Universities

I am always very excited about meeting students from other universities, especially undergrad students. And whenever I do meet students from other universities, I am most interested in listening about how things work at their school.

The undergrad program at IISc is very new. If you talk about the B.Tech. program in particular, that is as new as it can be - I am one of the students in the first batch of this program, and I am only a rising junior. This is amazing because we (i.e., the students of this first batch) get to carve out our paths and set benchmarks for years to come. But this is also horrifying because we get to carve out our paths and there is nobody to tell us “what” to do, “how” to do and “when” to do - in practice this is a gamble, but that is a story for another time¹. Also, we are very few - 46 people in my batch to be precise. This often makes B.Tech. an echo chamber. We see what is available, similar ideas and perspectives flow through all of our minds, and we think this is all that there is.

This is why meeting students from elsewhere is an opportunity for me. I ask about their coursework to see how things are different - sometimes different places follow very different approaches for delivering the same content, or simply deliver very different contents. I ask about their professors and other teaching faculty. I ask about their courseload. But most importantly, I ask what the students there are up to. Do they all want to grind day and night on Leetcode to get placed at some company as soon as possible? Are they easy going and mostly focus on coursework? Are they innovating with startup ideas? Are they interested in research and if they are, what are they doing to get research experience? What is the hottest topic in computer science among these students? What co-curricular activies like student clubs or competitions are they involved in? Of course I always have my side of the story to share too. Sometimes people are surprised by the diversity of things in IISc, and sometimes they are surprised by the narrowness of things in IISc. At the same time, I get to understand the challenges faces by students elsewhere, and how they overcome them. I get to see what gives them an edge, and how can we adopt some of those things in our student culture at IISc.

But there is more to student life than all these “nerdy” concerns. Hostel, mess, sports, fests, and the surrounding city are some of these. When I talk to my friends studying in Delhi, we also discuss how many people drink, smoke or take drugs at our schools². We may discuss how friendly, collaborative or competitive our peers are. Or maybe how beautiful the campus is, and how much of it is currently under construction. I can ask so many questions, but hearing about these things is one thing while actually living in that environment is another. I had the opportunity to do precisely that this summer at UIUC. Of course I could not get an authentic experience because the campus is in its best (or worst?) shape only during the semester. But I do see that living here is quite different from living inside the campus of an Indian univerity like IISc.

IISc’s campus is like a tiny town made just for its citizens. Students are guaranteed on-campus housing and are provided decent hostels where they have to practically do nothing for maintenance (besides maybe dusting their own room once in a while³) - at a very student-friendly price (i.e., nearly nothing). We are given decent food 4 times a day, and again at a very student-friendly price. The campus design makes it easy to walk and cycle, and there are essential stores and even affordable restaurants right inside. Of course we can go out into the city⁴ for more lavish options - but we can comfortably spend months and in principle, even years without ever leaving the campus. The campus is walled and very safe. I don’t remember walking around the campus at 3 or 4 in the morning and not feeling safe⁵. But at UIUC things were a bit different. I feel that students, particularly grad students, are much more on their own. Their is no hard-boundary for the campus, and it practically just fades into the neighbourhoods of Urbana and Champaign. It still seems safe because of the large number of students in the town, but frankly not as safe as my campus - and especially so at night. Many students live in apartments where they have to deal with actual property “leasing”. A big fraction of students cook for themselves, and many often eat out. There are many stores and restaurants in the area, but they are not usually made for students from the pricing point of view. You can walk to many places but some places are far enough to make walking unfeasible. There is a good⁶ bus service, but I think its not enough for the lifestyle here because many students buy (and frequently use) cars. All in all, I feel that I have had an easy life back home. Everything is small, nearby and affordable - and it seems that the university has a role in making my lifestyle easier. Of course there are caveats (again, lets make that a discussion for another time) but I think its great to get a taste of both of these lifestyles. If you ask me “Why is that great?” - I don’t know; that just sounded like a nice sentence to conclude this essay with.