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College Societies and New Students

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This article focuses on how the society culture of colleges affects the newly admitted students and what they teach them since many come with a dream of joining one.

Societies are the most fun part of college. So much so that many colleges are primarily known for their societies and the students they have produced. For the students who have just stepped out of school and are entering into the realm of college life, societies are a way of making contacts with senior students and learning things that interest them.

A society in college is not just a mere group of people who share a similar interest towards something and put their efforts into winning all the events that come along, but a family. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that most people prioritise society work over classes and assignments. Getting into a society also helps in building up a social life, especially for newbies.

A college in the University of Delhi is known not just because the students taking admission scored the desired percentage as required by the cut-off but also because of the ‘society culture’ there. One might hear Alahyaa doing their morning routine in Daulat Ram College or one might witness a practice session of Shunya in Ramjas College. Societies never fail to amaze the new students, the very reason why there is a huge line to audition to get into some of them.

Likewise, the society culture helps student look at things from a new and different perspective. One looks up to the seniors in college as he/she manages the work and organizes the fests. One tends to admire instantly the president of a debating society when he/she comes up to speak. There is therefore, a lot to learn from the societies. The most important of all learnings being, teamwork.

Isn’t it absolutely amazing to see how the seniors of your society manage every single thing on their own? As first-year students, we are immediately drawn towards them and admire their art of handling things so well. We learn to voice out our opinion and at the same time listen to what others have to say. We learn management and we learn hard work. We learn to keep our calm when inviting and calling people to our events and we learn to be patient with them all. We learn that our strategies won’t work every time and that a little failure will come sometimes with huge successes and that it is okay.

Image Credits: DU Beat

Akshada Shrotryia

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Campus Central

What Monsoon Means to DU Students

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The rainy season is here. This season is also a busy time for the University of Delhi, and a lot of students who aspire to seek admission. High humidity levels and overflowing potholes aside, what is so enamouring about this season to DU students?

Monsoon has struck late in Delhi, but as always, the season has brought the city alive with the much needed rain beating the heat. It also happens to be the time of admissions with cut-offs coming out and students wandering across different colleges to seek admission. However, it is just not about the admissions and the freshers. There’s a bit more between this season and the university.
June and July are the go-to months where students seek internships for at least a month or two. Startups, corporates, government organizations, NGOs and other institutes have a plethora of students reaching out to them for internships. The first years are a bit more relaxed taking them but it’s a must for those who have completed their second year. Moreover, it becomes ever so important for students who want to further go into corporates and audit firms.
And the best part of monsoon- it’s holiday time for us! Yes, not for the entire seasons, but this is probably one of the best seasons to head out on treks, and head out on long rides. And this is exactly what the university students do too. Heading out to remote locations or trips- both domestic and international-are a common phenomenon. And why not, who wouldn’t enjoy sipping a cup of coffee from a hotel balcony or being at the top of a hill dancing in the rain?
Holidays also means that outstations can finally head home after an eventful and equally tiresome semester. They miss ghar ka khaana beyond imagination and you bet, dal chaawal has never tasted this delicious ever.

For outstation students, the rainy season is slightly more on the problematic side. Puddles of muddy water and heaps of dirt pile up on the streets, and walking through them is a nightmare. Being Indians, we are jugaadu, and finding out those dry spaces and skipping past those puddles is like an add-on skill we all were born with. But you realize your clothes are a mess by the time you’re home. And for outstation students, it’s a pain because they need to wash it all by themselves!
In a few days, the university will re-open and there will be a lot of commotion. Bright new faces lurking around the campus exploring their dream university, the new second-years meeting their friends and looking forward to doing new things, while most of the final year students will be running around wearing a tie and carrying a file for placements. But at the end of it all, be it new students or old, the canteen will be full and so will the roadside stalls with everyone sipping tea and enjoying munchies looking at the rain. Once again, students will be on a run to find shelter, drying their clothes, and heading out for long walks of drives through the breezy wind. New romances will bloom beneath the cloudy skies, and lifelong friendship pacts will be made in the midst of dewy leaves.

