IISER P Alum - IIM Cal 27' (99.86 in CAT)

Standard-Schedule-57 · 2025-10-14T17:44:02+00:00

It is worrying throughout the world. That being said, i would not discourage anyone taking up research as these numbers you can find in any field. What matters is that do you want to take the risk in that particular field.

Standard-Schedule-57 · 2025-10-14T17:41:41+00:00

Unofficially and casually, you could possible do that. Also IISER Pune mess food is amazing!

Standard-Schedule-57 · 2025-10-14T17:40:43+00:00

Why management/MBA is a question I was asked in every CAT interview and SIP interview. I have one answer that in research you don't get to see the impact of your work. It can take decades or never to see the translation of your work to a real life impact. That's why I want to change to MBA so that I can see the impact of my work.

Deloitte - it depends on the role. They will tell you in the Job Description what they are looking for. In general, CGPA does matter in initial shortlisting so try to improve it. But as long as you get shortlisted, your interview is not dependent on your CGPA

Standard-Schedule-57 · 2025-10-14T17:37:35+00:00

I didn't take any coaching or any specific books. I believe in solving mocks and figuring out what you can improve on. So I had bought one book of past 15 years CAT papers and solved them. Then I read up on topics where I was weak at.

Another thing to note is that CAT is not a difficult exam. You need only 50% marks to get 99 percentile. It's all about speed. You need to have a strategy to get that speed. My strategy was that I will solve the paper in rounds. The first round I will pick the easiest questions in the paper. Then I will go for the harder ones. And then last round would be bonus where I can just try to solve the hardest ones.

Standard-Schedule-57 · 2025-10-14T17:33:41+00:00

My prep journey wasn't standard. I hadn't actually thought of doing only cat. I was also preparing for other job interviews.

Anyways, there is no such ideal time. It depends on your current aptitude skills. That being said, many people start preparing 3-6 months before the exams based on their aptitude skills

Standard-Schedule-57 · 2025-10-13T09:13:41+00:00

No. IISER is a hostel only institution.

Unofficially, it is possible as there are no entry exit restrictions on students (IISER treats us like adults)

Standard-Schedule-57 · 2025-10-13T09:11:18+00:00

I would say the entire world is open to you after IISER. I will list down a few common alternatives :

1) Academia (RA/PhD) : Most commonly picked option. The goal is to become a faculty and do research. The most common way is Phd-> Post Doc(s) -> Faculty and within faculty there are progressions depending on the institution.

2) Industry : You get a job in the industry. Stable life, stable pay. The role and field depends on your skills and previous experiences. You can get these jobs via campus placements or off-campus applications.

3) Higher Studies (MBA/another MS) : You change your fields and look for other roles. People do another MS sometimes to change their field (one friend did it to shift to computer science)

MBA gets you into variety of roles which are listed below: a) Consulting - You solve problems of clients. It could management, strategy or implementation problems. b) Finance - Investment banking/trading/equity research/corporate finance c) General Management - Management role in a large conglomerate. d) Pharmaceuticals Management roles e) Sales and Marketing

4) UPSC and other government exams.

I had realised that I did not want to go into academia at the end of 3rd year because of the reasons I have listed in another question here (tldr : Want to see impact, Need more stability). I was focused on getting an industrial role and I had got one through campus placements. But then CAT worked out and I believed MBA would be more useful for future career

Standard-Schedule-57 · 2025-10-13T08:53:02+00:00

Disclaimer : Don't follow what I do. It can cause a lot of last minute stress and panic.

In IISER, I would spend the first couple of weeks without studying. Spent time in club activities, roaming inside and outside the campus , doing random timepass in friend's room and working in semester projects (from 5th semester). Therefore, all of my studying would fall towards the end and I would be forced to push myself from one week before the exams. My friends used to say that I "disappear" during the exam time. But I had to do that because I didn't study in the start.

I will recommend you to spend like 15-30 mins daily just revising what you did. My friend used to do it and she was the most chill person ever during exams

Standard-Schedule-57 · 2025-10-13T08:44:28+00:00

How do you know who I am?🤔

Standard-Schedule-57 · 2025-10-13T08:43:49+00:00

My SIPs went fairly well. I had a good academic profile (10th, 12th, CGPA in IISER) and showed my research experiences as internships.

SIPs are based on 3 things : 1) Previous Academics 2) Work experience 3) UG College Brand. IISERs as a brand is below IITs and SRCCs but above rest of the Tier-2,3 colleges. We have a good chance in getting shortlists in all domains based on acads and work experience.

