advertisement
Seventeen-year-old Malvika Raj Joshi doesn’t have a class X or XII certificate but has made it to the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), thanks to her computer programming talent.
Her story is one where “merit” overshadows “marks”. The Mumbai teenager has been provided a scholarship by MIT and is pursuing her Bachelor of Science degree after being a three-time medal winner (two silver and a bronze) at the International Olympiad of Informatics, commonly known as Programming Olympiad.
MIT has a provision for accepting students who are medal winners at various Olympiads (Maths, Physics or Computer) and it was Malvika’s medals that ensured her acceptance into the research program in Computer Science.
She found it difficult to get through elite Indian institutes like IIT, which have strict rules entailing the need to pass class XII exams.
The only institute she got through was Chennai Mathematical Institute (CMI), where she was enrolled in the M.Sc level course as her knowledge was at par with the B.Sc standard.
However, Madhavan made it clear that Malvika is not a product of the system but has emerged despite it.
Malvika was taken out of school by her mother who was much more focused on her child’s happiness than inflicting upon her a system-induced pressure that makes children sell themselves short.
Miraculously, her daughter seemed happy post the change and started learning more than ever — “Knowledge became a passion”.
When Supriya is asked if more parents want to know about her daughter, she laughs as she says, “They are all interested in knowing how to get into MIT. I just tell them that we never aimed for her admission in MIT. I tell parents to understand what their children like.”
(With inputs from PTI.)
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)