In talks with P. Deepak Kumar, (B.Tech.-Civil Engineering-class of 2016) who will be joining the PhD program at Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, NUS and here, he shares some extremely useful insights about pursuing foreign internships, exchange programmes and graduate studies from the world's best universities.

1. Student Alumni Interaction Cell, (SAIC)
Indian Institute of Technology, IIT (BHU), Varanasi
Mayank Vats from the SAIC, IIT (BHU), Varanasi is in talks with P. Deepak Kumar, (B.Tech.-Civil
Engineering-class of 2016). Deepak will be joining the PhD program at Department of Civil and
Environmental Engineering, NUS and here, he shares some extremely useful insights about pursuing
foreign internships, exchange programmes and graduate studies from the world's best universities.
Q-1: Please let us know about your undergraduate experience at IIT (BHU) including your
internships.
I am Deepak, graduated with bachelors from Department of Civil Engineering in May 2016 and will be
joining NUS for my PhD this fall. My undergraduate experience was truly enriching in various
dimensions as it exposed me to various career paths I could pursue and more importantly in the
process I found what I would love to work upon at least for the next couple of years. I was involved in
various activities alongside of my academics, established Civil Engineering Society (CES), revived Shilp
(Technical festival of Civil Engineering Dept.), worked as training and placement representative,
participated and later organized events in technical fests. All these helped me to grow as an individual
and shaped what I am today. During the course of my undergraduate studies, I worked upon various
research themes and had an opportunity to intern at Larsen & Toubro – Chiyoda Ltd (2014), IIT Gandhi
Nagar (2015), Dept. of Civil Eng. at NUS, Singapore (2015), Soete Laboratory at Ghent University,
Belgium (2016).
Q-2: What made you choose the path of higher education, rather than go for jobs secured through
placements at the college?
When I entered IT-BHU (I prefer calling it as IT rather than IIT), I wanted to pursue my childhood dream
(to become an IAS officer) but here I am today pursuing a passionate career in research. I realised that
we are being conferred with a degree for a greater cause than merely for pursing a job when I attended
convocation with Karan Bajaj (alumnus of CSE’13) in 2013. After thinking deeply, I decided to bring
change pertaining to issues at my department regarding which I was disappointed earlier. I firmly
believed that I won’t be able to bring change at district level in future if I am unable to do so at a
department level itself. I struggled hard for 18 months convincing the stubborn HOD, managing
professors, solving various issues, preventing myself from being involved in departmental politics for
establishing CES and reviving Shilp. Alongside I was exposed to various research projects & internships
including industrial internship at L&T Mumbai. Though I was successful in bringing the change I was
not happy about what I have been through and decided not to pursue career in civil services.
Simultaneously, I was looking for a foreign research internship and ended up landing at the webpage
of Prof. K.J. Bathe at MIT. Instantly, I was inspired about the research in ‘Computational Mechanics’
and decided to pursue a passionate research career, out of my intuition and experience, than
something else and thus never bothered to secure a job even though I had an opportunity to get into
Bechtel during campus placements.
Q-3: Please tell a little about the course and university you have opted for.
I will very soon embark my PhD program at Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, NUS.
I would be working in the field of Continuum Mechanics and the tentative research topic is
‘Computational Homogenization and Continuum Modelling of Auxetic Materials’. Computational

2. SAIC | IIT (BHU), Varanasi | Alumni Experiences
Higher Education Series | Deepak Kumar
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homogenization is a technique to evaluate the mechanical response of a heterogeneous material
which establishes a qualitative link between the macro variables and its micro structural counterpart.
From time and cost point of view, homogenization technique is preferred than experiments and direct
numerical simulations for engineering design purposes in civil, mechanical and aerospace industries.
Auxetic materials exhibit counterintuitive behaviour, expand when put under pressure or contract
when heated or will get fatter rather than thinner when stretched lengthwise, along with enhanced
mechanical and physical properties, are found to have wide range of applications spanning from
construction to molecular engineering including biomedical and nanotechnology applications. Thus
the research theme I would be working upon will have significant impact in the years to come.
Q-4: What factors did you consider when deciding your current course and university? (What were
your other options in terms of admits?)
During my internships I got a glimpse into Computational Mechanics but I always wanted to learn
more and work upon deep research themes having numerous applications in industries.
Thus the path was clear to pursue a PhD by joining one of the best research groups in computational
mechanics. By doing some basic search, I was able to figure out few very good research groups and
approached them. I was quite glad to hear positively from few professors currently in the most
reputed universities at US. But I have chosen NUS as it is one of the most reputed university, offers a
good scholarship as compared to other universities since I have only bachelors. Also, it would be very
easy for me to progress at my work at NUS as I had prior experience working with same supervisor at
NUS during my internship. Additionally, I would be working in collaboration with a professor from
France who is very well known in higher-order continuum models.
Q-5: What were the key things one should consider when preparing application to foreign
universities? (Emphasis areas? – Academic performance/Statement of Purpose/Letters of
Recommendation)
The most crucial factors to be considered while applying for foreign universities are research theme,
your supervisor (more important than university for PhD), reputation of university (for MS) and
analysing your chances of admission. Although your admission offer purely depends upon academic
performance, past research exposure, SOP, LoR’s funding depends upon variety of factors like current
grants at university, supervisor, GRE score. Professors usually look for CGPA around 9, good research
exposure through projects/internships upon different topics, credibility of your LoR’s and most
importantly your interest, experience and ability to pursue research which is most often expressed in
your SOP. They know that you are an undergraduate and they analyse your skills rather than expecting
publications. Contacting professor’s couple of months in advance is strongly recommended and will
definitely improve your admission chances. Also, having publications or prior experience in relevant
research topics could boost up your chances of admission, as in my case.
Q-6: What kind of strategies did you adopt while preparing for GRE/GMAT? Did you join any
coaching services? If yes, how was the experience? (Please include GRE/GMAT scores if possible.)
Performing well at GRE is very crucial to enhance funding chances and sometimes universities
screening process includes GRE score. I don’t think there is a need for joining any coaching services
except if you are extremely poor in writing and speaking skills. Referring to ETS official material and
various reference books like Kaplan, Manhattan is sufficient but it is advisable to stick to only one
reference book. Practising more, especially analytical portion, will help to increase GRE score. Along
with GRE, universities usually ask for TOEFL score. Comprehensive preparation material for TOEFL can
be found on “notefull.com”.

