My University Experience

Back in 2018, like most geeky Indian teens, I was entangled in the charade of countless entrance exams too. I was done with my ICE with fairly decent grades. However, I had no idea what to do about my higher studies. To be honest, I've had that fleeting thought of changing careers multiple times in my life (I still do).

Anyway, I got into this college through the COMEDK (Consortium of Medical, Engineering and Dental Colleges of Karnataka) entrance exam. The whole counseling thing was anything but a nightmare for me, mostly because my rank wasn't good enough for getting into those highly-rated colleges in Bangalore. Getting any branch in engineering at these colleges was quite grueling, let alone computer science. But as I am a tech-savvy guy, I wanted only the CS branch regardless of the college.

As you'd have figured by now, I got the branch of my choice at Alliance College of Engineering and Design. Although I was getting a few other institutes too, I decided to stick with Alliance after doing a little personal research and questioning here and there. So, why did I join this college over others? Well, mostly because of the breathtaking campus. I mean the campus really is something there!

Now, let me get some things clear right off the bat. My college experience hasn't been really that good, if not worse. But there are some remarkable experiences and insights I've had over the course of those four years. I'm not gonna hold back my thoughts on the administrative system and the faculty while telling my story here, and neither am I going to sugar-coat anything. This is an honest record of my personal journey and the time I had at the University, including the good, the bad, and the ugly.

So, as with every typical engineering Institute, they had me fill out all those admission forms and other paperwork. After this, I had a complete campus tour which was nice. I really liked the place. The Library, the cafeteria, the playgrounds, everything seemed perfect except the engineering block, mostly because it was still under construction.

Anyway, so the next day was orientation day. Everybody was kinda excited and so was I. I hadn't really talked to anybody up until that point besides a few guys in the hostel the previous day. So I was hoping to make some new friends in my batch. So we all had to gather in the auditorium and everybody was dressed nicely formally. I saw bright new faces everywhere and felt a little nervous.

So, the orientation started the regular way. Countless speeches by faculties and HODs and some introductory games from students here and there. The first day of orientation wasn't bad really albeit a little boring. The next day however was excruciatingly painful. The same stuff again with little to no innovative talk. By this time, I had made friends with a few guys who were in my hostel too. So, the four of us decided to bunk that session and so we did. That was the beginning of a very long record of bunking and skipping classes for no reason whatsoever.

Then finally it was the first day. That means with complete lectures and all. We reached the campus on time as we didn't want to be late on the very first day. The class started but they were mostly introductory sessions and tell about yourself kinda stuff, which was fun actually in hindsight. The actual lectures began only the second day and they were usual. There was a Mathematics session, a technical English lecture, and one for C programming. I was particularly fascinated by the English faculty, she was a brilliant woman. I learned more in her class than in any other. The C programming lecture was fine too though.

We used to have a lunch break after the first three lectures. We had to head over to the cafeteria to have lunch. Now, if you've lived in hostels before, I don't need to explain the abomination that the food which they serve is. Well, that's how my college days began and continued pretty much the same for at least the first year.

But if you ask me, my first year of college was actually the best one. Why because I made a lot of friends during that time, and joined a couple of clubs including the Music Club, the Literature Club, and the Toastmasters club. Then again everything was new and exciting for me. I was genuinely curious to learn and I did. I tried to be active in the clubs and class events. Things were just simple back then. There wasn't much stress about placements, graduation, and other stuff. I actually enjoyed going to college and learning something and meeting new people every day.

Then we finally had our mid-semester exams in which I did fairly well. However, in the semester-end exams, I couldn't do that well for personal reasons. When the results for the first semester dropped, it wasn't a good day for me. I wasn't expecting really good grades but also wasn't hoping for backlogs but I did them and that too in 3 subjects including Engineering Mathematics. I was very disappointed in my performance and I was scared of telling my parents about it. There even came a point when I seriously considered dropping out and I thought that engineering just wasn't for me. But then I thought about it more rationally and decided to stay.

This meant I had to change and I had to level up as well. I had to work harder and put in more effort and time than what I was used to. I had to get serious about it. I had to to do better next semester anyhow. Otherwise, it was over for me. And so I did.

