On the precipice

Recounting May and mid-June 2025

May and June 2025 have been the conclusive months of my undergraduate degree at DJSCE. I wanted to write this blogpost recounting the highlights. In terms of my future plans, with my meager GATE score of 539, I wanted to maximize my chances by applying to as many different options of M. Tech. as possible. I applied for 10 programs at IIT Bombay, 2 at IIT Madras, IIT Roorkee, IIT Hyderabad, IIT Indore, IIT Gandhinagar, IIT BHU as well. I applied for IIIT Bangalore’s MS by Research program as well, hearing how the institute had risen the ranks in the last some years. May 2025 began with the end of my term tests and submissions of assignments at college. I took it upon myself to obtain the Letters of Recommendation from professors I had written research papers under, in this month itself.
I had my Viva for the final semester starting from 8th May, the same day that I had Written Test scheduled for M. Tech. Biomedical Engineering at IIT Bombay. I talked to the HoD and concerned professors for adjusting the times I have to give my Viva, and received nothing but unconditional support. Luckily, no adjustment was needed as I finished my test at IITB by 11:30 am and reached DJSCE by 12:30 pm. This was just in time for the last trio to sit for the viva, phew! The viva went fantastically, ending with a pleasant chat about careers in security with the examiner. The test, however, was easily the highlight of that day. It was quite interesting to say the least. It comprised of six sections - Physics, Chemistry, Math, Biology, Physiology and Engineering (A - Electronics based, B - Mechanical based). Two of these were to be attempted. I chose Physics and Math in an attempt to be unbiased in interview. One question, for example, went like this, in paraphrase:

You are a professor looking to calculate prime numbers upto a number. You ask one of your students to write a C program for the same. You ask another one of your students, to describe that process of calculation in English. Which of these two bodies of text have greater entropy?

