The Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) is one of the toughest exams in India. Every year, lakhs of students appear for the exam to get admission into the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). However, only a few thousand students succeed. One such student is Chitraang Murdia, who topped the JEE Advanced exam in 2014 with All India Rank 1.
Chitraang Murdia scored 334 out of 360 marks in the JEE Advanced 2014 examination. He secured admission to IIT Bombay, one of the top engineering institutes in the country. However, after studying there for one year, he made a surprising decision to leave the institute and follow his passion for physics.
His decision shocked many people, including his friends and family. Most expected him to continue engineering and later work in leading global technology companies. Explaining his choice in a post on Humans of Bombay, Murdia said people felt he was too young to take such a big decision and warned him about losing a high-paying engineering career.
Despite the doubts, Chitraang Murdia followed his interest in science. He completed his undergraduate degree in Physics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2018. Later, he earned his PhD from University of California, Berkeley in 2023.
Currently, Chitraang Murdia is working as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Pennsylvania.
Murdia hopes that his journey will inspire students who love subjects like physics and mathematics. He said many students feel pressured to choose popular engineering branches due to family expectations or financial concerns. Through his story, he wants to encourage young people to follow their true passion, even if it means taking an unconventional path.