I started going to the classes regularly, paid more attention during the lectures, made proper notes, started asking doubts, and prioritized studying over everything else. The examinations were near and though I was trying my best, I still had that small voice in my head that I might fail. Anyway, the exams were held, I gave my best and the results finally came. This time I had zero backlogs. Not only that, I had done really well in a few subjects and I had above-average scores in almost all the subjects.

After this, I never once got another backlog in my entire 4 years of engineering. Perhaps, for the fear of knowing that it would quite literally cost me big-time. So, my academics were pretty good overall and I graduated with a 3.2 CGPA out of 4, which is fairly decent.

But if you ask me about my skills and other industry-oriented knowledge, it was in the dark ages. And I don't completely blame myself for it. It was due to the criminally outdated curriculum and the unenthusiastic faculty for the most part. I mean they literally taught us about coding on paper. Although there were labs they were so boring that I didn't want to even sit for a moment in there. There was a bounded syllabus of a few concepts and a lab exam of some overused coding problems. You write a runnable code, you pass the exam, and then forget all about it for eternity. That is the reality I suppose, in most tier-3 engineering colleges today in India.

This all might sound very grave and sad but that's the truth. However, that doesn't mean that I didn't have any fun at college. Coming to the fun part, I had the best time at the hostel. By this time I had made lots of friends and everybody knew each other. We used to play Counter-Strike and other video games together till late at night in each other's room. We played football too every evening and then went for a walk near the lake area which brings back so many memories.

I particularly used to hang out with these 3 guys who I later became really good friends with. We had similar tastes in Music and movies so we vibed a lot. I also learned to play the guitar from one of the guys who is a phenomenal guitar player. We used to sing and jam till late at night every other weekend. It was all good and merry.

Then came the dreaded lockdown news in March of 2019, everybody was leaving for home because Covid-19 was around the corner. I went home a little late after everybody had left. But little did we know that we'd not be returning to the campus for another year or two. As predicted, the second and third years of my engineering went completely online. Classes, assignments, exams, everything. At first, it was like God heard our prayers but only later did we realize how much we missed out in those two years.

When I returned back, I was already in my 4th year. It was like I skipped two entire years and traveled through time. Everything looked the same yet felt different in ways. There was so much pressure around this time. The placement cycle was about to start and the Final Year Project needed to be done. The first thing which I did, however, was shifted out of the campus and found myself a flat nearby. I had to do this mostly because of the crappy food and also because all my batchmates were already living outside at this point.

The classes were still online but the exams were to be taken offline. I had more responsibilities upon me now. I was entering adult life. I was already living alone but I was struggling to keep up. Anyway, I managed to clear the fifth semester as well (without getting any backlog). Now it was time for placements. The placement cycle started. We had to curate resumes and CVs and upskill to clear the interviews. I gave multiple placement exams and cleared quite a few. However, I either couldn't clear the final round of the interview in most of them.

Then finally, I gave the Wipro test and cleared the first two rounds, and got selected for the interview. I was pretty nervous at first as this was my first time giving an actual interview although it was online. I had prepared well and gave the interview with confidence. surprisingly, it wasn't that hard. In fact, the interviewer asked fairly easy questions mostly about Data Structures and Algorithms. Then they asked a few HR questions as well which I answered smoothly. I had high hopes for this one. And after a few days, I got a mail from Wipro and I got selected as a project engineer.

Getting placed finally was a big relief for me. I was quite happy and so were my parents when I told them about it. Now that I was placed I had o focus on my final year Project. We decided to make a mobile application. This App was designed to detect diabetic foot ulcers using the phone's camera. Well, we did make the working app and cleared the presentation round with flying colors. Some of the faculties helped my team with valuable resources and insightful tips to make the project a success.

We used to have a lot of seminars back in the first year but around the fourth year, they became rare. Mostly all such events were online which barely anybody ever attended, let alone pay attention to. Back in the day, I used to enjoy attending these events and seminars as they were pretty fascinating. I actually learned quite a few things about the corporate world and the IT industry by attending such events. They felt like a breath of fresh air amidst the mundane routine of regular classes.

Well, after all this we had a good ol' farewell party by the end of our 6th semester and we clicked many nice pictures and had a jolly good time. So if you ask me, my college experience wasn't anything extraordinary but it wasn't bad either. I enjoyed whatever opportunities I got and tried to do my best. And if I was asked to rate my experience on a scale of 1–10, I'd rate it around 7.5!