I was lucky this was the second or third question in that test, because it woke me up. The Math section was quite straightforward, but the Physics section had great questions. I enjoyed solving them a lot. It was an OMR sheet affair, which made me lose one question because of not being able to change options. That was no concern however since I was shortlisted among 141 students from about 300 and was to attend interview next day. The interview as we were told, was to be “complementary” to our domain, so if you’re an Engineering person, they’ll ask you Biology and vice versa. My applicant ID was the first in that shortlist, so I was expecting to get done with my interview quick. Instead, the interviews were arranged alphabetically on the day of, and mine took place at 5:00 pm, after waiting from 8:30 am. The exhaustion from waiting, however, was no excuse for the horrible interview I gave.
It began with an introduction. All was going well until I shot myself in the foot and mentioned AlphaFold3. Note to self, don’t mention the game to the pros in it in an interview. First professor jumped at that and asked me about proteins, 3D modeling them, their translation and rotation. He noticed my hemming and hawing and switched to time functions and their graphs. Second professor took the mantle and immediately noticed me hiding behind my “if I’m not wrong” for answers I wasn’t sure about. I realized by then, this interview had gone off the rails because of my stupid mindspace and lack of preparation. Still, I pushed forward. Prof 2 asked me about Physics, specifically optics and single slit case of the Young’s Double Slit Experiment (another answer where I was completely convinced of the wrong answer and doubled down on it for no reason). I left the interview admitting to myself, first, it went horribly and I had blew my chances. Now, a debate could be had if I was ever going to be considered seriously for a Biomedical Engineering TA-ship being a CSE student. But the interview certainly did not help. I told my family the same and moved on. I had to move on quick, because the next day, 10th May, I had my Final Year Project defense. Excelling at college vivas is an art and I was ready to paint. I was confident in my work on the project, my communication as well as my fantastic teammates. Needless to say, it went swimmingly. The same day, I approved one of the two LoRs as well.
The next some days were quiet. On the 11th, I received a mail from the Center for Sys Con, letting me know the process was only for three positions. I was asked to fill a form with my details, and I was shortlisted for the interview. It was a really short, underwhelming online interview, that lasted for two minutes. I was asked about myself in short, what hardware projects I have done and given information about the posiition. I was not expecting an offer from this, and I didn’t get one either. I gave two of my subject vivas on 14th May, which went great. It was the last one of those low preparation, all communication affairs I enjoyed so much.
Round 1 of the Common Offer Acceptance Portal was on 17th. This was a round based on direct GATE score, so with 539, I did not delude myself with any hopes of an offer. End Semesters of the college began on 19th. This last rodeo was quite comforting in its peace. I felt no pressure in the exam, in this 8th semester of undergrad. I understood my task well, prepared as much as I could, and wrote as much as I recalled.
The COAP process, however, was anything but peaceful. 23rd came and the Biomedical and SysCon results were declared. If the experiences were any indication, I was not expecting any offers. I didn’t get any.
I applied for the CCMT process for NITs as well. It is a bit better experience of application than IITs, but costs 3500 too. I filled the preferences with branches within cutoff at NIT Warangal, Trichy, Surathkal, Rourkela, Kurukshetra, Surat and Nagpur. But I did not lock them yet. I think I was expecting something from COAP.
The last paper that counted in my GPA was on 26th. The paper went great, but I was in an entirely different mindset, because the Electrical Department’s process was next day.
The department asked for 7 preferences among 3 labs and many projects for about 40 positions. The labs have RAs called Institute RAs, those that have no restriction on choosing thesis topics and have duties in the lab. These are unlike Project RAs, who work under a professor and have cinstraints on their theses.
I gave 5 preferences, with SysAdmin Lab (PC Lab) as first. The form asked for projects, publication details and top 10 courses of my choice with their GPAs as well. Process was conducted in two halves, on 27th and 28th May. PC Lab and Machines Lab processes were on 27th and the WEL Lab and project interviews were on 28th. For PC Lab, a written test with around 30 questions (MCQs and one-liner answers) for 20 minutes was conducted first. After that, with no shortlisting, a coding test for 2 hours was conducted on HackerRank. The coding test had Vigenere decryption, a basic data processing question, SQL question with 10 queries, two Bash questions for parsing text (a system log and mail server log) and a HTML webpage to be coded. We were allowed to use internet for accessing documentation but not LLMs. I found that cool. I solved all except the HTML one, because of its verbosity, successfully. 50 students were shortlisted for interview, based on both the tests (I think). The interview went amazing. The panel comprised of one professor and 4 existing RAs. Two questions were asked on the solutions I wrote for the coding test. Three on networks, two on SSH, two on HTML and CSS. I managed to squeeze in my Final Year Project as well, in a browser secure storage question.
The next day, 28th, was crazy. I had my last paper of the exams, Minors in DS from 9 am to 12 noon. I came to know that the RA Project interviews were scheduled from noon, but I couldn’t take the risk of missing any. So I did what any sane person would, and finished the paper in 2 hours. I had never ever done that before, but desperate times etc. I left my college and reached IITB by 12 noon exact. I found upon reaching there, that fortunately, the interviews had just began. I was told I could not sit for Prof. Rao’s project as I had put it 3rd in preferences. I gave interviews for projects of Prof. Debasattam Pal and Prof. Virendra Singh. I wasn’t shortlisted for Prof. Madhav Desai’s project. Prof. Pal’s project was intensely theoretical, about matrix precorders for MIMO channels. So, we just had a brief chat with the mutual understanding that I was not getting the position anyway. My interview with Prof. Singh, however, was most enlightening. It lasted about 45 minutes with questions ranging from: introduction, to cryptography - philosophical differences between AES and DES, operating systems - virtual memory, need for paging, probability - PDFs, CDFs, expectations, and then if I can handle the program given my CSE background. The panel comprised of himself and three more, who I think were his doctoral students. There is something about brilliant people such as Prof. Singh, who just by interaction, reveal the shallowness of your technical understanding. I had no qualms in accepting it went badly, because I learnt a lot from that interview.
After that, I had the time of my life at the Farewell Party with my friends on the 31st. We danced, took a lot of photos and classed up the joint with our suits. It was quite a memorable day.
On June 2nd, I filled up the form and got a paper for the RA position at Industrial Engineering and Operations Research Center at IITB. The questions were simple, about optimization, random variables, probability and statistics. The answers were to be written descriptively. I was not shortlisted for the interview, however. Which was due to the fact that, the test was not the criteria to be shortlisted for the interview, but the GATE score was. The same day, I received call for the written test and interview at IIIT Bangalore, for MS by Research position. This settled my nerves a bit, thinking that this was the most probable course I could get. June 5th came with the announcement of Round 4 of COAP. There was no wind of the Electrical offers from IITB still, so I had to lock my choices on CCMT on the 6th. Skip to 10th evening, CCMT Round 1 results came. I looked up the portal and was dismayed to find that I was not offered any seats. I was quite shocked to be honest, because this was supposed to be my bottom line. A tense discussion ensued with my parents. They did not express any anger or any disappointment, but were simply puzzled on what avenues we had. The IIITB process was on 13th. I had to stay calm for it. But, in true middle class fashion of “preparing for the worst”, we went as far as taking a drop. I went to places I never wanted to, steeling myself about the possibility of accepting NIT Kurukshetra in a later round, perhaps the Spot Round. I hated the idea of taking a drop year. It was too uncertain. Not to mention, the many people opting out of MS abroad and jumping into the fray for GATE next year.
I focused myself on taking it a moment at a time. I needed a haircut. I woke up early the next day, 11th. This was a sunny Wednesday. I was first at the barber shop and got a haircut as usual. I reached home, cleaned myself and sat for breakfast. I had 4 idlis and sambar-chutney on my plate. While cutting for the first morsel, I looked up my phone. The time read 9:57 am. The 5th Round for COAP was about to be declared at 10 o’clock. Mom said, “Check for the results, if they’re here.” I nodded and took up my phone to open the COAP link. I logged in quick with my credentials.
There it was.
M. Tech. RA at IIT Bombay in EE1 | Accept and Freeze
The whole last week flashed in front of my eyes. I could not keep myself from smiling. Mom noticed and asked, “What is it, Manu?” I hugged her and said, “IIT Bombay”. I did not cry, I was too overjoyed for it. I knelt in front of God and thanked. I hugged my father and sister tight in the evening. I cancelled the airline ticket for Bangalore for 12th the same night.
I am sitting here now, waiting to join IITB. A mix of terrified, because these eminent professors will now be my teachers and hopeful, that it will all be fine. For now though, I’m excited to see what happens when I walk through the IITB Main Gate as a student, rather than a nervous interviewee.