Nikita Granger, an alumnus of the Computational Science master’s, is currently a Project Manager at the Shell headquarters in The Hague. We interviewed him about his thoughts on the Computational Science program. He shared his experiences with us as an international student in the Netherlands.

Nikita’s parents are of Russian and American descent, but he moved around a lot as a child. “I think I lived in six different countries before I turned 18.” After high school, he had a Dutch girlfriend. Nikita came to the Netherlands and obtained a double bachelor’s degree in Econometrics at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam, and in Applied Mathematics at TU Delft. Last November, he graduated from the Master of Computational Science.

There were two main reasons why Nikita chose the Computational Science master: the depth in Computer Science aside from Mathematics, and the flexibility of the study programs. “I had a really good idea of what I wanted to do, and what I wanted to get out of the program, and Computational Science let me do that.” The universities themselves played a role in his decision as well. “Combined, the VU and UvA have so many facilities and faculties, and so many really strong research groups that we can take courses from. That’s really unique. I think it’s a really good university to have a program like this.”

Therefore, despite some minor disadvantages, Nikita appreciates the joint degree. “It was a little annoying having two separate accounts, but it wasn’t that much of a big deal. It was an advantage because you have more options. It sometimes helped with my schedule as well, because there was a course given at both universities. Sometimes one of them fit in my schedule, and the other didn’t. In that sense, it was positive having a joint degree.”

During his bachelor’s degrees, Nikita soon discovered that studying in the Netherlands was very different from what he had expected. He was anticipating a grand experience, with plenty of culture surrounding it, as is customary in the US. In comparison, the Dutch system seemed much more transactional: you go to university to study. “Universities here are more to the point,” he states. Although this took some getting used to, he did grow to like it. “By the end of my first year, I was already doing courses that people would do at the end of their bachelor’s in the US because I didn’t have any of these ridiculous Liberal Arts courses. I didn’t have a thousand electives; I didn’t have to take Cold War History or Philosophy of Language or anything like that. And I actually prefer that. I think that if you know what you want to do, the Dutch system builds you up fast.”

Nikita always had a job during his master’s. For a little over a year, he worked at a commodity trader specialized in energy products. His role was to design the mathematical and statistical models used for trading. Afterward, he spent around a year at Nationale Nederlanden Investment Partners, where his position was similar. “I wanted to do something more social, so I got this Project Manager role at Shell.”

Although at his current job he’s not actively using his Computational Science skills, he does use them tangentially. As a project leader, he understands the problems and technologies, and he knows which skillsets are required on the team. In his previous jobs, he did a lot of programming, utilizing numerical algorithms and simulations.

For Nikita, there were two main highlights he took away from the program. Firstly, he became a good computer scientist. When he started the master’s program, he had a good understanding of math, but not of Computer Science. “Now I feel like I can converse with any Computer scientist on the same level. I don’t have to be this idiot mathematician who doesn’t know the basic terminology, the basic lingo, the basic concepts behind it.” The second highlight for Nikita was the diversity in student backgrounds. During his time as a bachelor’s student, Nikita was surrounded purely by Economics and Mathematical Finance students. “Everybody had the same ambition to work at a big bank or something. No one ever talked about biology or chemistry or physics or psychology. It was nice to get that diversity in skillsets, knowledge, and backgrounds. I think that was also a big takeaway because I learned a lot from them, and they broadened my perspectives.”

There are some areas where the degree could be improved upon. The Computational Science program allows a great deal of flexibility in study programs. As previously stated, Nikita feels this freedom is essential. However, this introduces some issues. When following a course from a master’s degree outside of your usual field, teaching staff often assumes one has a bachelor’s degree in that respective field. “It seems like you’re allowed to take whatever course you want, but you take it from the Computer Science masters or the Mathematics masters. Unless you did a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or Mathematics, you’re really going to struggle.” Considering his background in Mathematics, Nikita experienced this himself with the high-level computing courses he took. That being said, there were positive sides to this as well. He learned a lot from his fellow students, which was very valuable to him. “So it was very hard on day one. But on the bright side, because I was surrounded by Computer Scientists, and because so much was expected of me, you pick things up a lot faster.”

Nikita believes many students stay away from certain subjects because they are too intimidating. If the master’s program were to offer bridging courses, such as ‘Introduction to High-Performance Computing’, for example, this could ease the transition between fields.

Furthermore, it can be challenging to benefit fully from the freedom that the program offers for students who don’t have a clear idea of what they want to do. As a result, Nikita feels like some of his fellow students ended up with degrees that didn’t make much sense. In this case, he thinks that students could gain more of an advantage from some guidance. “For me it was great, that’s a big reason why I chose the program and why I really like it, but I think some people didn’t get the most out of it.”

When asked about the job market, Nikita explains finding a job was never an issue. He received five job offers, including a Ph.D. position. “It was easy. I think the harder part was actually to find out what I wanted to do in life. Because it really is a crossroads. If I went with a Ph.D., my life would be totally different right now. So that was the harder decision.” Nikita believes it is mainly a rigorous background in Mathematics as well as Computer Science that distinguishes Computational Science students. That foundation is often missing in AI degrees, he says.

In the end, only one question remained. In retrospect, would Nikita still have chosen the Master of Computational Science? There was no hesitation in his answer. “Yeah. Absolutely. It was definitely the right choice to make. Absolutely no regrets.”