Ques. Tell us something about yourself.
Ans. I have a Bachelor's degree in Economics with research interests in political economy. My training has particularly focused on the Marxian Political economy. Apart from economics, I also read psychoanalysis, psychology, and sociology. My interests always lie in intersectionality. I like stargazing and I read a lot of non-fiction.
Ques. You are currently pursuing MS from Sciences PO France which is one of the leading Universities in the field of Social Sciences. So, would you like to share how you aced it?
Ans. If you are really interested in doing something, no one can stop you from that. The matter of concern is the choice of subject. The most important thing is to have clarity about your subject and further about the course you wish to pursue. All these decisions depend on the subject matter, right syllabus, and right faculty. What interests me is that the faculty here has research in political economy, basically in diverse distinctions of economics and not just in pure economics or econometrics. In terms of acing it, you need to have a good SOP (Statement of purpose). It shouldn't be a summary of your CV, they already have your CV. In the SOP you need to present your personality development. You need to mention where you started, where that has led you to, what you wish to do right after you finish your course, and how the faculty and research program will help you out. Another important thing is to have a good prospectus and if the subject is of interest, as in my case, you need to have a consistent score.
Ques. You are also working as a Research Coordinator. Would you please tell us about it?
Ans. HDRI (Human Development Research Initiative) is a student-led think tank, most of the leading members are from Sciences Po. It has five verticals ranging from global health to migration. I work in Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. My responsibility is to lead a team of researchers and supervise them in their research work.. I have to build a team of six researchers who have applied from all over the world including India, Africa, Europe and West America. It is pretty exciting and it’s something new to me so I had to grab the opportunity. All the research works that I had taken up till now werein a team. Through HDRI, I’ll get an opportunity to know if research still interests me and I’ll be able to lead a team or not.
Ques. I can see that your profile is filled up with awards and achievements. So, would you like to tell us a bit in detail about them?
Ans. Eiffel excellence scholarship
I will start with the most recent one, I was honoured with the Eiffel excellence scholarship which provides me with the stipend to stay and study in France and provides me with the subsidized residence to live in. You can’t individually apply for the scholarship. It is the program set up by the French ministry of the exterior where the government selects the small pool of applications from all the applications and then contacts with the universities and selects 30-40 people for the same. So, the SOP’s and essays you write need to be good and should explain everything that is being asked.
Recognition for academic and professional excellence in DU
I received Recognition for academic and professional excellence in DU in my first year as I was first in my course. In the second and third years, I was in the top 5. The first year is pretty easy, everything that we studied in our high school is repeated.
Publication in the inaugural journal of ISBF
It was May 2020, we had just entered online mode, one of my political economy professors wanted someone to write on how the education situation in Delhi has changed in the pandemic. My friend and I started by just writing an essay about the same. We ended up bringing full-fledged research on it. We did logistical regression. We had data of about 100-150 students and we found out attentiveness has had a negative impact. The data was good and insightful. It was counted in top 15 all India entry and got selected for Publication in the inaugural journal of ISBF.
BM Bhatia Prize from Hindu College
This is the award for academic excellence. It is an institutional award. I was awarded it because I topped in my department.
Best Delegate in Pune World Submit
This was in high school. It was a regional MUN in Pune debating circuit and I represented Sweden. It was my first MUN and the agenda was the legality or illegality of organ transplantation.
Ques. What are your further career plans? Would you go for research as in with a PhD or do you have some other plans?
Ans. The research program here basically is M.Phil. So, after this program, if I apply for PhD in countries except for America, I can directly start with my thesis for 3 years. There’s no need to study then. If I go to America for the same, it would be 2 years of study and 3 years of PhD then. But now the idea is to get done with the PhD. If I get the opportunity anyway here, I’ll join it or apply anywhere outside. Then, get would love to get back to India and start teaching at Delhi University may be. I’ll be pretty happy with it.
Ques. How are you financing your education abroad?
Ans. It’s the scholarship that pays half of my living expenses, health insurance, and living allowance. The fee is financed by a bank loan.
Ques. What are some challenges that you have gone through in your life and how did you deal with them?
Ans. I was not sure whether economics was the right subject from the start. I think I can do a lot better in sociology or any other humanities-related program. But the quantitative skills that economics gives us are extremely marketable, lucrative, and pay well. The challenge was to find intersectionality. Studying a particular subject is not enough. Looking at different perspectives and making it more diverse is important. Economics is a social science, not just mathematics. So, getting the ideas straight into your head is extremely important and for improving and doing well, you need to explore. The amount of math in economics is a challenge. Particularly we study pure math in the first year of graduation and applied mathematics in the following two years. In the first year, I didn’t find math very difficult just because I had studied before. Getting the logic of math is important as here some part of the syllabus is taught and part of the syllabus is for your own research. So, your basic idea of math and economics need to be clear as you have to study some part of the syllabus on your own.
