This blog article is a list of things that I hate about my college life as a computer science student.
Disclaimer: This post is purely based on the experiences from my college alone.

1. Attendance

I guess it’s safe to assume that (almost) everyone who is studying in an engineering college has this problem. Every semester end we can spot students doing rounds of the Xerox shop, getting photocopies of doctor certificates.

2. Books

Every semester, I’m given 5-8 ginormous books that have more than 700-1000 pages each. Now take a guess how many of those pages do we actually read.

700?

600?

500?

Nope, at max, we will read about 100 pages (being very generous here). The books provided by the college seem to be completely outdated which is always mentioned by our teachers at the start of the semester. At the end of the day, we are forced to study from notes or ebooks.

3. Language

First C, then c++ and then java.

Three languages are formally taught to us, one after the other, leaving no room for implementation. To prove my point, do this simple test. Go to a CSE classroom, pick a random individual and ask them to do a lexicographic string sort in Java (or just print prime numbers). Most of my classmates still memorize the programs. The importance is given to the language (a tool) rather than the thought process that lets you use that tool.

3. Exams

Now one might argue, how this is a bad thing. Well, in colleges like mine, it is. This is a common scene after each exam –
“How many pages did you write for this answer (or entire exam)”.

You are judged by the quantity and not the quality. I myself was flagged down once with the teacher stating that my program (for 10 marks) was way too short.

4. Hopes Dreams and Aspirations

I guess the gif for this one is quite self-explanatory. But if you still need a little context as to what it means-

In my first year when we had group counseling session, where we all were asked as to how much are we expecting as our salary package when we leave the college.

And the speaker just kept on saying numbers from 3 Lk p.a and up.

The first few hands were raised at 25 Lk p.a. I’ll leave it at that.

5. Aptitude

If you ask final years, what they’re doing today – most of them will answer – Aptitude, pre-placement training and interview mocks.

A lot of stress is given to getting through the interview process than actually keeping and doing your job.

6. Records

We have to do the following when we go to the lab
1. Do the experiment that involves us typing it out
2. Write the experiment in rough
3. Then write it again in a hard bound notebook that our college forces us to buy.

I still do not understand why we need to write the experiments down after we have just finished typing it.
Moreover, why do we need to write it down TWICE?

If you feel that I have missed out something, feel free to ping me @PandaWhoCodes