MUST THINGS FOR A FIRST-YEAR IPU MAIN CAMPUS STUDENT

Talking with a lot of seniors and faculties in the past months, I got to know what things I am doing right and what things I am doing wrong, so I will try to explain each and everything regarding the same below, do give it a read!

 1. COURSES AND SKILLS

 So during the starting phase, many students are somehow hesitant about what is their interest areas, I was in the same position as I was still exploring my interests and, to be honest, I still have not found that particular interest yet, but I learnt from my seniors is to start, if you couldn’t find an interesting area, just pick one and start side by side your curriculum, you can easily get financial aid on Coursera, where you can learn many courses for free, currently I am doing a bioinformatics course there which mixes programming with biology, and it is very interesting the more I go forward with the course, other than that there are many NPTEL courses you can do if you are in India, these are courses which are taught by top institutions of India like IITs, IISC and many more, as the previous April batch is finished, now you can enrol for the may course.

 I being from a biology background in classes 11 and 12, my coding skills were not that great, so for that, either you can learn via financial aid from Coursera, or there are many youtube channels like freeCodeCamp.org, code with harry and many more from which you can learn coding from start and then go forward with it.

 2. IGNORANCE OF SOCIETIES AND CLUBS

 My third-year senior once said to me that to excel in college you have to mark your presence in a positive way where ever you go, if you can’t make your presence, then you will become just another student with a dull personality. I have seen many of my peers in the first year who completely ignore societies and clubs and only focus on academics, this is what I feel is the major mistake made, societies don’t require people with top-notch skills, all they require is dedication, if you don’t know anything about let’s say entrepreneurship but you want to learn and explore more about it, then you can join e cell and it will automatically enhance your skills in that field. For me, academics should be important but it should not be the only thing you prioritize especially if you are in your first year.

 3. INTERNSHIPS

 So here from my seniors and super seniors I have seen a lot of mixed opinions. In the first year, it is very difficult to land core internships, but if you want to be independent and earn side by side with your BTech, there are internships in HR, subject matter expert, content, videography and many more. Here I have seniors both against and for it, and here’s the reason why

 Many of my seniors are against this because they feel you should first acquire core skills like MATLAB, Aspen etc. and then in your second year directly apply for core internships though they think if you concentrate on doing internships in non-core fields, you may not get time to acquire skills in core fields and it will become difficult in the second year too to land core internships.

 The other senior feels that doing non-core internships in the first year will give you three things, first, you can earn and become independent, secondly, you will understand the experience about what’s it like to work in a company, and thirdly in future if you in a recruitment interview after your BTech, it will give a positive impression to the recruiter that you have worked in both non-core and core internships and you know the process.

 I would like to know which of the seniors’ opinions you adhere to the most, do tell me in the comments or via social handles.

 CONCLUSION

 So, in short, what I understood from my peers, seniors, faculties is you have to try to be an all-rounder at least in the first two years of your Btech, being in several societies, internships, courses, will only tell you how to manage your time well, and will ultimately grow your personality as a person.