Ques. You must have also experienced the implications of Covid in terms of education and many more things. So, would you tell us what are challenges you have gone through?
Ans. The biggest challenge was that we had only one year of offline college in Hindu. That was pretty bad. Though I made a lot of friends and there were a lot of things we wanted to do but everything went in vain because of the pandemic. There was no social life. Education wasn’t affected much as I studied on my own. In an online setting, you can zone out as there are a lot of distractions when you are at home in your room. I was able to manage studies and internships in an online mode. In France, classes are in offline mode and if someone gets tested positive, classes are turned online the next day.
Ques. I am sure you will agree with me on this that college plays a very vital role in shaping us. So, please tell us about your college journey, societies, and internships you were part of.
Ans. In my first year, I wasn’t part of any society. I gave interviews but I didn’t qualify for any. So, I gave myself one year to settle in. In my second year, I joined the literature society and other than that I have done various MUNs. I was a senior when I joined the society so I used to arrange for knowledge sessions on various subjects such as philosophy and sociology. Apart from them, I didn’t do many extracurriculars as just after college I had to go home in my first year. In the second and third years, all my extra-curricular and work experiences have been online.
Ques. More often it happens that things don't go as planned. So, did you ever have encounters with failures and things didn't turn out as per your plans?
Ans. Apart from this university, I would have applied to Cambridge and Oxford. These courses were extremely expensive, I wouldn’t have been able to finance the course even after the scholarship. This is the only place I applied to and made it to this university. In terms of funding, I applied to about five scholarships, I got rejected in almost all of them. But I got through two scholarships and choose one from them. Failures are part of life; you just need to shake them off. It's just an entrance exam or scholarship application, it’s not the end of the world. The idea is to take your time, process things, and let them go. Also, I gave the exam for IIT for post-graduation in economics. I am proud to share my score, it was 13 out of 100. Though I received the application from the international university, it sometimes leads to you questioning yourself but you need to let it go.
Ques. You have graduated from one of India's prestigious Institutions which is well known all over the world and now you are doing your further education from France so there must be a shift. So, what is the change that you feel and your experience till now?
Ans. My experience has been very good. The syllabus is hands-on as my class started with 25 people but now, we are 19, the rest dropped out as the course is pretty difficult. This course needs in-depth study and is quite rigorous and quantitative. Out of the 19, 3 are Indian including me so it’s pretty competitive. Also, the faculty is very helpful. You can mail any of the professors for your thesis work and they reply on the same day. Faculty listen to your problems and feedbacks. After each semester, it's mandatory to give a review of the faculty and the syllabus. So, it gives us a chance to provide our feedback.
Ques. What we're those motivating factors or people who pushed you and supported you all this while?
Ans. My biggest motivator was my professor of political economy, Ms. Archana Aggarwal, in my last year of under graduation. She has been the biggest supporter. Whatever I studied extra, she was the one to help me. Based on her enthusiasm, I was able to write on lots of topics except economics. So, she was the one to help me identify that I need intersectionality in my course.
Ques. What will be your insights to your juniors?
Ans. We are all 20-year-old kids. This is the time we make big mistakes, so make mistakes but don’t forget to restart your lives. This is the time to work for yourself.. Take a gap year or so, take some work experience and upskill yourself and you’ll be able to figure out what do you want to do after your graduation.
Ques. We know that there are many more achievements to be added to your story but for now, if I ask you to sum up your journey how would you do that?
Ans. I don’t need to sum up my journey now as hopefully, I am not going to die tomorrow. There’s no summary to my story as it has just begun. I’ll hopefully give a summary when I am 50 or 60 and even then, I’ll keep on working and learning something new. Honestly, I think there’s no summary, the journey has just begun.
Ques. How did you start your journey? Can you explain it step-wise for our readers?
Ans. 1. I was a bright student in school so I scored well in my high school and got admission to Hindu college for specialization in economics.
2. I studied well in college, participated in extracurriculars, built my profile in lockdown by doing various internships and by upskilling myself.
3. I was honoured with Eiffel excellence scholarship, Recognition for academic and professional excellence in DU, Publication in the inaugural journal of ISBF, BM Bhatia Prize from Hindu College and Best Delegate in Pune World Submit.
4. I applied at Sciences Po, Paris, and fortunately, I was selected under the scholarship and made it to this university. My essays and SOPs were strong enough to give the background of my profile and reflect what I have done and want to do in the future. Hence, I was selected.
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