Why we accept less than 5% of applications at Jovian
Education is a hard problem, and we take the responsibility of helping our learners succeed seriously.
We receive hundreds of applications every month for the Zero to Data Science Bootcamp by Jovian, a 6-month part-time training program for working professionals who want to make a career transition to data science.
Every application is reviewed by Siddhant Ujjain or me, and we invite 30–40% of applicants for a 15-minute interview where we discuss their background, experience, career goals. We generally end up accepting less than 5% of applicants into the batch, and we offer merit-based scholarships of up to 30% of the program fees.
Why do we have such a rigorous screening process? Because delivering high-quality education effectively is a tough problem, and we take the responsibility of helping our learners succeed very seriously.
It is well known that the completion/success rate for most online courses is under 5%. However, the secondary school system in most developed countries has close to a 100% completion rate. Why is there such a vast difference in the completion rates?
The answer is hiding in plain sight: secondary education is a “system” that works and has evolved over several centuries. Concepts like classes, sections, exercises, tests, exams, projects, study groups, etc., that we often take for granted have to be reimagined in the context of online education.
We wholeheartedly believe that anyone willing to put in the time and effort can learn data science and find a job in the domain, and one day we hope to accept everyone who applies to the program. We’re on a mission to design a system that can deliver higher education effectively, at scale (probably a topic for another post).
Our low acceptance rate is simply the price we pay for not promising something we can’t deliver. The key question we try to answer in interviews is whether we can help the applicant succeed with the system we currently have in place. It’s not a judgment of their ability to succeed.
We’re learning from every batch and improving the system through a combination of platform features and pedagogical innovations. As the system gets better, we hope to increase our intake while making the learning experience & outcomes better, not worse.
Based on what we’ve learned so far, we’re in a position to start new batches of the program every month in 2022 with a batch size of 50 students. We also offer several free beginner-friendly courses that you can take to experience what it’s like to learn on Jovian and decide if it works for you.
Learn more and apply for the Zero to Data Science Bootcamp here:
