Thanks Ishika for reminding me about my blog. This was an incomplete post for long but today I will complete it.

Well, when you think about college what comes first to your mind? Is it the cool science gadgets that you will build or the first crush who would be your love forever or the night long rave party you always dreamt about? Whatever comes to your mind first defines what you are and what you want in life. Its the self manifestation of ourselves in our own perspective that defines our future and not some external probing procedure crafted by the so called ingenious people who don’t give a damn about you. Ohh…what the hell did I just write?

In simple words, you decide your future and not some competitive exam.

Now, what makes up a college?

A college is not made by the quality of professors it has nor the research work it is doing nor the amazing infrastructure it might or it might not have. A college is made by the students it has and the mentality of the average student in the college reflects the college’s image as a whole.

Not convinced yet, then do a survey on some guys who are in final year and are just about to leave college and a similar survey on sophomore guys from the same college and ask them if they like their college. The results will astound you:

Maximum guys from junior years will tell you how much they hate this college and how they wished they had never come here. The same guys when they reach senior year, they would tell you how this same college was the best thing that ever happened to them and what would they not do to relive the college life again. (Some extremely emotional guys might even start crying out of nostalgia)

Well, the college hasn’t changed, the students haven’t changed then the question is Why is there a differnce in opnion? What has changed them?

The answer is simple. Its the outlook of the students that have changed. Initially, when these guys just looked at their college for the very first time, they only saw the external factors like the college infrastructure, food quality in the mess, clean campus and all that. So, they initially had a very bad opinion about their college as it probably did not meet their expectations.

Slowly, as time passed, they adapted themselves to all these discrepancies and started to fit in college with others like them. They made new friends, maybe met their first love, enjoyed doing some crazy stuff and finally, bonded with the college at an emotional level. All because, they found people like them who think more or less alike.

Suffice to say, the majority students in a college have a similar outlook and it reflects the image of the college. A college filled with students who all love to party and have fun will definitely not have a lot of research output. Naturally, a college filled with nerds will have a lesser DJ night culture and more research culture.

The admimission procedure to colleges is designed to group people into colleges which are like them and no college is better or worse than the other. Your college is and always had been your choice subconsciously and you know that.

Now, the question remains, how can we assertain the integrity of this admission procedure?

Yeah, thats a tough question. How can we really do this? Very baffling question indeed. The system of competitive exams is just so that this grouping of students is done in the best possible way.

Well, first the hype of a competitive exam is created such that all aspirants are well informed and on an equal footing. Your performance in a competitive exam is directly proportional to the amount of preparation/practice you had, the level of intellect you possess, calmness of mindset in an examination which is in turn proportional to the intelligence, perseverence capacity, maturity, focus you have. All these qualities make up your entire personality and it sounds like a perfectly reasonable way to group students who are alike.

But the flaw in the system is that, we are not lab rats and all of us might not have the same footing when we are giving the exam. One maybe sick during the day of exam and it could be the cause of his poor performance. Or someone might have been late to the examination centre due to unprecedented delay and it could have affected her performance.

The new system where the board exam marks are being taken into account is a good solution for this problem but there is another glitch. Students who are coming from different boards score differently. A student from an ICSE board usually scores higher than a students from a state board or a CBSE board. Well, this issue has been addressed with the introduction of weightage schemes for different boards.

Finally, we can agree that our examination system is fairly efficient in alloting the right college to the right people. Of course, the system is not perfect but is there anything better than the current way? If you believe there’s a better alternative to our current system, do post a comment

So, we can agree that a college is a group of like minded people and the examination system groups these like minded people from all over India and alots a suitable college for them. Thus, we can say for sure, if you be true to yourself and do what you feel is right then you will end up in a college where people thought the same things as you did and you will not regret it.

Now, the final question remains, why the competition?

The cut-throat competition that has taken lives of many JEE aspirants is a delusion. Its a fake mirage that has been created by all the coaching institutes which have spread like a virus throughout the country. Well, lets see if we can try and understand what caused such an epidemic.

• Many people run this rat race due to peer pressure. ‘My friend is preparing for this exam and he would get into this college. If I don’t do the same, I will be seperated from my friends and become alone.’ Buddy, you will never be alone. Trust me when I tell you this, you will have even better friends in college. As I have said before, the examination system will group people like you in the same college.

• Ambition of being in the top university of the country. Believe me when I tell you this, colleges are same everywhere. As I have said above, students make their colleges and not vice-versa. If you remain steady, you will get into a college you deserve and all your personal ambition and effort is pointless. And if you get in to one of the top institutes undeservingly, your life will just get a lot worse than you ever imagined. You won’t be able to cope up with syllabus there and end up with several backlogs. Worst of all, you won’t even have any friends who would understand and feel for you.

• Myth spread by coaching institutes is major cause for this rat race. The coaching institutes and the media have spread the myth that if you get into an IIT or an IISc or some II(whatever), you will be earning tons of money and get placed easily. Its a complete blatant lie. Company HRs choose very wisely and if they offer a very high salary, it means you deserve it. I know several people who got very good off-campus placements and they were not from any Government college. Also, I had personally seen girls from IIT crying like hell in the placement center because they did not get a job anywhere. Like I said, your life is what you make of it and not your college.

• Lastly, the biggest reason is family pressure arising due to poor socio-economic condition which puts a huge responsibility on the children to start earning as soon as possible. Studying hard whether you like it or not is the easiest and safest way to start earning soon. This is probably the only justifiable cause for this rat race and it has no immediate solution. The only solution is if the current generation is more responsible towards their family and lower the burden of responsibilities so that future generations might not be a victim of this rat race.

So, wherever you are now and wherever you might land up in future is all a result of the choices you are making subconsciously all the time. You can’t control it and its pointless trying to do so. Instead try to look at all the positive things around and all the good things your college has, all your friends and all the things you might miss after you leave here. Try to find the true purpose of our life and why you chose your college. With all these thoughts in your mind, finally be happy that you made the right choice. And above all, keep smiling.