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I started my college journey as a Math major, completely convinced I’d be buried in proofs, theorems, and late-night problem sets for the foreseeable future. And honestly, I loved it: the logic, the structure, the challenge, it all clicked. But then, somewhere between semesters, I randomly signed up for a CS course, mostly out of curiosity. I didn’t think much of it at the time, but that one choice ended up completely changing how I thought about my future. A few years later,

I built a fully controllable acoustic levitator—moving objects in 3D using sound. 1. Who I Am & How It Started A quick intro: me, my studies, and what I do now I am Yashovardhan Bamalwa. I studied Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Rutgers University. I now work in my family’s jewellery business, focusing on building systems and procedures in a traditionally unorganized industry. The “distracted” kid in class Teachers often saw me as distracted and disinterested.

What factors made you choose Manipal over UofT? During the uncertain times of Covid, going abroad seemed like a big risk where college admin had already mentioned that classes will be online for a year at least. Normalcy would not be expected at least till end of 3rd sem. It took away the charm of meeting different people, meeting passionate professors etc. Manipal on the other hand was within India and seemed like a safer option. Not to mention paying so much for abroad coll

Expectation: Let me submit the application then I am done Reality: After submitting the application comes the annoying part January 15th was the date I had in my mind when all of my applications would be submitted and I could relax after that because all that had to be done would be over. This was completely incorrect. Honestly the work after finishing the applications was even more tedious. This was because of the fact that while submitting the applications I

Travelling Alone Internationally This may not seem like a big deal or an important lesson at first but this actually taught me a great deal. Travelling internationally alone especially for someone who never cared about where his passport was or whether he had a visa or not because all of this was taken care of by his parents. The first time I travelled to college, I realised the amount of stress and responsibility that was on me now. I had to make sure my passport was on me a

It was the end of February at 4am in the morning when the rest of my family was fast asleep and all you could hear was the occasional chirping of the birds and my thumping heartbeat, when I was glued to my laptop frantically refreshing the UIUC admissions portal to check whether the decision was out yet. Suddenly, after one such refresh, I see the webpage change, confetti appear on the screen and the words “ You are an Illini ”. I erupted with a sense of relief and excitement