This post is aimed at people studying in the 3-tier colleges or other state-funded colleges. I actually started out writing with engineers in mind but later generalized to any undergrad student in general (Mentioned everywhere when it’s not so). In colleges like these where the students usually remain unaware of what all, they can do during their degree, and not many peers are motivated and ambitious about anything in particular. life just happens. Most faculty do the teaching in a perfunctory manner, they can’t motivate students to learn nor can they recommend any good sources to learn from. More so, they themselves have little to zero knowledge on good sources of the subjects they have been teaching for a decade or two. You’ll realize all these when you get to know of the environment in premier institutes like IISC and IITs.
As opposed to what typical readers of the Blog (The frustrated Engineering lot) might be thinking, Engineering ain’t a bad course. It’s actually the sudden increase in the no. of colleges offering the course and subsequent fall in the quality that made us feel so. Engineering is a fantastic course for those it suits and the subjects can be extremely exciting if learned from good sources/teachers.
Learn from GOOD resources
Most books recommend in places like those are from Indian authors written with an average or below-average student in mind and to make him/her pass the exam somehow. They’re not written to arouse interest in the subject they’re trying to teach. The purpose of their existence is a different thing altogether, which you’ll realize the night before the exam. But on a normal day, reading such books can sabotage someone’s interest in learning the subject in an elegant and detailed way.
So… What are these ‘Fantastic books and where to find them?’
INTERNET!!!
When you have access to the best sources in the world, why restrict yourself to mediocre ones? Invest your valuable time in something that will give you the best returns.
Whatever is the subject you want to learn, do a quick google search for the “best books/video lectures for XYZ subject”. You can even lookup on Quora or Stack Exchange to find some recommendations along with reviews. Even Amazon can You’ll find plenty of online courses on YouTube, MIT-OCW and Course era and edX. Good Books and teachers make the subject more intuitive gripping and the whole learning process enjoyable. Even most boring of the subjects can be taught in a captivating manner, all it takes is a good teacher. The prices of books by foreign authors will be exorbitant, so, some people Google “Lib-Gen” and search for the books in the website, download the PDFs and print them from websites like prinster.in and get it delivered to home.
GATE Coaching
Strengthen your Basics
Summer and Winter breaks!!!!!
Make good use of these breaks, Don’t just stay at home for the whole period and do nothing. Do a summer project or plan to do an online course or finish a book or study a subject of your interest in depth. You can do your summer or winter project any field of your interest which need not be the same as the one you are studying in college. Doing these will give a glimpse of what working in that field will be like and will benefit a lot if you are planning to go abroad. Also if you show in your CV that you’ve been consistently interested in a specific field, it’ll be a huge advantage in getting a admit in that particular field. If you’re wondering where and how to find internships, do go through this post Where and how to get summer/winter Internships? I’ve mentioned several places you can look to get internships and how to go about writing emails to profs about it. It will be extremely helpful if you are new to this thing.
Explore as much as you can
Actively participate in Inter-departmental events either on campus or outside. Take the notice board in your department seriously. You’ll find posters of all workshops, seminars and even fests. Have conversations with the students of those departments about their subject, they can boil it down to you so that you’ll get the gist of it. Besides, there are extra perks of attending these events, like you’ll get to see a whole lot of new faces, meet new people, etc, etc.. Who knows, who you might discover and what might lead to what😋.
Notice if you start liking a specific subject or a field
Be open to all options
Read more books in general
One more thing I’ve observed in places like these is that the students don’t have the habit of reading. If you’re one such, it only means you just haven’t come across the right book yet. Visit the library(or Book Store) just once and take a quick glance at all the different kinds of Books with enticing titles and cover pages, one thing or the other will definitely lure you into reading. Once you start to develop the habit of reading, you’ll realize that it’s the 9-3/4 platform to the magical world you’ve been missing all your life!! Reading is one of the best things you can do for yourself. It’s a very common trait among many successful people all around the world.
https://physicsafterengineering.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html
You can find the FAQs and important conversations happened earlier in the groups in this SubRedditr/Physicsaftrengineerin/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Physicsaftrengineerin/
5 thoughts on “Making the most out of your undergraduate days!”
This is indeed very important and relevant! Thanks dushyanth
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Please read this(page) before joining Btech or Bsc. Physics isn't easy, neither is engineering. Great work by Dushyanth(I see no grammatical errors😅).
Pl share the list of Best Physics & Astronomy colleges for UG courses after 12th in India ranked from top to bottom. Also share the corresponding entrance exams w r t each colleges. Need this urgently.
Am sorry I don't any institute other than I've mentioned above. I also think there aren't many institute that have bachelor's degree program in astronomy. It's quite a common practice to do a general BSc Physics or even master's in the same followed by master's or PhD in astronomy.