Meerut boy missed IIT admission by just 2 marks, self-studied on YouTube, became a scientist at ISRO

A young man from Meerut has turned a heartbreaking near-miss into a space science career, proving that one bad exam day doesn't have to end a dream. Sanket Kumar missed clearing JEE Advanced in 2021 by just two marks. Instead of giving up, he taught himself through YouTube lectures and old question papers for a year, cracked the exam in 2022, and has now landed a job as a scientist at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

The Heartbreak Of 2021

As per an India Today story, Sanket sat for JEE Advanced in 2021 with big dreams of an engineering seat. He fell short by a razor-thin margin of just two marks. For most students, that kind of near-success followed by failure is enough to crush confidence, but Sanket refused to walk away.

No Coaching, Just YouTube And Old Papers

Rather than enrolling in another coaching programme, Sanket chose to take a one-year drop and study entirely on his own. Many people around him discouraged the decision. He stuck to his own method anyway, relying on YouTube lectures, previous years' papers, and self-study sessions. The hard work paid off in 2022, when he cleared both JEE Main and JEE Advanced.

A Seat At India's Premier Space Institute

Clearing JEE Advanced opened the door to the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST) in Thiruvananthapuram, where Sanket took admission into the Aerospace Engineering course. IIST is counted among the country's most prestigious institutes for training scientists and engineers who go on to work at ISRO.

Choosing The Road Less Travelled

While most of his batchmates gravitated towards popular specialisations like propulsion and aerodynamics, Sanket picked a far less common subject: vibration and acoustics. The field studies how vibration travels through a structure and how it affects a system's overall performance.

CGPA Of 8.2 Opened A Direct Interview Door

Sanket's hard work at IIST translated into an impressive 8.2 CGPA. The score was strong enough to get him a direct call for the interview round of the ISRO Centralised Recruitment Board (ICRB), skipping the written exam altogether. He impressed the interview panel with his technical knowledge and project work, and eventually received his appointment letter for the post of Scientist-Engineer (SC Grade).

Family Stood By Him Through The Drop Year

The achievement has brought immense pride to Sanket's family and the people around him. His father, Gulshan Kumar, is a civil engineer, his mother, Sunita Singh, is a professor, and his elder brother, Harshit Kumar, works as a software engineer. Reflecting on the journey, Sanket said, "I took a one-year drop after which I got success. My family is credited with this success, they always supported me. When I dropped a year, people said a lot, but the family stayed together."