My first day v/s last day at MIT
5 years of research at MIT transformed me in ways I could not have imagined. I am writing this piece to reflect on the changes I experienced from my first day to my last day at MIT.
First day: Wanted to become a professor and work in academia
Last day: Left the idea of academia. Wanted to become an entrepreneur.
First day: Wanted to stay in the US to experience the American dream
Last day: Wanted to return to India to build my Indian dream
First day: Felt intimidated to see super smart students from China, Korea, the US etc.
Last day: Did not feel intimidated by analytically smart people anymore. Realized smartness has a spectrum.
First day: Mindset- Wanted to compete with others and win
Last day: Mindset- Wanted to create my own game and play that
First day: Poor at communication. Placed all importance on analytical skills.
Last day: Good at communication. Much better at analytical stuff.
First day: Wanted to work alone, just focusing on what I did
Last day: Wanted to work with a team of people on a mission
First day: I thought I could out-compete anyone and achieve anything
Last day: Realized it is stupid to think of life as a competition and I can’t achieve everything
First day: Thought science in academia was “pure”
Last day: Realized that all shortcomings of people reflect in the process of conducting science. Nothing is “pure” when humans are involved.
First day: Big-time stage fright and under-confidence
Last day: Absolutely no stage fright and supreme level of confidence
First day: Felt very intimidated when my friend said he wanted to build a 100-million dollar business. Thought I would never dream that big.
Last day: Dreaming much bigger things more realistically
First day: Thought academia is only about solving research problems without thinking about anything else
Last day: Realized academia (and everything else humans do) involves understanding and playing the game of the system
First day: Was judgmental about people based on what they did
Last day: Stopped judging people based on their work. Realized everyone is just trying to live.
First day: Respected people with brands and tags.
Last day: No inherent respect toward brands and tags. Respected people for being good human beings.
I don’t intend to attribute all of these changes to MIT. But a good fraction of my change is attributed to the people and my experiences there. Rest was just the process of normal growing up. Either way, I feel like a different person.
Raj Abhijit Dandekar (MIT PhD), Rajat Dandekar (Purdue PhD), and I have been running a program named Long Term Mentorship (LTM) for ambitious grad-school aspirants for the last 2 years with excellent success. Feel free to check out the details here if you are a Fall-26 applicant:
Best,
Dr. Sreedath Panat,
IIT Madras, MIT PhD
Co-founder, Vizuara & Videsh