My journey from JNU to IIM Indore: Vipin Patel

IIM Indore

Ever since I was a child, I was inherently inclined towards Biology. Back then, I would watch National Geographic and Discovery channels throughout the day. This made me inquisitive towards plants and animals. Maybe this was one of the prominent catalytic factors that prompted me to choose my career in Biological Sciences. This was the reason that even after scoring very good marks in Mathematics in my class 10th exam, I decided to opt for Biology. One of the best places to do Bachelors in Biological Science that I knew of was Delhi University. Even though I had come from a small city in eastern Uttar Pradesh, where there is a serious dearth of good educational facilities, I seriously prepared for my class 12^th, so that I could make it to the cut-off list of DU. By the grace of God, I scored excellent marks, and got shortlisted in the first list to pursue Bachelors in Life Sciences. I also got a call from every college I had applied for, but I decided to study at Hansraj College, which at that time, had the maximum cut-off for Life Sciences.

Hansraj College was nothing like the government colleges of my city, where there are neither lab facilities and nor regular classes. Here at Hansraj, I got a chance to study with some of the most brilliant minds I had ever interacted with. Most of the teachers were quite friendly towards the students and were ready to help them with their queries. It was here where my interest for Biological Sciences took deep roots. Three years at Hansraj College flew away quite quickly. During my third year, I decided to go for a master’s degree in the fields which I found substantially interesting. It was then when I started preparing the list of courses and colleges I should target. After a couple of weeks, in my 5th semester, I narrowed down my options to three streams particularly– Environmental Sciences, Biotechnology, and Genetics.

I seriously began my preparation for masters in the starting of the 6th semester. I had purchased a book by Pathfinder Academy for Genetics and Biotechnology. For Environmental Sciences, I had decided to thoroughly study the books being taught in my college. While most of my friends used to pass time by roaming in Kamla Nagar, I used to dedicate 2-3 hours per day for my masters' exam preparation. In six months, even trivial 2-3 hours of daily preparation had made a significant difference in my knowledge. I had applied for MSc Environmental Sciences and MSc Genetics in Delhi University, MSc Environmental Sciences, MSc Biotechnology and MSc Life Sciences in Jawaharlal Nehru University, and I had given JAM for MSc Biotechnology at IIT Bombay. As my daily college schedule was almost from 8:40 AM to 4:00 PM, and I also had to support myself financially, I used to teach Biology to students aspiring for medical entrance exams. I hardly had any time to go for any coaching classes.

My preparation was primarily based on focussing on what had been taught in the class, studying additional material from Pathfinder, and then solving practice problems. I also had last 5 years’ solved papers from JNU for Biotech and Environmental Sciences. Nearly one month before my entrance exams, I had started solving question papers and discussing confusing concepts with my teachers. Almost all of my entrance exams were somewhere in between my end-term college exams. That whole month was quite hectic and stressful, but somehow, I managed both.

In June, when all the results were out, I had the option to do my Masters from DU in Environmental Sciences, from JNU in Environmental Sciences and Biotechnology and from IIT Bombay in Biotechnology. At that time, JNU had the first ranking for Biotechnology, so I decided to join this university.

JNU has a lush green campus, sprawling over 1000 acres and having animals and birds such as peacock, porcupines, rabbits, nilgai, etc. roaming inside the campus. The infrastructure is also well-designed. Coming to the course work, it is very demanding. We had a batch strength of 27 students and nearly 9 out of them were gold medalists of their respective colleges/universities. In the first year, the classes used to start at 9:00 AM and go on till 1:30 PM. Then, from 2:30 PM onwards, lab sessions used to start, which often extended up to 8:00 PM in the evening. Almost all of us used to live on the campus and the Biotech department was at a 5-minute walking distance. The course work, along with the lab work, was very rigorous. In the first semester, we hardly got any time to engage in any extra-curricular activities.  The second semester was a bit relaxed and chilled out, though. After the completion of the first year, most of my classmates had applied for summer projects in various colleges and institutes. As the Biotech department itself had ample funding and more than 15 labs each catering to a specific area in Biotechnology, I decided to spend my summers in JNU itself. It was an exciting experience and I got to learn many new concepts and methodologies.

In the second year, all of us had a full one-year project. Luckily, I was in the best lab in the department. I got a chance to access the BSL-3 level lab facility for more than 10 months, and due to promising lab results, I even replicated my results in mice models. It will always be a unique experience to work in such a wonderful facility. However, it was somewhere in between the 3rd semester when I became uncertain if research was the right field for me, as it was very toll-taking and I had to spend more than 12-13 hours on an average basis doing my lab work.

Finally, at the end of the course, in spite of having an offer for Research Assistantship from University of Nebraska in the USA, I decided to not pursue PhD in this field. It was a hard decision to make. More than ¼ of my classmates were getting selected in IISc Bangalore, and all others got PhD offers from either foreign universities, or IITs or other prestigious institutes. It was a well-discussed and thoughtful decision, and soon after completing my masters, I started looking for other options. Coming to the present scenario, I am pursuing my MBA from IIM Indore. Thus, in spite of being a hard-core biologist, I decided to leave my core branch and venture into a field that is infamously known to be brimming with engineers. At this point in time, I still cannot clearly state what the future holds for me, but I am excited to find out.

I sincerely hope if you are interested to pursue a career in Biological Sciences, this article must have given you some helpful insights. Good luck to you for a prosperous future.

About the Author:

My name is Vipin Patel and I have done MSc Biotechnology from JNU, Delhi. After my masters, I decided to change my path and after spending a brief time in Bank of Baroda as a Probationary Officer, I am currently pursuing MBA from IIM Indore. My hobbies include running marathons, reading books, solo travelling, and trekking in the Himalayas.