Ratan Tata didn't like chemistry as a student: Here's what Campion, Cornell and Harvard taught him

Before he became the face of one of India’s most respected business empires, Ratan Naval Tata was just a quiet, reserved boy walking home from school — trying not to be noticed.His early education was shaped not just by textbooks and tuition, but by personal embarrassment, subtle rebellion, and a grandmother’s silent strength.

The steel in Tata’s character wasn’t forged in boardrooms — it began much earlier, in classrooms that taught him far more than arithmetic or science.These glimpses come alive in The Story of Tata: 1868 to 2021 by Peter Casey — a revealing biography that doesn’t just track corporate milestones, but peels back layers of the man who carried the Tata legacy with dignity, restraint and heart.

Ratan Tata in Campion School, Mumbai

Tata’s earliest memories of school weren’t about exam stress or favourite teachers.

They were about shame.At Campion School in Mumbai, where he studied until the 9th grade, Tata was dropped off in a “huge antiquated Rolls-Royce” — a relic of his family’s wealth. Most children would have flaunted the ride. Ratan chose to walk.“We used to be so ashamed of that car that we used to walk back home,” he recalls in The Story of Tata.

“Eventually we asked the chauffeur to drop us a block away from the school gate.”This was a boy being shaped by embarrassment — not from poverty, but privilege. Tata wasn’t running from lack; he was distancing himself from show-off.

Physics over chemistry: A curious mind at Campion

Even as a schoolboy at Campion, Tata wasn’t drawn to academic glory — but he was drawn to ideas. In The Story of Tata, he recalls a quiet fondness for physics, not chemistry. “I liked physics a lot,” he said, “but not chemistry.” For Tata, physics invited big questions — about energy, space, and time.

Chemistry, by contrast, felt mechanical — a subject that “just mixed things.”It was this early gravitation towards abstract reasoning over rote reaction that hinted at the mind he was developing — one that preferred systems over shortcuts, and imagination over mere information. Even before design or leadership entered his world, the young Tata was already choosing thought over formula.

Ratan Tata’s days in Cathedral & John Connon School: Drudgery as discipline

After Campion, Tata was forced to shift schools — Campion didn’t offer classes beyond a certain level.

At Cathedral & John Connon, the grind only deepened. Tuitions were mandatory. Days felt mechanical. “Life was quite a drudgery... Each one of them [schools] was terrible when you were there, questionable when you got out, and later became something that you really cherished,” Tata has been quoted saying in a media interview.

It wasn’t a romanticised childhood. No soaring school speeches, no leadership badges. Just long hours, forced classes, and the seeds of mental endurance being quietly sown.

Bishop Cotton, Shimla and Riverdale, NYC: The escape and the freedom

Tata’s schooling journey next took him to Bishop Cotton School in Shimla — one of the country’s oldest boarding schools. Away from Mumbai’s social whisperings and family tensions, Tata found some breathing space. Later, he moved to Riverdale Country School in New York City, from where he graduated in 1955. The move was liberating — finally, anonymity. A chance to just be.

Ratan Tata’s stint at Cornell University: From engineering to architecture

In 1955, Ratan Tata entered Cornell University, aiming for mechanical engineering.

But a year in, he quietly switched to architecture — a decision that enraged his father, Naval Tata. “My father didn’t speak to me for years after that,” he once revealed. But Ratan stood his ground. He graduated in 1962 with a Bachelor’s in Architecture — a degree that shaped his design sensibilities and later, Tata’s aesthetic finesse in products like the Indica and the Nano.

At Cornell, he joined the Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity and immersed himself in structural creativity.

This was where form met function. The businessman was still far away — but the builder was being born.

Harvard Business School: The final polish

Years after Cornell, and well into his professional journey, Ratan Tata returned to academia — this time not for a degree, but perspective. In 1975, he enrolled in the Advanced Management Program (AMP) at Harvard Business School, a nine-week executive program designed for high-level professionals. It wasn’t about climbing the ladder; it was about sharpening the mind for decisions that shaped empires.In The Story of Tata, it’s revealed that Tata paid for the program himself, even though he was already a senior figure in the Tata Group. That gesture — quiet, almost unnecessary — spoke volumes. He wasn’t chasing titles. He was chasing better questions.TOI Education is on WhatsApp now. Follow us here.