This season, as always, will bring a ton of new things with itself. New faces, new energy, new tasks, new accomplishments, new friends, and most importantly, new memories. Because in all the simple little things that students do and experience within this season, it becomes so special to us. Giving us all a fresh start.
Karan Singhania
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Admissions 2018

Erasing Boundaries – What Changes DU brings in a North Eastern Student

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This article provides an insight into the stereotypes that exist about Delhi and about the north-east and suggests how college helps in erasing them, along with an emphasis on how it changes a NE student’s life.

Like many of us who dream of studying in DU and spend our lives researching about the various colleges, their societies, etc., there exist a few among us who carry with themselves a different approach towards Delhi. Among those few are some students who belong to the hills and the beautiful environs surrounding them – the north eastern part of the country.

It starts with beaming lights of dreams, glittering thoughts, and an inexplicable excitement for a brand new life: the life of going to college, in the capital of the country. But with this ‘new life’ comes new changes and new responsibilities. Unlike the hills of Arunachal or Meghalaya, the students find themselves standing amidst the tall offices and towers of different companies.

There is no denying the fact that people have pre-conceived notions about Delhi, about how it is the most unsafe city for girls in India, about how people are nothing but dishonest here and about how it is uncultured and filled with rich brats who know nothing but to take advantage of honest people. These notions are true to an extent, no doubt. But are they powerful enough to dominate over the much thought about dreams of studying in a Delhi University college?

The answer somehow is inclined more towards the negative. Perhaps, it is quite natural too – the stereotypes and conception. Being the capital of the nation, Delhi screams for attention itself. Spotlights and attention (unwanted, at times) is a daily dosage of this city and its people. Therefore, it is more prone to baseless allegations and accusations and undesirable judgements than other states. For example, according to an India Today report, Bihar is the most unsafe state for women, not Delhi, as most believe. Some of the girls I came across with from the North Eastern part of the country during admission time shared their experiences. They said that they were getting better colleges in South Campus but their parents refused to take admission there because they were far and apparently close to where the Nirbhaya rape took place.

A person from Delhi visiting Nagaland is termed as ‘coming from India’. They are called names and made fun of. A feeling of insecurity always remains since anyone who does not typically belong to the seven states is an outsider. (One cannot buy land in Meghalaya, for example)

Sadly, the existence of such stereotypes is mutual. For a lot of people who do not belong to the north east, the seven states (with an added brother now) is a land of ‘adivasis’. And lot of times people use slangs to label students who belong from there.The pre-conceived notions are hence, reciprocated. So, it is not a one way thing. It appears quite absurd at first. But coming to think of it, acceptance hasn’t really been our thing from the start.

The college culture opens new windows to students from both the regions. In fact, not just both the regions, but from all over the geography.

A second year student from Assam studying in a North Campus college says, “The cosmopolitan nature of the city and its diversity taught me the art of acceptance, which I believe, was lacking in me to a great extent, given that I came from a very uniform place.”Another student from Manipur says that Delhi has been a blessing for her since she was naïve about so many things but this city and the college life of DU taught her social skills and how to be independent.

It is true, however, that the problems students from the north-east face are not negligible. Food, for example, is a major concern. But look at the new restaurants opening in Hudson Lane. A few years back there were none to offer Naga cuisine, now we have ‘Bamboo Hut’. Moreover, be it a north Indian or a north easterner, no one can refuse a plate of Chacha ke chhole bhature at Kamla Nagar!

The coming together of students from all over the country under one roof stands as a proof that India, indeed, is a diverse country. The fact that a student from north India sits in the same class as a student from east India or south India is a great mark of social integration. The amount of exposure that a student from a Delhi University college receives is unmatchable. And it all happens when we meet and interact with people coming from different social and cultural backgrounds.

 

Feature Image Credits: Careers360

Akshada Shrotryia
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Enactus

Enactus SRCC Clinches Trophy for Nationals 2018

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On 12 July 2018, Hotel Taj Lands East stood firsthand witness to the much awaited annual battle of entrepreneurial action for college students across India; the Enactus National Competition 2018.

