Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About CMI

By The Students, For the Students, Of The Students!

Welcome to the new and swanky CMI Student Blogs! To start of, we really wanted to answer some of the questions that we had before joining, things people ask on Reddit / Quora as well as things we feel you might want to know.

The questions were answered by some of the writers of this blog, you can know more about them on the about the writers page and can read other stuff they write by navigating to their profile. So with all that out of the way, let’s get to the questions:

Why did you choose CMI over ISI?

Ripudaman: The food.

Arjun: ISI Bangalore has loads of snakes, scorpions and insects. CMI has some snakes and a much smaller variety of insects (and importantly, no scorpions).

Also, CMI has a CS  programme while ISI Bangalore doesn’t. Finally, CMI allows us to choose about 8 electives during our degree (now 16 with the 4 year degree) while ISI allows only 3, while essentially covering the same core syllabus.

Rhyin: ze food no kiddin! (ask the ISI Bang people who came for CMI STEMS ;)). Realistically though, as Arjun has already mentioned about the courses, I just wanna add about Physics, which ISIB has some courses on but not a degree / specialized department in. CMI has a rather large set of extremely good physicists now working in mostly theoretical and some applied domains.

How To Prepare For CMI?

Agnivesh: This is going to be for Msc DS. Well, my personal prep was a bit unconventional. I will walk you through my prep strategy which was I had already prepared most of the syllabus because of my prep for IITJAM MS and the ISI MSTAT entrance exams lol. But, if I had to give general advice, it would be to follow the syllabus given and use the reference books recommended as I incidentally had been using those very same books. Another important thing would be to practice solving past papers/sample papers with a timer. That is one thing I had struggled with. I would start writing really long answers proving things when I did not need to, leading to me missing out on questions I could have solved due to the time constraints. 

Overall, the DS entrance exam is not going to be that difficult if you prepare the syllabus and are able to keep time. 

Rushi: This is for MScDS. I would personally suggest going through decent prep of all topics and special focus on logic and probability. If I had to suggest few good then 

• ISI Tomato
• Probability – Sheldon Ross
• Discrete Mathematics – Rosen

One of the biggest blocker for me was always, is this enough material. But I’d say, THIS IS. The real challenge has multiple angles to it. For example, DS entrance has become a 3.5 hrs exam, which is a long period of time to stay focused. So you’ll have to train yourself to sit at the same time as exam for 3-4 hrs and solve mock papers. There are many resources nowadays which can help you create good mock papers and tailor to your choice of difficulty. But please try to solve book exercises, especially sheldon ross because it’s examples and questions are the process of learning itself. You can also watch STAT110 if you like video lecs.

Honestly, I’d like to finish my part by saying that, you’ll have to think and prepare in all dimensions to do well. CMI DS entrance is simple in nature but still expects you to think, so don’t feel demotivated. Just keep at it, and you’ll make it. 

Arjun: I’ll begin by quoting Evan Chen’s EGMO:

Readers are encouraged to not be bureaucratic in their learning and move around as they see fit, e.g., skipping complicated sections and returning to them later, or moving quickly through familiar material.

For BSc,

• Join AOPS and become active on the ISI/CMI Preparation thread and the overall High School Olympiads thread. This is perhaps the most important thing you could do as this will tell you both how to solve as well as write your answers. I don’t think there has been a single IMO medalist in t who doesn’t have an AOPS account. 
• PYQs of the last 10-15 years from ISI and CMI should be your first priority. 
• Second, complete TOMATO.
• Third, do any basic Putnam book you like. My personal favorite is Art and Craft of Problem Solving by Paul Zeitz. Another really nice option is Larson’s Problem Solving Through Problems.
• (if you haven’t prepared for JEE and are not good at MCQs) Solve Black Book. It is not that hard as people make it out to be. Just be patient.
• Give some mocks. AOPS has some mocks made by current students to give back.
• (if time permits) solve past (in order of difficulty and recall) AMCs, IOQMs, AIMEs, RMOs, INMOs, USAMOs, HMMTs, SUMACs, PUMACs, BMCs, OMCs, NMCs, IMOs, RMMs, EGMOs, Putnam, Madhava, SMMCs, STEMs, LIMITs etc etc of as many years as possible. In general, the goal is to get good at solving problems. Feel free to skip latter questions on these as well as any contests without well written solutions. 

