Lessons that undergraduate college taught me
Life lessons to survive and do well in undergraduate college
4 years ago, I stepped on the hallowed grounds of NSIT having no expectation of myself and frankly disappointed that inspite of slogging through last 2 years I couldn’t get into an IIT. Little did I know that over the next 4 years, this transformative journey though NSIT would change me and teach indispensable life lessons.
NSIT was a great surprise for me. It was a quintessential government college with a dilatory bureaucracy that was a real-life representation of the sloth from zootopia. The infrastructure was dismal with computer labs running 2009 Windows XP on box monitors, century-old benches, a fountain in the middle of the college that hadn’t run for 20 years and many such artifacts which would make good in a history museum and not a state-of-the-art engineering college. Having done my schooling at an elite private school in Delhi, moving to NSIT certainly felt like a step-down for me initially. But was it really?
If modern infrastructure and large wad of funding cash was a mark of a good college, then private colleges with hefty cashflow would trounce the IITs and NITs, though this never happens bringing us to the next fundamental question. What defines a successful college? How can an individual student evaluate their 4 years in college? Is it their success in academics? Or, is it how cool and famous were they in college?
For me, life at NSIT has been about the people I have met here and the experiences I have had here. For college life, the journey is much more important than the destination. Where you end up after college is nothing compared to wealth of experiences that you accumulate in college. I have had my own share of experiences in college and obtained invaluable life lessons to help do well in college that I would like to share.
Warning: The article ahead contains cheesy jokes and bad cultural references. If you are allergic to bad jokes, don’t take it too hard ( that’s what she said). Also, this isn’t a primer on how to crack placement season or get a 9 pointer. Many folks better than me can advise on you that.
Lesson 1 — College is what you make of it (Most important)
2 Saal padhlo fir toh aish h ( Study for 2 years, then enjoy rest of your life) — Every Indian Parent
The most overused maxim perhaps by parents and teachers is that once you study for 2 years and get into a good college your life is set. Oh boy, they couldn’t be more wrong!! The IIT/NIT tag is an impressive one and can certainly provide you a boost in life, but extreme reliance on it without any additional efforts is a sure recipe for disaster. Vice versa, ending up in a 2nd tier or 3rd tier doesn’t mean your career has finished. Through online learning, anyone can practice and perfect any skill. Several companies have also relaxed college criteria to select students and are open to picking students from lower ranked colleges. While opportunities are certainly available in abundance for higher ranked colleges, the difference is slowly diminishing. In such cases, what you do in college and how you utilise your time here is much more important to determine your destiny than the tier of the college you attend.
Lesson 2- Peer group matters!!
You are the average of the five people you spend most of your time with. — Jim Rohn
I must confess I wasn’t a very popular kid in college. Probably my nerdy attitude and shy demeanour was a big turn off for people. In contrast, my peer group was extremely solid and a group of highly talented and driven individuals. They are the part of the college that I shall miss the most. In times of failures and rejections, they provided much needed support and encouragement. Most of them were extremely driven, continuously working hard to achieve success in college life. This perseverance always motivated me further to continue even after failures. There was always a spirit of collaboration instead of competition amongst us. If you wanted notes just a night before, someone would send them without hesitation. If you had problems in a DSA concept or a coding question, people would readily help you. Inspite of hectic college life, we never missed out on the time to have fun, be it a random rendezvous at the cinemas or a cool soda at chill point. Finding such a peer group is very important not only to survive college but also to help you grow on a professional and personal level.
Pro tip — Have a diverse peer group with students from different walks of life and genders. Also, try expanding your peer group in college and build connections with people you meet at events like MUNs, hackathons, internships, etc.
Lesson 3 — Find a Mentor and Be Someone’s
One of the hallmark’s of NSIT’s culture was the continuous guidance that seniors provided to juniors. This mentorship enabled juniors to survive college and do well in academics and placements. I cannot stress enough the importance of mentorship and guidance in college years.
College is inherently a confusing time where students often stands on the crossroads of life decisions. In such moments, a mentor who’s been there, done that can guide you in the best possible manner.
I had the great fortune of meeting several mentors during my time at NSIT. In my second and first year, several seniors guided me on a variety of topics. Whether it be on how to search for research internships, prepare for placements or even tips on how to pacify your crush they always helped me without any hesitation. It is not necessary that seniors be your mentors, it could also be professors or people you meet at internships. The professors and students at my research internship in IIITD provided crucial guidance on how to navigate through research projects and helped me publish my work at core A* conferences. My mentor at Microsoft introduced me to the right way to develop software in the industry and shortcomings I had to work on. Without these mentors, I would not have been able to build a strong profile in college. As you near the end of college, it is your duty to pass on this mentorship to your juniors and provide guidance whenever they ask you.