After a series of regional competitions, the qualifying teams competed for a spot in the Enactus World Cup 2018 by presenting their Business Ideas and showcasing their impact to an auditorium packed with not just students but also academicians and business leaders. The winning projects were those presented by Enactus Shri Ram College of Commerce, and the National Champions were felicitated by Arun M Kumar, Chairman at Enactus India National Advisory Board and Chairman & CEO at KPMG in India.

Enactus is an international community of student, academicians and business leaders committed to developing free enterprise outreach projects that transform lives and shape a better, more sustainable world. The core philosophy driving these projects is; ‘Give me a fish and I will eat for a day; teach me how to fish and I will eat for a lifetime’. The focus is on sustainability; the project should continue even without the founding team. Enactus has gone from being a small organization at the National Leadership Institute in Texas, USA to a worldwide network of more than 70,500 other students who are each making their own contribution towards their shared mission of creating a better world.

This year, SRCC triumphed over the nationals, strengthening Delhi University’s long held legacy over this competition. The winning projects were Project Virasat, that endeavours to revive the UNESCO listed dying artform of brass and copper utensils through design modification, brand development and targeted marketing strategies, thus impacting 11 ‘Thathair’ families, and Project Asbah, that aims to provide clean drinking water to rural households and urban slums through contamination specific filtration mechanism.

In 2017, the team from Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies dominated the Enactus Nationals and was eventually named World Champion for Project Raahat, which aims to increase sanitation in slum communities of urban Delhi, and Project Udaan, an initiative that empowers women to operate computer centers in rural India to promote skill development and increase awareness of economic opportunities.

Arjun Goel, 3rd year B.Com.(Hons) student at SRCC and the President of Enactus SRCC is euphoric about the victory and aims to bring the World Cup back through his team’s innovative, impactful an invincible ideas. Sachin Natraj, 3rd year B.Com.Hons student at SRCC and Executive Member of Project Asbah says that this is more than a victory for their team – it is a road leading to the betterment of their projects and communities.

Amidst the titans, Enactus Kalindi College, which began just about 10 months ago, saw a meteoric rise amongst the finalists of Enactus Nationals. With a team of only 13 members, Enactus Kalindi was able to carve a niche for itself through Project Rehmat, which aims to protect manual scavengers and provide women scavengers with sustainable livelihood opportunities, like soap-making. Within a short time, Enactus Kalindi was able to beat out competition from 20 other colleges to battle it out in the finals. When DU Beat interacted with Srishti Sharma, the President of Enactus Kalindi, she candidly spoke of her experience of sharing the platforms with established societies like Ramjas and SSCBS, and hopes for an even better run the next year.

We wish the entire team at Enactus SRCC a heartfelt congratulations and the very best for the Enactus World Cup scheduled for October 2018 at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center, California, USA.

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DUB Speak

Invest the Last Two Weeks of Break in Productive Ventures

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In two weeks’ time, the new session of the University of Delhi will begin and the hullabaloo will follow. With the next semester lurking just around the corner, watching over us and ready to prance, our ‘Netflix and Chill’ time is about to end. Before the hectic schedules of society practice and course timetables ensue, we must set our affairs in orders and be ready to take the plunge again. To get out of our lazy comfort zones, we might want to be utilizing these days into something more productive.

Learn
Is that online course you had been pursuing still lying unfinished? Have you ever wanted to learn a new skill or hobby like managing your finances, web development, computer languages, drawing, painting, photography, martial arts, or gardening? Ever had the urge to learn about a country and its culture, language, legacy, and tradition? Or wished to improve your personality and widen the horizon of your thinking? With everything available at the click of our hands, all of these are possible when you look in the right place. Online educational organisations like Udacity, Coursera, Udemy, etc provide courses for professional and personal growth from various international institutes with certification. Pursuing the courses of your interests and professional mastery will you give an edge on your CV. Skillshare has given a platform to artists and professionals their skills to students across the world. You can learn about a country by reading books of native authors, their language at the country’s embassy and their culture at their museums. YouTube channels like Khan Academy, Crash Course, Asap Science, MinutePhysics, and The School of Life can teach you various subjects in the easiest possible ways. If documentaries have your fascination, Documentary Heaven is for you. Another app to put your crafting and DIY skills to test is Pinterest.