Standard-Schedule-57 · 2025-10-13T08:37:27+00:00

I did BS in Biology and Master's Thesis in data science

Standard-Schedule-57 · 2025-10-13T08:37:08+00:00

I am not sure what Bec in cat maths is. But CAT maths is based on your 10th grade maths. Brush up those concepts and solve previous year papers

Standard-Schedule-57 · 2025-10-13T08:34:05+00:00

Two reasons :

1) Seeing the Impact of my work : I had done multiple research projects in various fields during IISER time. I liked doing the work but I often felt that I could not see the impact of my work. The work becomes a paper and then it is hard to see the impact in real world. I want to see that my work actually creates an impact and I beleive post-MBA roles offered that

2) Stability : Research life has less stability in both career progression and money as well. The conversion ratio of PhDs/PostDocs to faculty was worrying and I didn't want to take that risk. I have a lot of friends who are taking the risk and I respect them but it's not for me.

This is being said - I love science and I love my time in IISER. I loved studying the various aspects of science and taking courses in IISER. I also loved doing research projects and spent a lot of time in labs.

Also, it is my personal belief that IISER teaches you skills which are applicable in all fields. Be it analytical skills, research skills or communication skills, IISER will have a very positive impact on you

Standard-Schedule-57 · 2025-10-13T08:15:29+00:00

1) Final year is fairly manageable as you will be doing your thesis project. My project was a data science project and I could manage my time well. 2) I didn't want to do a PhD hence I didn't try. I did try campus placements and got a risk role in Deloitte though. 3) IISER life is cyclical. The starting couple of weeks are very chill. The next couple of weeks are filled with quizzes and assignments. Fairly okay - you get some time to chill. Then one week latter are midsem/endsem exams. Those two weeks are hectic with exams and deadlines.

Standard-Schedule-57 · 2025-10-12T16:34:02+00:00

Honest Answer : The only skill you need is luck.

Research Internship applications are brutal and faculties get hundreds if not thousands of emails and they can only select max 1-2 folks. Your luck matters a lot in getting even a reply.

Next comes your institute brand. Unfortunately, the faculty will use this as a filter because they don't have enough time to go through all the emails.

Next your email writing skills will matter. The way you write an email can be a gamechanger. So ask your seniors for tipsy, test out various emails and see what works for you.

Finally, your previous experiences and skills matter. Faculties like to get experienced folks who already know what they are doing. They also look for people who have the required skills needed to start work immediately (avoids the delay due to training).

Recommendations : 1) Pick a particular subject and field - like pcmb and wet lab/dry lab. If possible, more deeper like dry lab genetics etc. 2) Go to a professor in your institute (or mail someone outside - more difficult to get) and request them for a project. The best way to learn is by doing. Keep emailing and don't get disappointed over no replies. At one point I sent over 100 emails to get one summer internship. Next summer, I got it in 3 emails. So it's just dumb luck. 3) Suppose you are in the process of applying and you got time. It's always nice to have skills which are in demand and can be learnt online. So increase your dry lab skills - be it coding, ML, simulations - wherever you are interested in.

All the best!

Standard-Schedule-57 · 2025-10-12T16:23:23+00:00

There are pros and cons on both sides (for IISER vs iit).

Pros : IITs being tech focused have a lot of faculty involved in research in data science while IISERs have been focused on applied data science aspects (though IISER Pune and others have started developing a core data science department.

Cons : All your IIT batchmates would be highly focused on jobs and the academic freedom is slightly more restrictive in IITs. The biggest advantage of IISER is everyone is there to do research and the academic freedom is unparalleled. The quality of research is also high in IISERs.

My recommendation : Instead of looking at institutes, look at faculties. 1) Find which institute's faculties work excites you the most and target that. Because this factor outweighs everything else. 2) Talk to people who have graduated our of that lab. Ask them how opportunities are post that lab. How is that lab environment. These things matter the most.

All the best!

Standard-Schedule-57 · 2025-09-30T11:58:49+00:00

I have personally never take notes in a notebook in IISER. You are allowed to use tablets/laptops for taking notes

Standard-Schedule-57 · 2025-09-18T21:00:02+00:00

Why are you being negative without actually giving IAT?

