted to do something with computers. I came across a link in a post about this programme from IIT-Madras. I took a leap of faith. While doing this programme, I also took up the assignment of a teaching assistant. I received multiple offers from some good universities for my masters, but I picked Harvard,” said Singhal.
According to Prof Vignesh Muthuvijayan, professor-in-charge, BS (Data Science and Applications), IIT-M, post Covid as well the programme continues to enthuse aspirants. “With so many talented students coming online to learn is special. Moreover, the one week on campus has made a huge impact on the students. While the interest level is increasing each passing year, the only challenge now is for people pursuing two programmes simultaneously or those working, which wasn’t the case during the pandemic,” said Muthuvijayan.
What sets this programme apart is its flexibility and commitment to equitable access, exemplified by the complete waiver of fees for all female students with annual family incomes of less than Rs 5 lakh per annum.850 students have so far received offers for masters and PhDs in some of the top global universities, an additional 2,000 have received job offers and 1,200 have received internship opportunities.
The degree programme has also attracted 418 foreign students from countries such as the US, UAE, Singapore, Australia, the Netherlands, and neighbouring Bangladesh. The annual intake average is around 10,000, which include 26.2% females, 53.4% college students and 13.6% working professionals.
Shreya Singhal, completed her class XII with a background in biology, but found herself ineligible for a BTech programme. With her B S degree from IIT-Madras, Singhal is now poised to embark on a journey at Harvard, delving into learning innovation, design, and technology.
“It was in 2021 when I was in my second year of bachelor of computer application with IP University (Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha U niversity) in Delhi. However, I didn’t find it interesting. I had biology in class XII so could not go for BTech, though I wanted to do something with computers. I came across a link in a post about this programme from IIT-Madras. I took a leap of faith. While doing this programme, I also took up the assignment of a teaching assistant. I received multiple offers from some good universities for my masters, but I picked Harvard,” said Singhal.
According to Prof Vignesh Muthuvijayan, professor-in-charge, BS (Data Science and Applications), IIT-M, post Covid as well the programme continues to enthuse aspirants. “With so many talented students coming online to learn is special. Moreover, the one week on campus has made a huge impact on the students. While the interest level is increasing each passing year, the only challenge now is for people pursuing two programmes simultaneously or those working, which wasn’t the case during the pandemic,” said Muthuvijayan.