Volunteer
If you do not want to stay within the confines of your home and bring about a change with your efforts, there are opportunities in every corner. If you are an animal-lover, NGOs like PAWS, PETA, Friendicoes, and Sanjay Gandhi Animal Care Centre would readily take you. What could be better than helping those young and old furballs? VolunteerMatch would help you find the best volunteer work near you. If working for the environment and well-being of Mother Nature is your passion, the NGOs Directory online will help you find the perfect one for you with various projects and campaigns going around you. You can also explore outstation volunteer opportunities if you want to combine travel with volunteering. If you one someone who wants to unravel far off lands, Workaway can provide you those opportunities and if you want to combine your exploration with learning, check out Youth Opportunities.

Take Care
With our addictions to our smartphones and technology, we must not forget to tend to the temple we live in and rejuvenate it time and again. It still is not late to kick in the New Year resolutions of getting fitter or any other fitness goal. Keeping a gratitude journal will bring out the positivity in you. Keeping ourselves constantly busy with our smartphones does more harm than good to us. Going on a social media detox to deal with your emotional and mental health will reconnect you with your true, inner self.

Just whiling away our time in watching movies and shows and only ‘chilling’ may provide us momentary happiness, but does not add to our wellbeing in a long run. Being productive and working on our personality and health will benefit us all in the long run.

Feature Image Credits: Medium
Prachi Mehra
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Campus Central

More Than Geography: North Campus Vs South Campus

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With the end of school life, admission fever has caught up and life is changed forever. The cocoon of school life has burst and you are in for a rollercoaster ride at the University of Delhi. One of the most relevant debates in the University is: North Campus or South Campus? I understand that everybody does not have the privilege of choosing between the two, but the preferred choice has always been the North Campus. Having settled for a South Campus College, I can vouch for the differences but each one has its own pros and cons.

Location
All the colleges in North Campus (NC) are located within walking distances of each other. In addition to this, all the Departments and Faculties of the University lie in the vicinity along with teachers’ residences and apartments. Cluster Innovation Centre and Delhi School of Journalism are also a part of North Campus. South Campus colleges are located in a gap of kilometres from each other and walking is not feasible. Being in such a close-knit environment, NC students have the opportunity of coming across other fellow students from other colleges and making friends beyond just their college, the same is not plausible for South Campus students.

Activity
With the benefit of having all colleges, departments, and faculties in the same neighbourhood, students are often found at locations other than their colleges during free hours. Not a day goes by when there is not a talk, seminar, play or other events (s) in any one of the colleges. Such privilege has not been bestowed upon the South Campus students because a) not enough events take place during odd semesters and b) time travelling to NC would consume the free periods.

Hangout Spots
Anna Canteen, Tom Uncle’s Maggie,  Majnu Ka Tila, and Hudson Lane are some of the favourite hangout spots for North Campus students.  Kamla Nagar (Knags), a favoured shopping stretch, is at a stone’s throw away from all colleges. Satya Niketan, Hauz Khas Village, Lajpat Nagar, and Nehru Place are the preferred hangout hubs for South Campus students offering an array of options for eating and shopping.

Hullabaloo
The protest culture is a double-edged sword. The sloganising and haranguing have often excited and disturbed the North Campus students. The right to protest is a blessing in disguise for the University teachers and students to claim their fundamental rights, but often the same protests are used as a  propaganda tool of the political parties which disrupts the schedules of North Campus colleges. Residing in solitude and away from the protest culture, the South Campus colleges carry on with their lives in peace, but that has not deterred the students and teachers from joining their compatriots on various occasions. Considering most protests often culminate at Mandi House, all colleges get equal access to participate in vibrant student-led movements.

In conversation with the DU Beat correspondent Dr. Anjana Nera Dev, Assistant Professor at Gargi College, articulated, “The North-South friendly rivalry is part of the urban legend heritage of DU admissions. While common sense dictates that geography and academic credentials are the reasons for the inter list migrations between the two, there seems to be more to this than meets the eye. Also, the preferred direction seems to be North, while South is better for all the co-curricular activities. I wonder when the compass will go back to having four cardinal points and the East and West will also become desirable destinations to which students will aspire and about which the media will debate.”