Lesson 4 — Get a side gig
Newspapers are littered with eyeball-grabbing headlines of how undergrads are getting placements in crores CTC. Seeing this, many students make it their sole purpose of college to get good placements/internships without doing anything besides CF contests or leetcoding even in the initial years. While it is important to prepare for placements, the wonderful opportunity that college provides of exploring your other non-academic or academic pursuits, is not available anywhere else. Thus, you must pursue a side gig in college. A side gig could range from taking part in Extra-Curricular activities to working for a startup at your college. Anything, as long as it is not related to academic matters or placement prep is fine.
Getting a side gig lets you ride the wave of monotony in college and bequeaths non-academic skills that you might never learn from college curriculum.
I changed my side gig every year according to changing interests. I developed a great interest in debate and joined the MUN team. I got to meet students from other DU colleges, learn about Indian politics and debating by attending these conferences. Next year, I joined the astronomy club where not only did we explore the deep reaches of space but also conducted events like Night’s watch to familiarise the general populace to astronomy. After my research internship at IIITD, I developed a liking towards research which I pursued as a side gig remotely and published works at several international conferences. Along with learning skills, each side gig was instrumental in introducing me to a new set of peers and mentors who guided me.
Lesson 5 — Failure is the recipe for success
No one teaches lesson like a failure does. Behind every success that a student achieves are countless nights of sadness, self-doubt and rejections. —Random Internet Guy
One of the most intense moments you will experience in college is placement/ internship season. In the sweltering heat of the summer, emotions run high. Often, you will see best friends grabbing Day 0 offers, while you are not able to clear the technical rounds or get placed for a long period of time. In such circumstances, one must persevere and remain self-motivated. Learn from your mistakes to not repeat them again and realise that this time too shall pass.
I have had my fair share of failures during my college life. I was rejected by many research internships I applied to initially. My research paper was not accepted at several conferences before getting accepted at EMNLP. A trying moment for me at NSIT was when I wasn’t able to get return PPO offer after my internship at Microsoft. In the midst of a pandemic with people losing jobs day-by-day and majority of our cohort securing return offers, I felt incredible self-doubt in my abilities and whether I would be able to get a good job. However, instead of brooding upon my misfortunes, I immediately got to work. I identified problematic areas in my DSA preparation and continued solving as many problems as I could. During placement season, I was placed in a decent company with a good pay. This is not a unique story but a common one that you will find in all college campuses across the country. A recurrent theme throughout college was that every success I achieved in college was a result of many failures and continuous perseverance.
Lesson 6— Don’t skip out on having fun and taking breaks (especially nerds!)
When I look back the biggest regret I feel is not having enough fun. Having spent 1.5 years holed up in my room and attending virtual classes, I have no recollection of the physical classes at NSIT or how much grades I scored in class tests. What I remember though is frantically dancing at Moksha(college fest) pronites, sipping elaichi chai in Student Centre or just chilling in Nescii lawns and all the fun we had. These things, feel incredibly wasteful, especially for a classroom nerd like me, but believe me 5 years down the line these are the moments that you will cherish. So if your friends invite you to a trip or party in college, don’t say no!!
Lesson 7— Try everything, but know when to say no!!
Just like Forrest Gump, college gives you a box of chocolates in the form of several opportunities to explore different areas and a sense of flexibility. My advise in college is to try everything initially and then focus on what you like later. I had no liking for debate or drama, but having spent some time initially attending MUNs, I developed an interest towards it. Same goes for research. I didn’t want to spend my summers at home doing nothing and found that research internships were a good way to spend the summer. So, I decided to pursue one. Over the summer, I developed a liking towards it and continued pursuing research remotely over the year. College is also a place where many students decide that engineering might not be their cup of tea and move onto make careers in other disciplines, only because they dared to try something anti-status quo.
However, certain times side gigs often take precedence over academics and are distracting. In such cases, it is very important for you to reevaluate yourself and your goals and say no to stuff which might be distracting you or wasting your time.
Pro tip — If you are CS student and a member of an underrepresented or minority section of the society, lots of scholarships and opportunities are available that you can utilise. For eg: Outreachy, RGSOC, STEP internships, etc. Make good use of these opportunities.
Now that 4 years of engineering have cruised by I am surprised by how fast time has flown so much so that I am doubting Einstein’s theory of relativity. Time does fly when you enjoy and spend it with people you like. I am eternally grateful for the people I met here and the experiences I have had. A lot of people of are of the opinion that doing college is wasteful but I would disagree. The lessons that college teaches you and the experiences it provides is beyond comparison to any other alternative. So make good use of college time and create long-lasting memories.
Writing this article and reliving college memories has been an incredibly cathartic experience for me. Thanks for your patience reading my amateurish article and tolerating my awful jokes and references. To celebrate this, I would like to give you a special gift. Enjoy this GIF of Michael Scott dancing. If you have reached here without reading the article, may you smell Jan’s candles all your life and eat nothing but Pizza by Alfredo !!
