2014 JEE Topper Chitraang may Quit IIT-B to Pursue Physics Abroad

New Delhi: 2014 JEE Advanced topper from Udaipur, Chitraang Murdia, ruled the media headlines for his AIR #1 in IIT JEE last year. After spending a year at IIT Bombay pursuing B.Tech in Computer Science, he is now keen to quit IIT and pursue Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where he has got admission with scholarship.

Chitraang also got selected at two other top institutes. He had also won the gold medal at the International Physics Olympiad (IPhO) when he was in Class XII. Currently, he is doing a Physics project in electron-electron interaction with Vijay Singh who had trained him for IPhO. The project is being run under the National Initiative on Undergraduate Science (NIUS).

Figure 1: Chitraang with her parents Manish and Sonali

Murdia says, “Computer Science is an interesting subject by I am really in love with Physics. I want to delve in research work, probably quantum theory.”

If he quits IIT, Chitraang would be following the footsteps of Raghu Mahajan, the topper of IIT JEE 2006, who had quit Computer Science and Engineering course at IIT Delhi after two years to study Physics. Right now, he is doing PhD in Physics from Stanford University. Majahan too had won a gold medal at the IPhO and did a project under NIUS.

2015 JEE Main topper – Sankalp Gaur – has expressed his love for Physics too. Hailing from Maharashtra, Sankalp has secured 345 marks in the exam and though he is preparing for JEE Advanced 2015, his father revealed that he is really interested in taking admission in the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore. According to his father Mukul, “Sankalp’s interests lie in Nuclear Physics and Astrophysics. If he takes admission in an IIT, I think he might opt for Engineering Physics course.”

IIT-Bombay Director Devang Khakhar revealed that many students switch subjects after their first year. Ex-Director of IISc P Balaram said, “Switching courses cannot be called a trend yet. Only a few selected and focused student, who have exposure of competitions like Olympiads, manage to change their courses because they know what they really like. An average student takes much longer to decide the right course for them. Getting the first rank does not mean that the student knows what they want to do in life.”

According to experts, there are very few good institutes in India to pursue Pure Sciences and it is very difficult to get admission in them. It is much easier to get admission in Ivy league universities or other top colleges abroad. Other things that discourage students to pursue Physics or Pure Sciences course is limited job options. A Physics graduate can only hope to get a secured job by the age of 30, while engineering graduates generally get jobs as soon as they finish their B.Tech.