DU:Expectations V/S Reality
Getting admission in the top university of the country naturally comes with a lot of expectations. Before taking admission, the perception of college in every student’s mind is entirely based on what they see in movies or T.V. They think all those expectations will come true as they get admitted in the college of their choice.
College seems so much fun to them when they are just starting off. Parties, friends, cool seniors & privacy, it seems to be what they always wanted. Slowly they start realizing what DU colleges are actually about. It takes months to settle into it. A year in the prestigious Delhi University is quite enough to get a reality check on all the fairy tale expectations that had been cooking in our heads all our teenage lives.
Here’s a list of 5 things that almost all of us have or will expect out of DU and it actually is.
- EXPECTATION:The “Awesome” fests.
REALITY:It is the most common and one of the well heard expectations from students. Somehow few colleges manage to pull off a pretty great fest, many turn into a playground of chaos, confusion, sealed gates, police involvement and end up in a not-so-good situation. Awesome!! Is it now? The bigger more famous colleges get some very talented & famous artists performing at their fests whereas the other colleges actually comprise majority of the DU population who have no faith in their own college fest. They love to visit only the high profile ones.
- EXPECTATION:North campus? Great crowd. South campus? Good crowd.
REALITY:Most of us choose the college thinking about the crowd. Well, for your kind information, all colleges have a mixed crowd. You will find people from all sorts of backgrounds and regions in every college, and that is an integral part of being in DU. If you are expecting to find homogeneous groups of people like the way you saw in Student of The Year, you are born on the wrong planet dude!
- EXPECTATION: Campuses are the crib to hangout.
Lovers Point Hansraj College
REALITY: Apart from a few exceptions, most colleges in DU lack infrastructure. Very few colleges are air-conditioned and some canteens are terrible. Every potential college applicant expects their campus to be the cool place they hang out with their friends. The real colleges are a little different from what image Bollywood has created in our heads.
- EXPECTATION:FREEDOM! College Time! Freedom Time! Right?
REALITY: One of the biggest misconceptions and the one which brings the most disappointment with it. For the Delhiites still living at home, you are their same little kid who’s going to a bigger version of school to your parents. So do not expect the kind of freedom those hostelers get in other universities. Also, you aren’t spoon fed anymore with a specific course of syllabus. So even though no one cares if you bunk classes or not, you still have to attend them in hope you might actually catch something that ends up in the question paper. With all this sudden load of self-study stuff, different from schools, there is not time for half the campus vellapanti that you see in movies.
- EXPECTATION:Parties! For anything and everything.
REALITY: Being in a college is reason enough to party for the fuchchas. Sure, they are fun. But once you step out of the college and go partying on your own you soon realize how sleep and money is dearer than getting wasted. The hang outs are about to shift from sophisticated lunches at fancy places to the Maggi corner, chhole kulche and spicy rolls. The union budget is not the only budget you are concerned about, it’s the one in your pocket that brings shivers down your spine.
Expectations are a part of life, but let them take a backseat and look forward to the journey that is about to begin. Go blankly in to the wind of DU, live the moment and explore things on your own.
Just relax! You will be surprised at how well DU manages to surprise you.
Hey….I want to know about how can I join foreign language courses and short term courses in du??