So I started college on 3rd January 2022, just the day after my freshers. Being a medical student in class 11th and 12th, it was a very major switch for me going towards engineering because I didn’t have much knowledge about coding, programming, electrical science before starting college, my main subjects were always chemistry and biology till class 12th. so here is my overall experience about how to overcome some problems and gain the most as a fresher in IPU main campus or in any engineering college.
SENIORS
The biggest scare and doubt for every fresher is how are seniors going to treat them in college? will there be ragging? will there be no ragging? will they help us? or will they boycott us? So the basic thing I learnt is to respect seniors and talk to them politely, if you give them respect, you are going to get the respect in return, and yes just like every college, there are some seniors or even your own peers who maybe have bad influence on you, and it is up to you to distance them from yourself or not. As far as my college is concerned, I have got some really awesome 3rd year and 4th-year seniors, who help me whenever I have doubts about internships, LinkedIn, course-related, labs etc.
TEACHING
So the second biggest question in minds of freshers is which professors’ classes to attend? how many bunks should we do? is attendance an issue? So we know that there will of course be an adrenaline dump when after such a heavy class 11th and 12th and after that starting college immediately, students cannot concentrate fully in the start which includes me and my colleagues as well. What I did was, I didn’t pressurize myself on anything, I balanced and understood whose professor’s class is important and whose is not, and accordingly, I attend classes, because, at the end of the day, you are here to enjoy some moments as well rather than rigorously studying. During bunks, if I wanted to play, I used to play basketball, chess etc. or just sit with my friends or work on my other projects as well which I will cover in my next blog.
CLUBS AND SOCIETIES
So like most tier 1 colleges, IPU main campus also offers a lot of societies and clubs. As a fresher, I always wondered about which clubs would be the best for me. I talked to a lot of seniors about this and finally looking at various aspects of my specific career goal I chose clubs. So, I became the executive member of Srijan Science club, this club is the heart of all science-related stuff in our college, this hosts a lot of events, invites a lot of scientists, professors and hosts a lot of quizzes and whatnot. Other than this, I am also the captain of the IPU chess team who recently played the Delhi state interuniversity chess championship, our team came joint 4th in the same and I hope with the rise in the chess culture, we get a podium finish soon. Now let’s talk about departmental clubs that we have, so we have tech space, which is heavily based on coding and entrepreneurship cell, I personally want to take part in the entrepreneurship cell of the university and its interviews will soon happen, other than that I am also a member of iiche which is the club related to research in the chemical industries, this club fascinated me a lot due to my interest in going for research in higher studies, and other than this we have training and placement cell and alumni student mentorship program like many colleges in engineering, I hope this briefed you about the clubs we have in IPU main campus and which are the ones I am planning to go forward with.
FRIENDS AND BATCHMATES
Now, this is another major question in every fresher’s mind whether they will be able to make good friends once they start college, I should say that I am very lucky to have some of the most loyal friends on campus, most of my friends are always with me and supports me, and yes if I am being honest then you will find some colleagues and peers who will constantly try to demotivate you and criticise you for your success and failures, but you should always ignore that toxic criticism but do take CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM from everyone because that is what is going to make you grow as a person.
CONCLUSION
There have been so many ups and downs both behind the screens and around everyone, but these three months have been hands down the best three months of my life because of the way I grew as a person in these three months, I have never grown like this before and I hope to constantly learn from my peers, professors, seniors, family and everyone who wants me to improve. Thanks for reading my experience of semester 1, if you want to ask any doubt then do comment or reach out to me via my social handles.