"The wise will profit from passion-led action."| A MIT Trainee on Getting into a Top Uni

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.