Hello, I am Rittik Dey. I am currently pursuing a Ph.D. in CSE at IITD, and this blog post is about my Ph.D. journey so far. It includes my interview experience, the environment at CSE at IITD, and various other aspects!
Why IITD? I would say the only reason I chose IITD was because of the environment it offers, although the quality is indisputable and it comes as an added bonus. I would be only talking about the Computer Science Department as I don’t have much interaction with the other departments as such.
I have had a relatively diverse experience with two different schools and two different colleges (at different states) before joining here and IITD seems to have the most “Chill” department. I still remember my second (first being the interview, which i will talk about more later) meeting (online) with Prof. Ashish (my guide and now a great friend), where he mandated that if I wish to work with him, I should never address him as “Sir”, and me being used to addressing every one of my teacher as Sir or Ma’am right from my childhood, I straight up denied his request 😂. He accepted me only after we decided on a middle ground 😂 This openness is not only his (Ashish’s) personality but the majority of our department. Our Professors really insist on us treating them as equals- as colleagues if not as friends.
Ph.D. Admission process The admission process is almost the same as most other places I’ve been to, an initial round of programming and written questions followed by an interview round. In the coding round, one can expect standard problems on Greedy / DP / D&C. For Interviews, I would like to advise any aspiring candidate to have a logical understanding of one’s subjects. I’ve had the chance to appear for interviews for only four institutes for PhD and I’ve enjoyed IITD’s interview the most (Believe me, I’m not at a gunpoint!). I still remember my Interview process, Ashish started with saying, “This question might be a bit hard but let’s start with this anyways” and he asked me whether I know what the Knapsack problem is, and as I started explaining, I got flashbacks of a funny moment when I was first introduced to the problem. I don’t know what gave me the confidence to share a joke even before I started my interview but I remember the Professors being amused, especially Ashish laughing out loud. This is the kind of comfort this department provides to even complete strangers – Prof. Priyanka invited me to visit the campus at the end of the interview as mine was online.
The most surprising part is, right after my Interview, Professors were keen on starting a “Casual” conversation because the interview duration is obviously inadequate to get to know a candidate’s potential. The very first fear every PhD candidate faces after admission is how to approach a professor is completely non-existent here. Professors approach candidates they are interested in (surprisingly this works better).
Regarding accommodation, sadly IITD couldn’t provide hostels to post-graduates (men) for the first semester. Women (PhDs, MSRs and MTechs) do get their hostels from the first semester. PhDs(men) get their hostels, starting from the second semester and most of the MSRs(men) and MTechs(men) too. But the surprising thing is some of the PhD students chose not to move into the hostel because firstly the private PGs are located adjacent to the IITD boundary (even at a lesser distance than the hostels) and secondly, there’s monetary incentives (HRA). Five of us joined the CS department in July 2024 and only two of us chose to move into the hostels.
Coursework and managing life Courses might be a bit tough for students like me, who never had an experience of such a rigorous coursework and to juggle along with TA duties and research work might be a bit overwhelming at the beginning, but once you get used to that, it’s not that difficult to cope up with. My experience was a bit ambivalent, on one hand I was so happy to see such amazingly designed courses and professors really putting in effort to help the students learn, and on the other hand the competitive nature of the courses keeping me on my toes and being surrounded by such amazing students who might just extract the tiniest bit of ego 😂out of you.
My three-quarter year worth of experience here at IITD is here for you to judge, and please feel free to reach me if you have any doubts and require clarification on anything. Thanks for reading, and I wish you great luck and hope you see your dreams come to reality soon!