Everybody’s college life has its own share of ups and downs and once you have settled in your college, you love your college no matter what and it becomes your home.

Feature Image Credits: The University of Delhi
Prachi Mehra 
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DUB Speak

Why it’s Okay that You Didn’t Get into Your Dream College

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Admissions bring with them their own turmoil and chaos. While they fulfil a lot of dreams, they also break a few hearts. Either way, not everyone makes it to the college of their dreams. Here is why it’s okay:
When it comes to Delhi University, you don’t really get to choose your college, your college chooses you. While that might be true, there is a lot more to it than what meets the eye. Every single year, the cut-offs soar a little higher, the percentages drop down a notch, and the stress levels skyrocket.

There are queues of thousands of applicants outside every college in campus, wishing to meet the cut-off and get a seat in their desired course. However, as accessible as the colleges sound at times, not everyone gets into their dream college, mostly due to no fault of their own.

At this point of time, it is absolutely natural for you to feel nervous and confused. However, looking for someone to blame and beating yourself over it will not get you anything. It is completely okay to feel disappointed and dwell in your feelings, but carrying this disappointment to the first day of this new journey, is not the best choice. If you decide to call this a failure on your part, let it be a failure that makes you strive harder in the future, and accept it on its face value. Dealing with it positively is so important for entering this new journey.

College is a big step of life and wherever you end up, it plays a pivotal role. College merely serves as a platform, more than anything, it always depends on how you want to use that platform. There is no right or wrong to the path of success, and your college definitely does not determine the path you seek. You can take any path, strive hard, and still get to your destination. The college will provide you with a lot of opportunities, but it is completely up to you to utilise those opportunities.

Step into college with optimism, and you will be greeted by a new home and family. Within the first month, you will meet people who will understand you and the kind of turmoil that is within you, and you will find support through thick and thin. You will soon adjust to this new environment and learn to love it like home.

Good luck for all that is ahead!

Feature Image Credits: DU Beat

Muskan Sethi

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Campus Central

UNIQUE COURSES OFFERED BY DU

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The University of Delhi offers a plethora of courses for the under-graduation program. Some of them allow you to change colleges each semester, study agro-chemicals, and other fun stuff like forensic sciences.  Here’s a list of some of the unique courses on offer.

The University of Delhi epitomises quality education at the college level for students in our country. And this quality is not confined to reputed colleges and a sought-after faculty. The university offers an under-graduation degree in a variety of courses which cover diverse fields of study.
Many of these courses might not even be heard about. Yes, DU is much more than a university bragging about high cut-offs and mainstream courses. Here’s a list of a few courses that we thought were unique and might not be very known among the audiences:

B.A. Honours (Humanities & Social Sciences): According to the official website, “B.A. Honours (Humanities & Social Sciences) seeks to enable students to draw upon the resources, talent, and expertise available in different colleges. Instead of prescribing a fixed set of courses, this course presents an opportunity to the student to design his/her own degree. Inter and trans-disciplinarily will be encouraged for a holistic understanding of Humanities and Social Sciences.”

There are 40 seats in total (reservation applicable as per university rules) and admission is sought through a written MCQ based entrance test conducted across centers in India.

Its offered in Cluster Innovation Centre

B.Tech. (Information Technology and Mathematical Innovation):  The Cluster Innovation Centre, University of Delhi, offers this four-year B.Tech course which is designed to inculcate an innovation mindset as part of the curriculum and pedagogy. An aggregate of 60% marks in four subjects (including Mathematics) in the qualifying examination is regarded as the qualifying criteria for admission to this course.

The admission is based on an Entrance test of Multiple Choice Question (MCQ) format.

Its offered in Cluster Innovation Centre

 

B. Sc. Applied Life Sciences with Agro-Chemical & Pest Management: A niche course dedicated towards the field of agricultural industry, it is a three-year program including core subjects like Biology of Life Forms, Herbicides, and Applied Entomology and so on. Students can opt for a career in microbiology, biotechnology, and so on.

Colleges that offer the course: Swami Shradhhanand College, and Acharya Narendra Dev College.