Again, quoting Evan: “The easiest first step to getting better is to double the amount of time you spend practicing. (Unless that amount is zero, in which case, you should just start.)”

Rhyin: [For BS only] To have the standard answer, I hope you read what Arjun wrote down :D. Now, I am very aware that people trying to join CMI/ISI or maybe just trying to self study for math/science olympiads are always looking for the right resources and I would like to dispel a misconception which people often hold (i did asw) keeping a steady practice up will get you through any problems. It will ofcourse get you better at solving problems dont get me wrong but what matters more is you’re able to visualize and understand a concept and maybe can come up with it from scratch once you see the full picture. When that happens to you w.r.t anything really, you’ll realize how trivial a concept can seem like. Now, most people (based on people around me) reach that level of understanding through lots and lots of practice problems, but you, my gentlest reader can be different! 

How is college life? Is there college/campus life? How is CMI other than studies? Is it fun there?

Shreya: College life is fun-stressful. You can take so many subjects and it becomes a fun challenge to submit all 6 assignments due in the same week alongwith maybe a random quiz. 

Apart from having literally 10x more interesting subjects that you can take every semester, there’s always some game going on or like chess tournament or late night poker or something. And there’s keyboard in common room which is really cool. You can listen to classical music every Friday, and also there’s movie night. CS lab is a chill place to hangout and stuff. At least once, definitely get gpu access to run some crazy llm experiment or app once.

Agnivesh: College life is rather fun here! Like Shreya mentioned already, there’s always an assignment due that day of the week and a quiz coming up that you are not prepared for, you start to enjoy keeping busy.

There’s also always some seminar or the other happening on a topic that you have never heard of. Overall, there’s always things to do on campus. It is one of the reasons I love being on campus all day because even when you have nothing to do, you can find something to do or someone to hang out with.You can always have fun and informative conversations. 

A fun place to hang out at is the CS lab where you might actually run into the more  eccentric entities that roam these corridors. There’s always something happening in there. I remember one of my first days at cmi was seeing a bunch of students trying to lift and spin each other.

Besides that there’s always the Open Discussion Areas  where you can hang out. You will often see students discuss various problems here and there. Overall, it’s a rather lively environment that I really enjoy.

Rushi: Campus life in CMI is fun but different. Its not what you’d conventionally consider as “College Life” because some tables are turned head over heels here. The culture is more nerdy in nature, but there are all types of niches that you can pursue. You’ll see a lot of board games, music, fun/relaxing evenings, random sports and so much more. We have a lot of events and sports around the campus continuously going. CMI gives a lot of respect to its students’ autonomy which lets them explore and choose what they want to do and also gives a good amount of independence. You’ll see all types of amazing people that you can interact with, have fun and learn something. There are black boards everywhere and every time I walk by any one of them, I’m amused. CMI always feeds my craze for mathematics and CS, a part of me which loves theoreticals is always overjoyed by just having a few good conversations around. 

Sports and Extracuriculars? What about literature and arts?

Shreya: Again, every week there’s some game or stuff going on.

Every semester, there’s a literature subject and a foreign language subject that you can credit/ attend.

Agnivesh: Certain sports are pretty common here. You also have tournaments happening regularly. Cricket and Football have been long standing staples of the campus. Basketball has had a major push over the last year including a tournament just last sem. There’s also regular non-competitive games that happen. A very common text you will receive is “Pitch is looking lovely lads” lol.

Like Shreya mentioned, there’s literature courses and foreign languages offered regularly. You can also join various clubs like the origami club or the music players club that offer alternate artistic expression. Oh and I believe there’s also semi-annual reading lists made at the end of each semester.

