World’s top varsities woo Patna boy

Patna: Arnav Ramkrishnan (17), a class XII student of Delhi Public School (DPS)-Patna, has been offered a seat at eight prestigious foreign universities in the United States and the United Kingdom.
Born to a civil engineer Mahendra Kumar Singh and Punam Kumari, a deputy collector, Arnav had his sight on international varsities right from class X. “The application procedure started in August last year.Writing the statement of purpose or essays was the most difficult part as it has to be a reflection of one self. What probably set my application apart from the rest was the poetic tone and tenor of my answers,” he told TOI.
The varsities which have invited Arnav are University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), University of California, San Diego, University of California, Davis, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (US), University of Manchester, University of Warwick, University of Nottingham and University of Birmingham, the last four in the UK.
Arnav, who scored 2,060/2,400 in SAT I, 2,400/2,400 in SAT II and 112/120 in TOEFL, has also received scholarships from these institutions totalling about Rs 3 crore. “UCLA, the varsity which I have zeroed in, is offering a scholarship of Rs 1.5 crore for four years, subject to my performance,” says Arnav, who will be heading for UCLA in August this year.
A science student, Arnav has taken his class XII exams from the CBSE this year. He, however, decided against the IITs in class X itself. “I am personally against the entrance test system of the IITs where years of hard work boils down to doing good on that one day. If it’s not your day, you’re done. Your hard work doesn’t count. It may be good for others but not for me,” says the Raza Bazar resident.
With a major in physics and minor in scientific philosophy as his target, Arnav says he had to dedicate 4-5 hours to studies daily. “Especially since the board and SAT/TOEFL are completely different, at times I had no sleep juggling between the two,” he said.
Besides studies, Arnav, who goes by the pen name ‘Barbaad’, also likes Hindi poetry, cricket and electronics. That he was born on September 5 probably explains his inclination towards becoming an educator though he also wants to make his name in the field of scientific research.