B. Sc. (Hons) Anthropology: As the name suggests, this course introduces a student to the various kinds of anthropologies along with a deep understanding of the subject. Some of the core papers include Introduction to Social Anthropology, Human Genetics, and Human Ecology. This course enables a student to pursue a career in the field of teaching, research, and also provides with the option of becoming a part of organisations such as UNESCO and UNICEF.

Colleges that offer the course: Hansraj College

B.Sc. (H) Food Technology: An integration of diverse subjects and learning of skills, this course is challengingly interesting. The core papers range from Introduction to Biology, Chemistry to Foundations of Food & Nutrition, and even Project Management and Entrepreneurship. The career options available are as diverse as the subject, where one can become a Food Technologist, Biochemist, Analytical Chemist, and even Research Scientists.

Colleges that offer the course: Institute of Home Economics, Lady Irwin College, and Bhaskaracharya College.

B.Sc. (Honors) Forensic Science: Focused on national security and safety of citizens, this program is formulated to understand the hi-tech methods involved in crimes and achieve advancements to combat the same. Some of the core papers include Crime and Society, Forensic Biology, and Forensic Anthropology. A student holding qualifications in this subject can find himself/herself recruited as Investigative Officers, Forensic Scientist, and Handwriting Expert.

Colleges that offer the course: SGTB Khalsa College

Feature Image Credits: Times Higher Education

Karan Singhania
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Sandeep Samal
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Campus Central

Dos and Don’ts of College Admissions

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College admissions are marked by numerous decision making and countless bits of advice. While all of this sounds perplexing and stress-inducing, one must navigate through a number of factors to make that one careful and calculated choice of college selection. Here are some dos and don’ts for the same. 

Dos

  1. Learn about the college Faculty

It is important to learn about and interact with the faculty of a college before you take admission in it. Every renowned college may not have an amazing faculty for every course. Therefore, you must find out whether the course you want to opt for has a reputed faculty in the college. When you interact with them, you’ll also understand their demeanor. A friendly, knowledgeable, and supportive teacher is always better.

  1. Talk to students

It would positively add to your decision if you are able to talk to the students of the college doing the course you aspire to do. You will get to hear about first-hand experiences of what you are stepping into. You are allowed to talk about your priorities and apprehensions with them. There are some questions which they can answer more honestly than the faculty example, ‘Are the teachers understanding towards ECA students?’

  1. Visit and research about the college prior to taking admission 

Believe it or not, there is something about getting the ‘vibe’ of a college before you become a part of it. It is important to visit the college before getting admission there so that you can get a first-hand experience. However, prior to that, you must research the college. Some of your focuses must be its fests, library, Student Union, grounds, and auditorium. A good infrastructure and governing body will always make the college life easier.

  1. Get an unbiased opinion on comparing a college with other colleges available to you

It is important to compare a college with all the other options available to you. You must never look at a college as an isolated one. Comparing and prioritizing the different factors of two colleges is important. In the end, you must have a list of your preference of colleges. This should be done before the cut-offs are out as you may not have enough time to think it through in the middle of the cut-offs. To keep the list as accurate as possible, it is important to get unbiased opinions on different colleges.

  1. Take extra care for readying your documents and stationary

Once you are sure about a college, a day prior to the admission day, you must check every document that needs to be presented, twice. Furthermore, it is important to keep with yourself, a box of handy stationary like pens, pencils, staplers, glue, erasers, etc. While you are in the process of taking the admission, there will be a lot of confusion and little time on your hands. It is important to reach the college early and have everything ready in order to avoid the chaos.

Don’ts

  1. Become a victim of peer pressure

It is never wise to come under the societal pressures to decide which college to take admission in. You must, furthermore, never give in to the temptation of taking admission in a college because all your friends are there. Understand that your decision must be backed with reason and vision for the future rather than temporary comforts or social reputation as a priority.

  1. Ignore extracurricular activities

Your CV will not only be defined by the course and college you choose. It will also be majorly defined by the extracurricular activities that you get involved in. Your work experience and the positions you hold during your college life reflect on your abilities. These may overlap with your classes and can affect your grade point if the college isn’t supportive. Therefore, it is important to make sure that the college you get into gives you the opportunities and supports your presence in extracurricular activities.