Arjun: A massive advantage of the small campus is that there are no auditions or tryouts. If you wanna play cricket or perform in the cultural night/farewell or compete in the chess league, you can suck at it and still take part. Nobody will make fun of you as well, everyone sucked at some point. 

And as it turns out, if you continue doing something, you will get better (and given how good some people are at teaching, quite quickly).

Would I fit in?

Shreya: if you’re not a bully or mean or creepy, yeah you’ll fit in.

Agnivesh: This question actually takes me back to a funny interaction I had with a friend of mine just this semester. I remember bringing up how I’ve always been worried about not fitting in anywhere and it was followed by a light hearted joke about how everyone here does not “fit in”. I believe that is what incidentally makes everyone fit in. My point is I have found CMI to be one of the most inclusive and socially welcoming campuses I have attended and I am sure you will find your clique in no time!

Rushi: As per my experience, even though our student body isn’t that large, I’ve seen everyone finding someone to talk to. Honestly, I think people who are doubtful about “If they can fit in” are more likely to find like minded people. Unless you’re someone who’s actively evil, you’ll be fine. CMI is quite liberal, so you don’t have to worry much about it. 

Ripudaman: I’ll assume ‘fit in’ means finding like minded people. Your chosen subject will end up taking a huge part of your time and it is reasonable to think that people you deem congenial also have similar tastes. Not to say that you can’t have a friend who studies a different subject, I too have plenty of those but the ones that I end up spending the most time with and by extension being closer to, are the ones with whom I have shared a large number of courses. There are a reasonable number of people in CS and you should not face any issues. Math and Physics have fewer people but are nicher and have historically confirmed the power of homophily.

Ragging? Bullying?

Arjun: Funny story, when I had joined I was told that CMI doesn’t have any ragging culture but all my elder cousins at IITs and medical colleges told me that it’s just what administration says and there will be an intro etc etc. On our first Tuesday, all the first years got an mail calling us to the audi foyer for ‘Introduction’ and I was preparing for the worst.

It was literally one of the most wholesome experiences. To encourage the introverts, whenever they introduced themselves, a senior would also introduce themselves. Whenever anyone mentioned a hobby or a skill, there was cheering.

CMI doesn’t have a senior-junior or bhaiya-didi culture. To the contrary, whenever I use bhaiya-didi, I am almost immediately corrected. Even some prof’s insist we use their first names.

Ragging/Bullying in CMI is usually inverted. First years bully everyone by forcing us to explain ‘What is a Turing machine?’ or ‘What is a differential form?’or ‘How does this matching algorithm work?’

Most of us will sort of be annoyed by the lack of pre-reqs (‘forgot that you don’t know what X is’) but in general are happy to geek out.

Rushi: CMI is very strict about matters relating to student safety. We have a good and honest Grievance council made of mostly students and some profs who together are there to make sure that any student, no matter who they are will always be heard. Now, I know that statement sounds very diplomatic, but in all honestly I’ve heard about many situations in past where the GC has came in action and resolved conflicts. Also, the students are also very conscious of it as well, so it’s pretty safe here. I’ve already made this statement, but I’ll repeat myself, that CMI is very liberal in nature and value it’s students at utmost priority. 

Why do you all think the 1st year batch of 2025 had such a small size? Any probable/absolute reasons?

Arjun:  Few probable reasons

– Due to Trump’s Visa shenanigans, a lot of people eligible for direct admission (Olympiad campers) did reserve their seats and didn’t turn up. This in turn increased the normal cutoff and caused a lot of people who would otherwise join to not get a scholarship (or even an offer, because CMI doesn’t do waitlists).

– A general pattern one can observe is that whenever JEE Adv has a nice paper (as in thinking paper rather than formula bash), CMI admission is lower. Take 2024 or 2021 as examples, CMI has 40-50 people and the JEE papers were, for a lack of better word, terrible. Take 2023 or 2025 as examples, JEE papers were nice and most CMI accepted students probably got good ranks there. While I like CMI a lot more than IITs, often there is family pressure to join IITs.

