Hello Riya,

A BS-MS degree is like no other. It is amazingly liberating and diversifying. You can take up a variety of career options with this in your hand. You won’t be constricted by the usual border lines available to most other traditional degrees - you don’t have to necessarily go for specialization, or write the GRE to get an MS admit abroad, or get a job via campus placements, or do the MBA, or start preparing for the UPSC.

In fact, you can take up any of these, depending on your interest and aptitude.

The BS-MS program gives you a very unique training in multi-disciplinary sciences which makes you highly qualified to venture into a variety of career openings. A number of answers to this question have mentioned specific examples, so give those a read.

Compared to a traditional science graduate, a BS-MS graduate from IISER has superior technical knowledge, hands-on experience, exposure to inter-disciplinary research, and wider scope for further growth. This is made possible due to the one-of-a-kind structuring of a the curriculum which serves to make one a dynamic, versatile researcher with a potentially wider variety of interest areas.

The ideal career path after your BS-MS, if you are interested in academic and research would most probably be a PhD. And it is here that you’ll have an edge greater than what your peers from other programs will, mainly for the reasons mentioned above.

However, if you are really looking to diverge from this line, once again, opportunities abound. And the best part is that the multi-disciplinary education across subjects you will have received during your BS-MS training will ensure that you are able to quickly adapt and fit in almost anywhere.

IISERs currently offer an amazingly wide variety of courses, and a number of these are mandatory for students - for instance, two years of core courses in PCMB (yes, all four), Earth and Environmental Sciences, Economics, etc. - and then, your major subject, as well as multiple options for you to take minors as per your choice and interest. In short, you’ll be getting an amazing platform to explore your interests, your aptitude, and pursue a career based on these.

Hope this helps,

Stay connected for further queries.

All the Best!