From CBSE to DU

Take any 12^th class student, he would be very concerned about his/her future studies. Some decide to go for IIT, some prefer CA/CS/CWA. Almost every student prepare for some entrance exam so as to get admission somewhere in case he/she has doubt regarding his/her Board marks. In my 12^th class, I was very good at Mathematics, Accountancy and Economics. In English, I hated the theory part whereas the Writing section was my favourite. My father is a businessman and even I like business very much but only the real life business. But studying B. St. (business studies) is a very boring job. I didn’t even study for B. St. during my board exams as my aim was to get good marks in 4 subjects which are the needed for admissions in almost every institute (i.e. you get admission on the basis of marks of  1 language + best 3 academic subjects).

When I was preparing for my board exams, I wasn’t interested in doing some academic course and had a plan to do CA. After giving my exams, I was confident that I would get a percentage in 90’s. Getting a percentage in 90’s is good but when it comes to Delhi University, even 95% is not considered satisfactory, especially in North and South Campus. For CA, you just need to pass your 12^th class. The cut-offs of previous years made my decision of pursuing CA stronger than before.

I prepared for CPT (the ‘entrance’ test for CA) and got certificate of distinction as well. Meanwhile, DU announced its cut-offs. In the 1^st cut-off, my percentage which was 93.5 was not at all satisfactory for most of the colleges including some famous off-campus colleges as well. Usually, everyone says that DU cut-offs are high. They are high but mostly for courses like Commerce and Economics. There are other courses as well which are important but their cut-offs are not that high than that of Commerce and Economics.

My batch has not been a normal one. Every time we have been the experiment units of the education authorities.

In 10^th class, CBSE announced the CCE (Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation) in which we didn’t give board exams and a grading system was followed. I didn’t like the marking scheme of this system as upgrades were given to students on the basis of some not at all important aspects of a student like ‘behaviour in class’. I am not saying this because I was a naughty student and didn’t get upgrades, I was and even I am a descent student and got upgrades at that time but some of my classmates who made the life of my class teacher hell, got upgrades because of good behaviour (atleast on papers).

In 12^th class, we gave board exams but we have to study for some value based marks which constituted of 5% of the total marks. These questions were based on some moral values which according to me, didn’t have any connection with the subjects.

Even after leaving the school, these experiments didn’t stop. When it was time for our batch to take admission in colleges especially in DU, the DU Vice Chancellor came up with the idea of ‘Four Year Undergraduate Programme’ according to which, to get an honours degree, we have to study for four years. In addition to this, we have to study some Foundation and Applied courses which are said to be beneficial in improving our personality and our overall skills. I will talk about these courses later on.

So, as I explained that my percentage was not good for the cut-offs and I loved accountancy due to which I was thinking to pursue CA only and leave the thought of getting admission in DU. But thanks to FYUP, all the Programme/Pass courses were discontinued due to which seats in some courses were increased and hence, the cut off fall lower than it was expected to. As I didn’t like B. St. that much, I was not that interested in getting admission in the Commerce course unless it was in a college of the North Campus. I was more interested in Economics and Mathematics and in the 2^nd cut-off, I got admission in SGTB Khalsa College. It was for a course my classmates would never opt for, Mathematics. But as it is said, when you achieved something big you want to achieve even bigger. My aim was to get admission in North Campus but after getting admission in north campus, I wanted to get admission in Hansraj or Hindu or KMC. Hansraj was my 1^st preference and it was not because I liked its faculty or something. I knew that celebrities like Jazzy B and RDB came into Hansraj’s Annual Fest and that made Hansraj a kind of priority for me. I waited for the 3^rd cut-off and still the cut-off of Hansraj was a little high. The same thing happened in the 4^th cut-off also. Finally, in 5^th cut-off my percentage was enough to get admission in Kirori Mal College.

But in order to be a part of KMC, I had to withdraw my admission from SGTB Khalsa College. But this process was quite complex and it was the first time I experienced the so-called lengthy government procedures.

At that time, I preferred Hansraj over KMC but after searching more about KMC, I got to know that KMC had its own famous alumina including Shakti Kapoor, Satish Kauhsik, Habib Faisal, Kabir Khan and Amitabh Bachchan. The last name made me happy even after I didn’t get admission in Hansraj.

I had cleared CPT and got admission in North Campus as well. Now, I had to take a decision, pursue CA or go for Mathematics. I thought taking advice from teachers would help me and so, I asked 12^th class Mathematics tuition teacher and he told me that I was good at Mathematics and should go for Mathematics Honours. I asked my CPT teacher, he said that I should not leave CA as it is a professional course and would help me a lot in future. My 12^th class Accountancy tuition teacher advised me to pursue B.Com while a lawyer friend of my father told me that I should study LAW. After all these counselling sessions, I realised that every professional would recommend students to study the subject they had studied.

I am a bright student but I cannot study continuously for 8-9 hours daily. I also wanted to enjoy college life as well. So, finally I decided to do Bachelor with Honours in Mathematics from Kirori Mal College of the ‘University of Delhi’.

