Chinmay Kulkarni is about to complete an MSc in Subsurface Energy Engineering and has taken the time to tell us about his experiences coming from India to study here in Manchester:

“It has truly been one of the most memorable experiences of my life. With my master’s course coming to an end, I thought it would be a great idea to share some of my most cherished moments here at The University of Manchester. I am Chinmay (If you combined the words chin and may in your head while reading my name, then congratulations, you are one of the few people to get it right!) and I am about to complete an MSc in Subsurface Energy Engineering. So let me relate to you this roller coaster of a journey I have been through at the University of Manchester and hopefully, this article can guide you with your own journey here, current or future.

Before I start this epic tale, I’ll tell you a funny story about how I ended up a chemical engineer. I really liked the subject of chemistry and I really liked the ideology behind engineering; to take the knowledge from a laboratory and apply it for the betterment of the world. So, put those two together, and you get chemical engineering, or so I thought. Turns out, it was nothing like that. Chemical engineering is mostly physics and maths and there I was thinking to myself: what have I done? But as I started learning about it, I found another reason to like it. I realised I knew the secret to turning a raw material into a completely useful and finished product. I found this so fascinating and decided I am going to stick to it. Things often do not turn out the way you thought they would and sometimes we have no option but to stick to it till the end, so try and find reasons that motivate you to stick to it.

So, after my undergraduate degree in chemical engineering, I was very clear that I wanted to specialise in the energy field and so a master’s degree was the best option. The energy field intrigued me as I wanted to use my education to try and solve one of the biggest problems the planet is facing right now: the energy crisis. The University of Manchester was one of the very few universities to offer a tailor-made energy specialization course for chemical engineers, and so I didn’t look back. Before you know it, here I was, extremely nervous but with a burning desire to enter a new phase of my life. As an international student from India, I was very worried at first about many things, but can you blame me? I had only travelled halfway around the world, so far away from home, and never had cooked a single dish or even thought of doing my own laundry, but here I was eager to see what awaited me. Eager to see the type of people I would meet and most importantly, the type of person I would become.

Apart from these amazing people, I have had plenty of opportunities at the University. From getting a chance to be the Secretary of the Society of Petroleum Engineering to being able to help prospective students as a campus ambassador for the Faculty of Science and Engineering, there was a lot going on in my days here. Apart from this, I was involved in activities such as badminton, cricket, and football too. Not to mention the plethora of trips I made with friends and as a part of the international society as well.

Like all good things, my time at The University of Manchester will soon come to an end. But every ending is a gateway to a new beginning. After the course, my main goal is to stay in the UK and work in the energy sector to really make an impact on people’s lives. The most important thing to remember is not to think of your ambitions as just dreams, because chances are that they will remain mere dreams. Instead, think of them as goals because the mind will automatically start thinking of concrete steps to reach those goals. Which does not necessarily happen for dreams. Finally, trust the process and the results will follow, surely. My time at The University of Manchester has truly been one of the best phases of my life and I have cherished each and every moment, which is the most important thing to do during your time here. Now, I will leave you with one of my favourite quotes:

“I wish there was a way to know you’re in the good old days before you’ve actually left them.”

– Andy Bernard”

If you’re interested in studying MSc Subsurface Energy Engineering like Chinmay, take a look at the course webpage.