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Q-7: What internship advice would you give to current students? What other activities would you
suggest juniors for being better prepared for higher education and the application process?
If someone is interested to go for higher education, I would advise him/her to go for internships in
summers. Indian Academy of Sciences offers best research internship opportunity and most students
who pursued this ended up going for higher education in prestigious universities. Along with this
students should look for research internship opportunities through programs such as SRIP-IIT GN, INAE
Research Scheme, S.N. Bose Shcolar program, MITACS, CHARPAK, DAAD, SURE (Mc Gill University),
SURF, Cornell-IIT Intern program, RIPS-UCLA, UC-Irvine Internship program, Inria Internships, Viterbi
India summer program, NTU-SRI, etc. simultaneously mailing professors who are working in relevant
research theme rather than blindly mailing many. Maintain your CGPA around 9 (preferably good DR),
focus upon academics, try to gain some research exposure through projects during semester and
internships, start early and prepare well for your graduate applications is what all would suggest.
Q-8: Do you think that having been a student of IIT (BHU), one of the nation’s premier engineering
colleges has had any impact on how you were viewed as an applicant for admission, or a student in
general? What would you say regarding the ease of admission in general?
Thanks to Indian Institute of Technologies. Though no one knows IIT (BHU) in specific the tag of IIT
(due to older IIT’s) helped me throughout. I firmly believe that being a student at Dept. of Civil Engg.,
IIT (BHU) never helped me much for my graduate applications except the tag of IIT since there was no
research culture, very less faculty, less freedom in terms of coursework. Apart from that, it was me
who worked hard from sophomore year to maintain good CGPA and to gain good research exposure
with the help of seniors and internships. This is what helped me in opening gates to NUS, Stanford and
University of California, Berkley and few other reputed US universities. Being an IITian is just an added
advantage and it comes into effect only if you have good academic performance and research
exposure. In general, it is very easy to get into academically well-known universities if you have good
academic performance, research exposure and do well at your graduate applications.
Q-9: Financials tend to be tricky while studying abroad. What is your approximate cost of
attendance and tips for sustaining that?
Yes, funding plays a crucial and tricky part in case of higher studies. Applying to public universities,
integrated MS + PhD programmes directly (apply if you are truly ready for PhD), contacting professors
in advance can enhance your funding chances. It’s very difficult to get funding in US, Singapore as
compared to Canada and Europe for Masters. Again the funding opportunities varies depending upon
departments, research themes, universities, supervisors and a lot more. As far as my knowledge the
cost varies from 40 lakhs to 70 lakhs depending upon the university and its location for a two year MS
program. Few students usually go for MS without funding and manage funds by working as teaching
or research assistant, doing part-time jobs, through loans from home country (Usually they repay loan
by joining into a job after MS). Since I have been admitted to PhD program at NUS, I would be receiving
a Research Scholarship from university. Financials are tricky and need to be dealt with care is all what
I can say.
Q-10: A number of aspirants struggle with the choice between a Master’s degree (M.S./M.Eng.) or
a PhD program. What advice would you give to help them make the right choice?
If your focus is to get a job after masters then go for M.Eng as it contains more coursework (suitable
for job aspirants) rather than research as in M.S. Master of Science is suitable for those who intend to

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pursue PhD in future or those who are not sure whether they should end up in a job or PhD. M.S.
offer’s a chance to undergo coursework alongside you will be required to carry out research. Few
universities offer M.Eng initially and students can convert them into M.S afterwards again depending
upon various factors. One should go for PhD only if he is truly interested to gain in-depth knowledge
and research experience in that particular field, also willing for a long-term commitment. Graduate
schools are there forever and you can attend them in any part of your lifetime. So think twice before
you apply or make your decision!
Q-11: What kind of employment opportunities should one expect at the end of the respective
degree program, in general?
Most students prefer getting graduated from universities in US and the reason behind this is that US
offers a pool of opportunities for talented. Though a similar situation (circuit branches can get jobs
easily and paid much more than core) prevails in US, students are exposed to greater pool of
opportunities. It is advisable to discuss about employment opportunities with the alumni or current
students of the degree program you intend to take at that university or country rather than seeking
for a general advise. Kindly remember to consider the visa criteria’s, work permits etc. if you are much
concerned about employment opportunities.
Q-12: What fundae would you like to leave for your juniors at IIT (BHU)?
Apart from academics there is much more you need to get exposed to when you are an
undergraduate. IIT (BHU) provides a pool of opportunities to showcase your talents whether you are
interested in technical, sports or cultural activities. Do participate in such activities, interact with
others to understand their perspectives, learn from them and do teach them, explore and experiment
upon yourself. It’s a life enriching opportunity which is going to shape you, your future and you are
going to get it for only once in a lifetime, so have some fun. All you remember and miss about IIT (BHU)
is the fun you had with your friends, not the grades!