On the first day of my college i.e. the orientation day, I was both nervous and excited to see how it feels going to the college. I remember that all the freshers were welcomed at the main gate of KMC with a rose by Times of India. A lot of media people were also there, waiting for the freshers to know how they were feeling on the first day of their college life. As I entered the main gate, I saw some seniors who were there to welcome the freshers with chocolates. At first, I thought that how good these seniors are. Instead of ragging, they are giving us chocolates. But when one of them gave me the chocolate another senior with him said, “Vote for …… “. All these seniors were not there to welcome us, rather they had been standing there for so long just to inform the freshers who they should vote for in the upcoming college elections. 

I remember all of us young mathematicians had to report in Room No. 20 but being a fresher, I didn’t know the location of the room and had to search the college for it. Around 90% of the students were sitting there before I reached the room. I was lucky enough to get a seat for me. The orientation programme started with the teachers giving their and the Mathematics Department’s introduction. It was now our turn to give our introduction and tell everybody why we had chosen Mathematics. Most of the students said that they loved mathematics and that was the reason to pursue Mathematics Honours. I also gave this answer but I was interested in getting admission in the North Campus as well. I wanted to get admission in the North Campus but not by selecting courses which I was not interested in or which I had not studied in my 12^th like Zoology or Chemistry.

After the formal introduction, we were given refreshments and this time this was not to get votes. As everybody was leaving the room, some seniors asked us to come into the room again as they had to tell something important to us. Some freshers had gone but some including me listened to them and re-entered the room. We all had realised that the ‘important’ thing was the ragging part. The seniors randomly called some freshers and asked them to dance, sing a song or a poem. It was a not that ragging which every fresher is usually scared of. Due to the new and strict rules and regulations of DU regarding ragging in colleges, seniors didn’t have the right to do something mischievous with the freshers and so, they have to let us go with some normal teasing and all. During this ‘introduction’ session with the seniors a cameraman and a reporter entered the room. The reported asked a few students about their feelings on the first day in the college. That was a moment when I thought that my decision to do graduation in a college was not wrong. This introduction session ended and all of us had to wait for the sections to be announced. After waiting for a couple of hours, the list was put up and I was allotted the section C.

Next day, we had a normal class. All new faces, everybody looking for someone to talk. I found three boys, we exchanged our numbers and those were my first friends in the college. That day only a final year came to our class and asked me and my friend to meet him after the class. We both thought that it was the ragging time but when we met him, he told us that he needs a class list as he was contesting for the post of President of the Mathematics Department. We gave him the class list next day.

After a couple of weeks, the Section-C was dissolved and half of the students were sent to Section-A and half to Section-B. I got Section-B which was again a new class for me but this time, I had some friends with me too.

In the initial days of my 1^st year, I was not that interested in going to the college but by the next month, I had started liking my college. Now I could call myself a Kirorian.

As I told, Mathematics Department election was around the clock and every candidate was trying to persuade the juniors. Many a times, during lectures some candidate would come and ask the lecturer, “Sir, can we talk to the class for five minutes?” And after this he/she would start telling everyone about what all have they done for the department and that he/she deserves to win. In our department there are two posts for the 1^st year students. So, 1 student from Section-A and 1 student from my section i.e. Section-B got elected for the posted of Joint Secretary.

The department election was not like the normal elections and the number of potential voters were less than 400. The real politics was seen during the college elections the college elections and the DUSU (Delhi University Students Union) elections were on the same day. In contrast to the department elections, heavy campaigning was seen in these elections. Candidates contesting in the college elections tried to convince students of every department that they should vote for them as they will do this for the college and for the FYUP the promises were like this, “We will make sure that all the FC books are available in the library.”, “As you have classes till late in the afternoon, we will try to shift your time-table.” and so on.

Anyways, I want to say just one thing that Department elections are good but after the college and DUSU elections, no candidate will come to ask you if you have any problem or not.

According to me, college life is somewhere more interesting than school life. Events such as the Freshers, the Rain Dance Party, the Department Fest, the College Fest and the Farewell make it interesting.

The fests (both college and department) need a special mention. The Mathematics Society Fest, ‘Supremum’ gave me an opportunity to enhance my skill to coordinate with others and get everything organized on time. Getting sponsors, permission from the college authorities and printing the certificates for the volunteers. It is because of these kind of events that I chose college over CA.

The College fest is similar to the Department fest with the only difference that in a College fest, funds are far more than the Department fest which helps in convincing a celebrity to perform at the fest.

The last event of the year was the Farewell when it was the time to say goodbye to the final year students. The first and second year students prepared a list of tasks that the students of the outgoing batch had to do. The list included dancing with your crush, dedicating a song for someone, dancing with the anchors and the masquerade dance to name a few.

In my opinion college life is best for those people who want to enjoy their lives before they start working. Obviously you will be studying, but you will get familiar with the practical knowledge that is required in the real world.