Chhavi Gupta

April 2022

• 5+ Min Read

Maximise learning in your college

When you enter a college, you feel a plethora of emotions. It is new, it is exciting, it is freeing, you love it!

 

College time is the most loved, remembered and amazing time people have in their lives. While everyone remembers it back fondly, if asked, almost everyone has an answer to “What you would have done better in college?”

 

The most common answer is more experimentation.

 

So here are some tips from someone who joined college more than a decade ago, on what you should try to do in your college. If you’re a college student, read along. And if you like it, share around :)

 

College is a time when you are not burdened with responsibilities. It is a time when it is ok to live frugally. It is when you can pick up an activity and leave it if you don’t like it. You don’t have this luxury throughout your life.

 

Hence, it is very important to ensure you are maximising your learning in college and experimenting as much as you can. According to me there are 2 types to learn anything in life.

 

  1. Passive learning
  2. Active learning

 

Passive learning is when you’re a consumer of content, when you are not really required to act too much. Examples are online courses. It definitely is very structured and holistic, and you feel good after completing them. But your skill improvement and retention of what you learn is low.

Active learning is when you’re actively involved in the learning process, so much that if you don’t do anything you will not learn at all. Examples are internships. It is not easy, it requires more effort and it can event turn out to be not great. But you will still learn lot of soft and hard skills which is needed in career.

 

Try to take part in ‘active learning’ as much as you can. College life can provide opportunity for a ton of internships, projects, clubs. Where you will interact with more experienced people, learn from them and build networks. It is of essence to continuously strive for these things.

Now how do you actually get opportunities to do all of it?

 

  1. Your profile - this is the most important thing to have to bag opportunities, you need to learn through passive methods & try your hand at internal college teams to build your CV.
  2. College - depending on which college you’re in, you just get opportunities from the placement cell, alumni network. While at IITD, I got almost all my opportunities from within my college resources. It is easy when college is a little well known.
    1. Internships I did at IITD: Pratham NGO - made a Computer Science basic course; Biocon - biotechnology core internship; MerryGoLearn - was a content creator in this alumna edtech startup
  3. Hustle - BUT the above doesn’t mean you can’t do anything if you’re not from a top tier college! You are responsible for the opportunities you can grab. In today’s online world, it is possible for anyone to work anywhere. Apply on LinkedIn, apply on internshala, just message people who you can help and you can do many independent projects.
    1. Anecdote: When my YouTube channel was at around 3K subscribers, an MIT-ASCS Pune student messaged me saying “I want to be your manager, I will work for free for some time and make strategy on how you can increase subscribers.” I was reluctant, he was from a tier 3 college, he wasn’t a fluent English speaker, but he had great tech skills, he had done website development for some people & was enthusiastic. I gave it a shot. We worked together for almost a year - he learned a lot, helped me a lot & joined ZS associates with the highest ever package on his campus. He hustled, throughout his college life, and achieved great success!
    2. Anecdote: I wanted to do a foreign university internship in 2014. I didn’t have the money to go abroad, so I was asking for a fully sponsored internship. It was tough, but I emailed around 200 professors, got yes but without money from around 40, and yes with money from HOD of genetics at University of Cambridge. I had a hell of an experience there, learned a lot & made great connections. It was my first trip abroad and holds a big place in my heart. So glad I made all those cover letters, resumes and emails!
  4. Explore - sometimes you don’t know what is it that you’re great at. It is ok! Try things out, go to the drama society, go to the music club, try out some sport. Learn this extra skills in life, these will not only improve your CV’s “Extra curricular” section, they will also help you unwind in life.

 

Not only do the above activities help you build a great career, they help you know yourself better, they help you network & they help you learn a lot of soft skills like time management.

So next time when you want to binge a TV series or party all night, go ahead do it, you’ve the luxury of time. But don’t JUST do that. Build yourself for the future you’ve ahead of you. Learn about yourself. Learn about how you can better interact with people. Learn about how you can learn in life.

All of these require experimenting with multiple things, and in college, you’ve the time to do exactly that! You will need all these in your future hectic job life.

Few last thoughts:

 

  1. No matter what you’re studying, keep academics your priority - your scores will matter
  2. Whatever college you’re in - if you’re in top 5% of the profiles - you will have way more opportunities than anyone else. Try to be the top few.

 

College is awesome, you’ll always remember it with a smile. You’ll go through a rollercoaster of emotions, but you’ll come out stronger on the other side. Have fun, enjoy yourself and grow up into someone you love and respect!

Reference links

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