We had the opportunity of interviewing Kumar Divya Mani, an alum from Galgotias University in Greater Noida, India about: Getting into a Top University
Here are some of his qualifications:
a machine learning facilitator at Google until 2019
former leader of the robotics club at Galgotias
current trainee at the MIT & IDSS Applied Data Science Bootcamp
and upcoming affiliate alumni of MIT
Q: How did you spend your free time before getting into the MIT Bootcamp program? (weekends, summers, breaks, etc.)
A: This Bootcamp program is on a mathematically rigorous side. So, I usually spent my time taking a specific course. I played games or read books when I needed a break.
Q: What would you say played a bigger role in your success? The environment or self-motivation?
A: Self-motivation. Any day, all day. The environment had a “reverse psychological” impact.
Q: What type of projects did you undertake on your own before getting accepted into the program(experiments, forming a club, nonprofit, research, internships, etc)?
A: I usually spent my time implementing my theoretical knowledge to solve real-world problems through programming or just equations. One nerdy instance that I can recall is, after taking MIT 6.041 course on Applied Probability I tried to understand one instance from an outdoor game where I modeled the probability of a tennis ball to pass through the vertical bars of a gate. The probability was minute and we decided not to change the position of batsman or bowler. It was fun.
Q: What would you say made you stand out for MIT as one of the only 350 accepted into their boot camp training?
A: Passion and interests. I should also emphasize that I applied early, that helped too.