3rd year

2 years had passed, more things I experienced:

1. The gap provided between two semesters which is usually meant for getting an internship, all the students go the private coaching institutes learn some programming language and show a certificate in the college, we also did the same.
2. Not only the teachers were pathetic, they also didn’t know what they were doing there. They had the following roles:
   1. Take care of any event that takes place in the college and act as coordinators. Specially at the time of admissions.
   2. Hand out notes to students, which were simply photocopied from other colleges so that we can write at-least something in the semester exams.
   3. Give the internal marks, which was solely based on how well a student behaved with them, not how good a student was.
3. There were no practicals, as was the case with assignments, you simply had to copy them and write it down and show it to the teachers to just get it verified and checked(signatured with red ink)
4. Even if they would have wanted to have practicals but the labs didn’t have the required equipment. I wonder how such colleges got approval in the first place.

This year I was more serious, I had already cleared 5 out of the 7 exams I had failed in last year. My interest in programming had also grown seriously, I was reading good books( yes those big fat ones). After 3rd year as well you have a gap for interships, for which the students again went to institutes to get their certificate, but this time I studied on my own, in 45 days that I had I completed the book “Java: The complete reference”. This made me good with programming in Java and was able to make swing based desktop applications. I built two three applications taking help from the Internet. I printed out a certificate on my own to show it in college, and the teachers didn’t even bother to verify if that was a authentic or not. Had made a small application which I had shown as my minor project.

4th year

Till this time I was pretty convinced that the college is not going to take us anywhere. Whatever that needs to be done had to be done on our own. I told H as well that we have already in the final year and in the next one year I don’t think anything is going to change. We have to think as if the college has ended and we have to find something to do(read job) that will justify doing such a degree. Now even though H was my good friend he also wasn’t sure about for what was he doing this course for, he was doing it just for the sake of it. He didn’t do anything apart from giving me ears.

I created profiles on all the job sites and even applied to a few of them(although I didn’t get any response). I started improving my newly acquired Java skills. Then there was this guy from our batch who proposed that we should ask the college authorities to allow us to have a technical fest. We wanted to have a Quiz in that fest, for which I developed a quiz application(although the design and approach were pathetic) but it was a good program, worked well. This gave me some recognition as well as some confidence. I didn’t want to stay in the college even for one more day, I wanted to learn and implement. The college tried to bring in some companies for placing the students, I had already made up my mind that I will beg those companies to take me in and take me away from college from the day of interview. I will present the entire story some day later, but yes I got placed a very small company(but something was much better that nothing). I completed my graduation and it was very good to have a job even before graduating out of college.

So this was me, what were other people doing:

1. Hardly 5-6 got any placements out of the total strength of 80-85 students in CSE and IT (and I am sure in ECE and ME it was worse)
2. Around 70% of the students didn’t clear their graduation in the stipulated 4 years some took 5 some 6, some are still trying(I guess) and some have already given up.
3. Most of them(even the ones who topped) are carrying out jobs which they could have got after coming out of school.
4. All the students who are at good positions and doing good jobs have mostly done that on their own, the college or the education given to them there didn’t help them.
5. There others as well, who dared to go for higher studies(as for some being in a school, college gives them the freedom of doing what they want, enjoy their lives).
6. Some are still caught up in the loop of preparing again and again for government services.

The Take

If you have gone through the post(which is very long sorry), you might have got an idea of how is life in such a college. This was not just me I had heard the same from others as well who were in other similar colleges. I would never want you to fall into #2 to #6 as mentioned above. So I think even if you have scored low in the examinations, don’t be too desperate for just a degree, it will never be the end of the world if you don’t do it  or maybe do it after preparing more for another year(but make sure your prepare sincerely)

I have compiled the learnings from this journey in another follow up post, which I will add shortly.
I hope that you enjoy while you are learning and can do something which makes you happy or maybe even add more happiness to this world.

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