3. Fear the long distance

Students travel up to two hours every day to the best college they can get. That is just how the culture is at Delhi University. It is wrong to leave a better college because it is so ‘far away’. Students are able to manage traveling and even find their ‘me’ time in the metro. At last, what counts is the name of the college on your CV and not excuses of proximity.

4. Let go of a college because of its stereotypes

Every college in Delhi University has a stereotype attached to it. Some are too ‘political’, others are full of ‘unsophisticated’ women. However, the truth is you will find all kinds of people, everywhere. The type of bonds you want to create with the type of people you aspire to be will shape you as a person. You will find all types, everywhere. Therefore, if you are getting a course and a college of your choice, you must not let it go because of the stereotypes attached to it. The truth is often, very different.

 

Feature Image Credits: Veritas Prep

Khyati Sanger

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DUB Speak

College vs Course: A Race Between The Two 

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The arduous decisions that you are compelled to take during the admission season at the University of Delhi (DU) can be like Race 3: Hard on your mind, unbearable for your soul.

While all students are faced with one or the other strenuous circumstances involving life-altering decisions, one of the most gruelling decisions has to do with the debate on college versus course. On one hand, you have your dream college and on the other, you have your favourite course. It is a tough call to make but there isn’t one right answer that fits everyone.  The faculty members of the University of Delhi are good at their jobs all over and great professors aren’t just restricted to a few colleges. So the difference in the ranking of colleges is usually a result of other factors and not solely because of a lack of the quality of the faculty. However, it is a fact that a high-ranking college does make a positive difference to your CV. Therefore, for those who feel this factor to be essential in their chosen field can choose course over college. On the other hand, if one aims to pursue research and higher studies in one particular subject, then choosing course over college might just be the right decision. As a Professor in the Department of English says, “Before choosing a stream, the student should understand that a college tags for three years while the discipline tags throughout the career.” The choice of college or course also depends on the career path one has chosen. If your career is leaning towards co-curricular activities, it makes sense to choose a college that has the best society or team for your chosen field.

Choosing Course Over College

In conversation with DU Beat, Professor at Deshbandhu College Vandana Kaul remarked, “If you compromise with your course just to get into the college of your choice, it might affect your performance in the long run. Although the thought of being in a renowned college might excite you for the initial few months, in the long run, you might start losing interest in the course you had chosen. It might have a more serious repercussion later as the course you choose for your undergraduate studies usually form the basis of your career.”

Shaila Bora, a student of Economics who took admission in DU in 2016, told the DU Beat correspondent, “I had scored a 96.25% in my qualifying examination. I had made the cut-off for Sociology in Lady Shri Ram College for Women in the first cut-off list itself and would have also gotten into the college hostel. Although the prospects of the same tempted me for a brief while, I straightened my priorities and ended up taking BA (Honours) in Economics at Zakir Hussain Delhi College. Had I let the thought of being in a better college tempt me, I would have been disoriented with my course and career prospects. Two years later, I am more than content with my decision. In a year, I will have a degree in Economics and a certification from the University of Delhi.”

Choosing College Over Course

However, Manali Sharma, Assistant Professor at the Department of Chemistry, feels otherwise. She told the DU Beat correspondent, “Apart from the course that you are pursuing, the environment of your college also goes a long way in retaining your interest in studies and improving your academic performance. A good college offers better opportunities, better infrastructure, better faculty members and enhanced opportunities for extracurricular activities.”

Vanshika Mehta, a student pursuing B.A. Programme at Hindu College, told DU Beat, “I wanted to pursue History, but took BA Programme with History and Political Science as my core disciplines. That has proven to be the best decision of my life because now, I am able to study multiple subjects and not just one. Moreover, the kind of exposure that this college has given me is exceptional.”

She added, “The facilities of the college and practical experience you gain there are important factors for overall growth and career success. More importantly, a graduate from a renowned college would have a relatively upper hand in campus placements.”

While the debate between college and course can be taxing, it is important to make an informed choice and not rush with the decision. At the end of the day, what matters is getting the most out of your choice.

Feature Image Credits: NPR

Vaibhavi Sharma Pathak

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