It's bit late I guess, already finished my first year 3 months back. Although I really didn't planned to write a blog about it but was reading articles in medium where an article suddenly caught my attention which was about the person sharing his 1 year experience being a developer, thought why not write something similar sharing my experience of being in worst possible Engineering college with the world. So here I am and let's get started.
Introduction
I am a 21 year old student doing Bachelor of Technology in Computer Science Engineering from a no-name worst tier possible college. I am average or below average in studies and good at nothing from very start but was the quietest and more like a disciplined student during school which was why teachers and classmates always used to consider me good student which has changed a-lot in just a year thanks you my peer group (more about it in coming section) . In 10th I scored decently good in boards exams plus because of the "good student" image just like most had to take science in +2, although I really didn't like studying Physics, Chemistry, Maths because it is tough but always liked Computer Science as a subject because its so interesting that how we as a species made rocks to thinks just because we are too lazy and always scored good in this subject without putting much effort(Now realizing the syllabus was just easy actual computer science is dam hard). When it was decided that I will be taking Science I already made my mind that I can't excel in any subjects and Computer was the only subject I am decent and comfortable in because of which started preparing for JEE but wasted 2 whole years doing literally nothing and always blaming school for that.
After 2 years didn't even attended JEE and appeared for state entrance examination (WBJEE) and got rank about 45k which was pretty bad and wouldn't be getting even a tier 3 college via counseling although I initially planned to took a year drop for JEE preparation but in those 2 years realized I will waste that drop year also and then started looking for different option I had. Just few days after WBJEE results, got a call from Ideal Institute of Engineering, Kalyani which was among the colleges I was looking forward to because of their Fee structure although didn't planned to take direct admission in any college and was looking to take admission under Tuition Fee Wavier Scheme provided by the Government and would reduce the cost significantly which I couldn't afford but somehow the telecaller lured me and my parents into taking direct admission there and convinced me to opt for education loan to cover my educational expenses and that's how it started and I feel into the tarp of this fraud college ( fun fact - In just a year 2 principal and 90% faculty members left college).
One Year Experience
How I reached and took admission in this college being covered let's now talk about my experience of this one year, what I realized, How I changed, ranting about college and much more.
Attendance Policy
One things all Indian Engineering students collectively hate about is "Attendance Policy" for which we need to be present atleast 75% to 80% of working days. College is "time waste" as most say which is actually true and false simultaneously in a sense, as college teach (if not your professor is bad at teaching, which most are) foundations and decade old syllabus while as professionals or fresher trying to get into IT have we need to know modern technologies and keep up with latest tech trends which is completely opposite to what colleges teach. For example most college start with C as their primary language for teaching programming but how many of us use C to write modern software? very few actually especially in India where we are service provider to the world, most jobs here revolves around modern web like JavaScript, Python, etc and enterprise grade software development like Java or C#. If there are close to no job opportunities why should we learn C, considering most people in India are pursuing Engineering for money? The answer is simple to make your foundations good in programming and that's what the role of college exactly is. They make your foundation but the gap between modern software development and that "foundation" is all yours to cover alone and if you think college will teach you all the things you need to know to get a job in IT you are delusional same as a large number of students in India, who are totally dependent upon college even in the age of Internet and AI. But filling the "gap" requires the investment of time and a lot of time actually and that's were the attendance policy is really hated, Imagine you go out from your home/hostel in early morning and returned tired in evening , the whole day you learned literally nothing that will be useful for you or your career still you have to continue that everyday not investing time trying to fill the skill "gap" just to satisfy the fragile ego of your college's management and professor who think attending college everyday will solve every problem that exists in the world and will fetch you a high paying job at the end of 4 year. I really hate attendance policy from my core and focused too much on attendance and regret every bit of it.
CGPA vs Skills
CGPA vs Skill is a never ending debate in tech's student community and I believe that's an individuals choice which to give more time on and depends upon their future goals but we should not only focus on one which I unfortunately did and now after 1 year I am still at 0 interms terms of development or DSA while my peers are participating in hackathons, building amazing software and griding DSA. Focus in skills outside of college from day 1, I was the only one in my class who was having computer background since primary school and was living in my own delusional bubble and thought I am the best and I know the most but now my bubble have burst the, classmates who didn't studied computer before joining college are now writing complex software while I know nothing and at zero.
Peer Group
Believe or not your peer group could shape you and change you into a totally different person that you yourself can't recognize. Having a good peer group is really very important more than you actually think. I am introvert and as said earlier was very quiet and disciplined, I didn't talked with anyone initially but one of school friend joined the same college and I started staying with him and his peer group more and now I am turned from a disciplined to a "gali galoj" wala guy and the discussions in our peer group revolves around passing comments about girls, gali galoj, from teachers favorite in school to a last bencher - no good in studies in college that's how my peer group have turned me on the other hand there exist a complete opposite group whose discussions revolves around tech, development, career and what not around which I wanted to be surrounded by but now it's complete opposite and the damage is irreparable just because during initial days of my college I decided to be in my comfort and communicate only with people whom I knew earlier. College is the best time and place to move out of your comfort zone, don't make thee mistake that I made!
Conclusion
As said college is a place to move out of your comfort zone, soon you realize better it be. Even if you are introvert communicate, even if you don't like, It really helps in the long run if professors know you name, face and have a decent impression about you. I made many mistakes although it not too late to fix but still continuing to make those mistakes and maybe will forever, will continue to be in my little comfort zone. Let's see where lives takes good or bad, success or failure, have to accept the flow and just move on to be a failure more than before.