Rhyin: As one of the 14 people of the batch it is my responsibility to write this that we really have no clue what made our peers not select CMI, for all we know some of our peers went on to ISIK/B and that number is around ~40 (approx 20 to ISIK and 20 to ISIB). And now, ISIK and ISIB have some of the biggest undergrad batches they have ever had. 

How are CMI placements? Are they as good as the brochures make it? Does everyone get placed? What about undergrads?

Shreya: In DS, almost everybody gets placed. 1 or 2 who didn’t get placed, did really huge blunders during placement season. But the opportunities are ample. The placements are decent and most places that hire from here are looking for those who can do research level work, so the work won’t get boring, mostly.

Rushi: About Placement I can only say one thing. Its above industry standards, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. You can easily get 20+LPA placements in really good companies given you actually understand what you’re doing and work hard. A lot of times, things are heavily dependent on markets but there are always opportunities. Plus, if you’re someone who’s more theoretically inclined (given you’re in ML/DS), you’ll love here because this place has many people who can steer you in the correct directions to go deep into these fields and maybe try for publishings and researchers.

The only caveat is, usually placements are focused towards MScDS and some MScCS people. If you’re from any other batches, then it’s your own responsibility to go to the placement coordinator and sit for placements. Plus, the culture in those batches are heavily research oriented, and it’ll be tough for you to find people with the same goals (I mean there are, but not a lot). On the bright side, undergrads and math heavy students are generally preferred by niche companies and your capability to just be there also gives you a huge platform. In previous years, we’ve had Jane Street, IMC, JPMC, Google etc hire from us and some companies like Jane Street mainly come for undergrads. The edge of heavy logic, math, cs, research and reasoning capabilities gives these students a heavy boost and these companies know that really well. We’ve had students who went to really prestigious places like Deepmind, Microsoft Research and SarvamAI. The opportunities are there, but the efforts and skills also need to be at that level to score them. 

Can only geniuses get grades at CMI? If I am not a genius, will I have to study all day?

Arjun: Unlike a lot of the other bloggers, I am neither a genius nor do I study all day. And I have decent grades (8+ overall, 9.5 in CS). It’s a popular adage that you can’t really do more than 4 hrs of good math in a day. Combine that with only 14 hrs of classes a week and you can probably go through CMI studying 4-6 hrs a day.

Can you study physics there?

Rhyin: We have amazing theoretical physics professors doing research in physics whom you can approach, talk to, work with and even publish! The physics professors I know are all very chill and extremely encouraging people who love to work with students from all years of study no matter undergrad, postgrad or PhD! When I first entered CMI, I researched about the physics faculty and knowing how amazing they are, I was taken aback and slightly afraid but looking back that was very stupid considering how welcoming all the physics people I’ve met at campus have been. We(CMI) also regularly host physics talks given by people from places like TIFR, IUCAA, Max Planck Institute, ENS Paris-Saclay, Caltech, MIT, RRI, HRI, IISc etc. which are very fun to attend [++aura if you attend as a BS1 and understand such a talk completely; But even with partial understanding I have really enjoyed them]. Most people studying Physics here have gone on to amazing institutions, mostly in the Departments of Applied Mathematics and/or Theoretical Physics. Our Physics lab is also very cute and the course structure is being redesigned to incorporate more applied physics courses into the available list of electives for physics undergrads as well. However, If you are someone who is solely interested in applied physics, numerical simulations and experimentals and despise heavy math or theoretical physics – In that case, I would like to remind you that the degree is BS(Hons.) Mathematics and Physics and let your judgement do the rest. On the other hand though if you want to learn a lot of math and physics while having your research interests in the applied domains, it’s highly encouraged for you to come here and dabble in everything! (I am one such person, my own summer research project involves a lot of computational simulations of astrophysical bodies UwU).

What’s theoretical computer science? difference between computer science which I hear from iits and all, and theoretical cs?