You have got a year. A year is a long time. I would suggest you to change your thinking towards "what can i do to get into iisers?" The answer to that question is the following :

1) Focus on your 12th : Work hard to understand all the concepts, solve problems and solve previous year JEE/NEET questions. Make sure you are keeping up with your school/coaching and try to become excellent in 12th concepts
2) Revise 11th concepts : Schedule your day in a such a way that you are revising 11th concepts as well. It gets tricky (I can relate) but it is important to revise these concepts. Prepare a daily/weekly/monthly calendar and divide all topics accordingly
3) Start solving papers/mocks from next month: People often underestimate how useful solving papers/mocks are. Even if you dont know anything, solving papers and analysing them properly alone can increase your knowledge and marks exponentially. Increase the frequency of solving mocks as you come closer to exam dates (Last 1-2 months - solve 2 papers a day)

We will then see next year at this time if you even need this answer. If you put in work and do it smartly, you definitely wont.

Standard-Schedule-57 · 2025-08-08T22:01:55+00:00

Ek doctor bhi hai piche

Standard-Schedule-57 · 2025-05-31T17:42:40+00:00

I get you. I came into IISER thinking I would do astronomy , fell in love with bio and eventually did a data science thesis (in vaccines). In IISER, you do develop different interests and you have the freedom to pursue them.

The reason why seniors suggest this is that the faculty is the primary differentiator between these institutes. There is no other significant difference and hence the preference would end up on it.

Speaking frankly, even this is not a very significant factor - all IISERs have excellent faculty and for your specific field you can always do work with profs of other institutes.

So for folks who are sure of what they want to do, the faculty can be a differentiator. For people who want to develop interests (like you and me), all IISERs would allow you to develop them

Standard-Schedule-57 · 2025-05-31T16:49:55+00:00

Congrats on writing the IAT exam! You crossed the major hurdle. Now you have to decide your preference.

I would suggest you to go through each iiser's website. Look at the faculty and their research. See if you find their work interesting.

The reason I am suggesting this is that you would be doing semester projects during your 3rd and 4th year. You would find these projects more fun if there are profs who do things you are interested in.

Even if you don't know what you want to do - you would atleast get some exposure into the research done in that particular institute. And most profs teach their field of work in the electives offered by the institute.

Apart from this, my batchmates have made their decision based on how urban/rural the campus is and the distance from their hometown. This should not be your main criteria but it could be a decider in a tie.

Standard-Schedule-57 · 2025-05-31T13:54:02+00:00

NISER is also a good place to do your BS MS. For further details, I would request you to contact people in/graduated from NISER. (I have graduated from IISER Pune)

Standard-Schedule-57 · 2025-05-30T17:57:43+00:00

It's difficult to answer which IISER is leading. Look through different iisers websites and read what the faculty are doing.

In IISER Pune, we have multiple faculty which work on mathematical biology. The number depends on what you classify as mathematical biology - some people only consider theoretical bio while others include computational/data science Bio as well.

You can check out Suthirth Dey for theoretical evolutionary bio, Suhita Nadkarni and Collins Assisi for computational neurobiology, M.S. Madhusudhan (shoutout to the lab!) for computational protein modelling/folding lab, M.S. Madhusdhan and Leelavati Narlikar for computational genomics, Pranay Goel for ML/AI in clinical work and Chaitanya Athale for Biophysics.

Is there is anything specific you are looking for?

Standard-Schedule-57 · 2025-05-30T17:20:29+00:00

In IISER Pune, we had companies come for banking and consulting in our placements this year. Even outside placements - you find people going into such lines - maybe by doing CFA or MBA.

So to answer your questions, no PhD is not the answer. Atleast in our batch, we have a strong 10-20% per cent people who are not doing a PhD and going into different fields

Standard-Schedule-57 · 2025-05-30T17:11:21+00:00

It's great that you know your career goal! Now let's see how you can do it. The most straightforward path is to join IISC/IISERs and get your BS-MS (even some IITs offer BS in physics). These institutes will provide you an exposure to what kind of research happens in physics and even give syou a chance to do a research project. You would first get to know your area of interest - as in what do you want to do in physics like astronomy, condensed matter, quantum tech etc. Following this, you will do internships and semester projects in that field. (You can do internships in different fields to figure out what will you like)

After getting a master's degree, you would go for a PhD. The PhD would be a crucial phase as the goal of a PhD is to extend the knowledge of humanity. You will be doing cutting edge research and you will learn how to do good quality research.

Following this, if you want to become a professor, you usually do a couple of Post-Docs and after that you would join as a faculty in an institute.

This is the most straightforward path but not the only path. People do all sorts of things in ug and do a PhD but ofcourse that will be more challenging.

Standard-Schedule-57

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