Hello aspirant!

A BS-MS degree is like no other. 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.

However, IISERs arent established to make people "just" earn after its BS-MS course (a common scenario in IITs and other engineering institutions ). The motto behind it is to provide high good quality education to young minds and drive the scientific attitude in them. As you observed, most of the grads apply for Phds (many are able to make through in international universities).

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 a wider scope for further growth. This is made possible due to the one-of-a-kind structuring of 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. IISER prepares you the best as someone ready to join Ph.D. however the five-year BS-MS program sets you apart from the other graduates and postgraduates in the country in terms of exposure, interaction, infrastructure…a truly pan India (+ International) experience with students and faculties drawn from almost every part of the country and speakers drawn from the finest universities/institutes of the world. Not only you get to understand science, mathematics, humanities etc. and the nuances of research you get to live with a diverse set of the community adding to your cultural and social development amplified by the various non-academic activities from time to time.

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.

Hope this helps,

Stay connected for further queries.

All the Best!