Arjun: Same as the difference between math and engineering. CSE stands for Computer science engineering. This has a lot of stuff about how to make systems which scale or can be worked on by lots of people or are idiot proof aka don’t rely on programmer discipline. CS, on the other hand, is the study of computation and machines which do them. Mainly theoretical is a prefix we had to attach to prevent confusion as to the layman CS means CSE. 

Theoretical CS tends to revolve around 2 major questions: Can a problem be solved? If yes, how fast can it be solved? Now this might sound simple but then it is just the top level. Similar to how all physics is just ‘why do things happen? Can we make them happen according to us?’ The actual study has a lot more complexity (pun intended).

Can we go to ivy leagues (or any top international universities) for masters after studying at cmi? What will it require for me to go there (with scholarship)?

Shreya: try to keep a good GPA and definitely apply for NIUS camp and TIFR VSRP. Also try to qualify Madhava Mathematics competition if you want to go for PhD Math later. Try to do an internship every summer break either with CMI prof or somewhere else, that’d increase your chances of authoring a paper which would be a big plus while applying to Ivy leagues and such.

Arjun: Also consider preparing for ICPC (if you want to do CS) as well as SMMC (if you want to do math). Also, TAing courses while at CMI also helps with the applications.

Rhyin: Yes. Following the advice given by Shreya and Arjun would be a great start/guide to building your applications. However, I want to highlight something, you can want to do something because somebody did it before and they got good results out of it but that never guarantees that you’ll have the same results as they did even if you have the same/similar credentials.

What does research mean at an undergraduate level? Can I even understand what these fancy profs are working in? Can I publish?

Ripudaman: For Math : Research at an undergrad level can be significant and the prefix of ‘undergrad’ is not a derogatory adjective. Like everything else this too is dependent on the field of math you choose to specialise in. Some areas, especially those which are more combinatorial in nature like additive combinatorics or some parts of analytic number theory, have a higher chance of undergraduate publications. In areas like algebra, geometry and topology, publications at this level are unlikely. This does not imply that the latter areas are harder, but just that they have more pre-requisites to cover. The good thing is the expectations of people around you are shaped with feasibility in mind and no one will ask you to do anything significantly outside your reach. You won’t understand what most profs are working on without concerted effort, but the good thing is that they also won’t understand your ‘undergrad’ research without putting in some effort either. 

Arjun: CS is a rather new branch, so a lot of the things are quite accessible. It is not uncommon for second and third years to attend FSTTCS (which is India’s main CS conference) as well as take up research projects. In general, unless you choose a very complex branch, you can always find an exciting topic to research in (and yes, publish in), even as an undergrad. As for understanding what profs are working on, most CS profs are very good at explaining so they will convince you that you understand (sometimes even if you don’t).

Is there job security in research? What if I don’t want to do a PhD?

Ripudaman: Jobs in academia are famously secure but landing a job in academia can be notoriously hard as culls take place while securing positions for masters, phd and post doc, with only a chosen few ending up on the other side. Whether alternative (read industry)  job options are available depends heavily on the sub-field you choose to specialise in. Probability in Maths and Ai-Ml in Cs have flourishing flora with ripe job opportunities whereas Logic in Cs and most of abstract math will not lead to jobs that will use much of what you studied. It is not uncommon to end up in a tech job regardless of what you study.

On an opinionated note, this is not something you should be worried about. If you do what you enjoy with enough vigour then sufficient lucrative/attractive opportunities will be present when the time comes.

Rhyin: RIpudaman’s answer is cute and very well formed. For the physics people reading this, it’s almost the same for us. Some of the physics people can deviate to maths, finance or engineering as well later in life as multiple CMI alumni accounts have shown. The vice-versa phenomena is also seen in some CMI alums :D.

I am interested in / pursue X as a hobby. Is there a community around X at CMI? 

Shreya: whatever X is, you can always send an email and there’ll be somebody who wants to try something random. So if there isn’t a community, it can be built.

“Help will always be given at CMI to those who ask for it.” In that sense, CMI and Hogwarts are a lot alike.