In June I finished my B.E. in Computer Science and Engineering at Muffakham Jah College of Engineering and Technology, Osmania University. I came in through the diploma route: three years at the State Board of Technical Education and Training in Telangana, then straight into the second year of the degree.
Habit one: ship
I started billing clients for code at 17, during the diploma, because rent does not wait for a degree. That shaped how I worked for years: an ML apprenticeship, an ML internship, a social media agency, then an AI automation product. I knew how to ship something a person would pay for long before I knew how to check whether a result was true.
Habit two: check
The degree years added the second habit. Dr. Fahmina Taranum and Dr. Tasneem Bano Rehman supervised my first research, and most of what they taught me comes down to not believing a number until you know what produced it.
If you are on the diploma-to-degree route: it is not a detour. The hands-on years are an advantage, as long as shipping never replaces checking.
Next: graduate research applications, and writing up the rest of this year here.