Wait
by piscianemperor
Guys,
Been some time since my last post. Last week was a blur. Had my submissions, and it got pretty hectic, because of my habit of keeping things incomplete till the last moment. My LAST submission. And- my last week of undergrad college. The weird part is, it went off just like that. Uncelebrated. Argh…
Lots of things happened though. Sunday evening was spent in front of the TV, watching Mumbai v/s Chennai. Cheering for Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. Hell yeah, I was even wearing the MI jersey, though I was watching all by myself. But things were not to be. In crunch situations, there is no scope for human error. Ah, but human error is random, so nothing can be done or said about that.
Meanwhile, two birdies tweeted and tweeted, till our ears got sore, and then finally someone whacked them off- you must have heard the story- Tales of Lalit Tharoor and Shashi Modi. Morale of the story- look what happens when you bang on the keyboard without thinking. Precisely why I dislike twitter.
And well- the real news is, I’m done with the admissions season. Finally.
10 Universities- 6 Admits, 3 Rejects and last one is inconsequential.
Everyone hates the waiting game. And the wait was long, stretching over past 6 months. Full of anticipation, then the frustration- that comes from checking the application statuses too often, happiness and thankfully, not much disappointment. The great part is, the friends got into places they always wanted to be in. Me too – in that huge university in not-so-huge Raleigh, NC. :)
The Wolfline
Well, in general, as far as I am concerned, the results were much better than I expected. I’d applied to pretty competitive programs, and getting in was a great thing. The University of Pune isn’t like the most sought after universities in the world, despite what they claim. Well, that’s what I think anyway.
But some of my friends/ my brother etc. are of the opinion that I under-applied/ did not apply to the top 10 universities in US or whatever. For me though, the choice of places was quite simple- cost, coursework, location and lastly, reputation. In that order.
I had no economic issues, but just because I have the entire savings of my parent’s lifetime at my disposal, doesn’t mean I would want to spend all of that money. And then have the pressure of staying on- earning the treasure back etc. etc. Master’s applicants are supposed to be mature people who apply their heads, and I think I did just that. Still, maybe my opinion will change few years down the line- if it does, I’ll definitely point to this post.
These days, apart from studying for the upcoming exams, I am moderating a couple of forums. You know, every new thing that you take up, makes you discover new sides of yourself. I’ve realized that I’ve got a low tolerance to people asking the same questions again and again. My natural instincts make me want to jump at them and tick them off, but thankfully, sensibility has prevailed and my tendency has been curtailed to being slightly caustic and mostly polite…till now anyway! :D
Hey Rohan!
I dunno if you remember me, I was your junior at Abhinava!
I’ve been following your blog and I would like to congratulate you on your admission!
And as always, It’s great to read whatever you write!
Yeah, twitter is really stupid, yet I’m embarrassed to admit I’m addicted to it. Grrr! MI losing was extremely disappointing, as far as the whole IPL drama at least it was better than the Sanya drama.
Congrats on the acceptances! Why isn’t University of Pune recognized? I always thought it was, but I could be wrong.
Congrats for the admit dude! Well done!
This is more of a ‘summing up’ post! But I must say, you put things in a very simple and straight manner. Good choice of words! Makes a very smooth reading :)
See, that’s why you should have stayed back in college to celebrate (or moan) the end :)
That’s an awesome picture at NCSU! You seem to have done all your homework about the place way before you land up there.
My my, what forums are you moderating? :D
@Anup
Hey, great to see you here. Thank you.
Of course I remember you. Actually, we are friends on FB ;)
@Mia
Thanks !
Well, the UoP is a gargantuan university, with hundreds of ‘affiliated’ colleges and an outdated syllabus. What else can I tell you? :P
@Pratik
Thanks man :) I’m still unable to comment on your blog :P
@Fez
You did you did??? All those pics that day? :( Shit, even I wanted to moan !
Hehe…homework I have done. The forums have names like wolfpack and all ;)
I agree with Mia that the IPL drama was way better than Sanya drama…
Sad that MI lost… They should have let Pollard go in for the bat little early.. Congrats on NCSU… Wanna know the universities which you applied to…
@Mia: Univ of Pune is totally overrated… The education system sucks here or I think that it would be better to say that it sucks in this country… I wonder why they call Pune The Oxford Of The East…
@piscianemperor: “‘with hundreds of affiliated’ colleges and an outdated syllabus” – I have heard private colleges are in demand, because government based ones don’t have good professors? Is that true? The reason I’m asking, because I have seen a few family friends that have taken degrees from UoP that is from one of the hundreds of affiliated colleges, and they do hold jobs here. I hate to say this, but sometimes it comes down to luck, and getting the right opportunity at the right time. Back there the colleges are recognized, but outside of India whether it is a College A, College B, College B of UofP it is all the same! But then I guess you already know that.
@Pranali: Agreed Sanya drama was total nonsense. I cannot believe she married that loser! Yeah, I have heard UoP is totally overrated. Some of my family lives in Pune, so I have heard a lot about it. My grandfather & Dad studied in UoP, but that was a really long time back.
@Pranali: The education in India overall has never been structured properly at least from what I think. A lot of times it comes down to parental pressure and living up to your name in the society & blah blah! Last year my cousin did not want to sit for the Math competitive exam, and her mom wanted her to go for it, because apparently she was going to get “leadership qualities” – lord knows how!
@Pranali
Thanks.
Admits- NCSU, USC, Ohio State, Univ. of California-Irvine, Stony Brook Univ., Univ. of Florida- Gainesville
Rejects- Purdue, Texas A&M, Univ. of Maryland-CP
Rutgers is pending.
Actually, UoP is not THAT horrible- hehe..you could have been in worst places, being from India. It is internationally one of the better recognized ‘public’ universities in India. Pune is called the oxford of the east, coz apart from the university, there are like 500 colleges, some good, ancient stuff like BORI, FTII, Ranade Inst., Max Muller, Agricultural College, FC, ILS Law College, BMCC, BJ Medical college etc. etc. I could go on and on. Honestly, most cities wont have such a variety.
@Mia
No..considering the rest of the Indian public universities, it is much better eg. its far better than Mumbai University. When I say public- what I mean is universities having ‘affiliated colleges’.
Yeah, people easily get jobs. The thing is, when you talk about large sizes, problems obviously crop in. But outside India, people only recognize all of us as UoP applicants. I don’t think anyone knows about our colleges. There were several applications where they specifically mention that students from affiliated colleges should only mention their university.
@piscianemperor: I know it is better than Mumbai University. One of my closest childhood friends goes there, and has a lot of complains about Mumbai University. True. My parents mentioned the same that outside of India people don’t know about the colleges, and recognize as UoP. I actually don’t know a whole lot about this, but still seems insane.
@pisceanemperor: SP College was worth a mention… That college rocks in terms of attendance.. I really like the attitude of the teachers there… ‘CARELESS’… They never troubled me for anything… My 2 yrs out there went really smooth…
@Mia: UoP is a tag. People really don’t care which affiliated college you come from if you just state that your from UoP.. Even my parents shifted to Pune about 10yrs ago so that their daughter could get the tag & about getting jobs- it really doesn’t matter where you come from or from which univ you graduated from. Its luck & hard work…
@pisceanemperor: which programs had you applied for, for your masters?
@Mia
yeah, still thousands pass out each year and do ok for ourselves
@pranali
I studiously avoided mentioning SP : :)
Applied for computer engineering in all places.
Its *piscian* :)
@piscianemperor: i’ll make sure that i spell it out correctly next time… I did now too… :)
@pranali
lol..lets stick to rohan instead
@rohan
I really wanted to ask you – how did you finish up the Barron’s wordlist.. You got any tips to learn those 4000 words… I tried to do alteast 50/day but ended up forgetting most of them the next day… (hope this comment didn’t have to be post specific.. )
@Pranali
Well..there are no short cuts as such. I used to associate unknown words with one I knew. And yeah, the not remembering happens with everybody. Don’t get stuck, just move and and come back after 500 words or so.
Must say- the GRE doesn’t matter much. The professors there don’t regard standardized exams as a proof of your quality.
hey congrats…cool…so when r u flying…to the BIG OL US ?
yea…i never thought MI would loose..but it turned out different on D day…heard a lot abt fixing, dunno how much of it is true tough.
Again congratulations!
@Megha
hehe..there’s time still. Need to get the Visa first.
Thanks :)
Just came across your post today..Must say thats an awesome photo of the NCSU logo…ATB for 18th :)
@visionary
hah…thanks :)