Life at NIFT Delhi: Getting admission is easy but going through college is difficult

Life at NIFT Delhi

Pursuing design development in Indian ethnic wear from National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) Delhi, Purva Chauhan shares that life at this design school is not all that rosy and students have to work really hard to make a mark for themselves. Wanting to open her own label, Purva reveals that life at NIFT is not as glamorous as she assumed it to be and one should be prepared to face a lot of pressure as students are expected to make a lot of presentations and documentations as part of their curriculum.

Known to be the alma mater of fashion industry’s stalwarts such as Tarun Tahiliani, Manish Arora, Ritu Beri and Sabyasachi, NIFT Delhi is famous for offering students immense exposure in the form of regular industrial visits and students are also taken to different fashion weeks.

As per Purva, the first thing one would notice about NIFT Delhi is the college crowd because “the crowd makes the college” what it actually is.

This NIFT Delhi student is full of praise for the college’s faculty, resource centre as well as the food stalls at the premises which offer tasty treats at extremely affordable prices. However, given a chance she would want that the infrastructure of NIFT Delhi is modernised a bit.

I gave the NIFT entrance exam which you can only give if you have secured 50% marks in the qualifying exam. The first exam is the General Aptitude Test (GAT) and then the Creative Aptitude Test (CAT). If you clear both these admission rounds then you are called for the Situation Test round in which you have to make a 3D model. If you get selected in this admission round as well then ranks are given and according to your rank you are offered admission in different NIFT campuses.

No it is not, it is different. Not that I expected life to be glamorous at NIFT Delhi but I thought that at college there would a lot of things with which we could have fun but actually there is a lot of pressure and the courses require a lot of work.

There is no fixed time to go to the college and come back. You have so many things to do and so many presentations and documents to make. Also, when one thing ends the other thing begins.

But talking on an average, a typical college day starts at 8:30 am- 9 am and ends by 4:30 pm to 5 pm. But the average college hours also depend on the lectures one has in a given day.

The first thing anyone would notice at the college would be its crowd. The crowd of NIFT Delhi is good. In case of my college, I can say that the crowd makes the college.

First of all, the crowd. Then, the faculty and then you have these kiosks, the Nescafe Kiosks, they give really nice sandwiches and muffins which are really tasty and are at extremely cheap prices, they are very affordable. We get the muffin for Rs 15. The sandwiches cost between Rs 25-Rs30 and an ice tea would cost around Rs 10.

Apart from this, we have a stationery which has everything. You name it and you have it. Then we have a Resource Centre, students who have graduated from the college and are part of the designing industry are members of the resource centre and this centre provides a lot of guidance to students.

I would like to change the infrastructure because it is too old. Nothing bad about it but it is too old and everything needs a renewal. That’s all, nothing else!

The hostel facility was there but now since they have introduced more courses, so, now they have converted the hostel area into normal college premises. But the college does have a hostel outside the college premises but only girls are offered accommodation. There is no hostel facility for boys.

It is mandatory to have 65% attendance in each subject and 75% attendance overall.

The professors are not that strict, they are really nice. A batchmate of Sabyasachi is our professor and he keeps telling us stories about his college days and so it is very interesting to know that someone so famous is an alumnus from our college. Our professors are really good and experienced. They know when to do what, what to tell, where to take the students because we have a lot of industrial visits.

Surprise tests are conducted but they are rare. But we do have common exams after every semester. These exams are conducted centrally across all NIFTs. They are conducted like the Board exams. So, when I give my paper in Delhi, the paper can go for evaluation to NIFT Kolkata for evaluation.

At the end of each semester we have Juries, here, we are evaluated on the basis of what work we have done. We have to present and document everything.        

The food at the canteen is good. Some things are really spicy like the dosa is very spicy but its taste is good. We also have a juice shop where we can have fresh juice. We also have an option to eat food like the thaali, momos, noodles, manchurian etc.    

The Nescafe Kiosk has different types of sandwiches like the pizza sandwich, the coleslaw sandwich, grilled sandwich, chicken sandwich, hotdogs, kulchas and lot of other things.

If anyone is wanting to join NIFT Delhi then my only piece of advice for them is that they will have to work really hard. I say this because the entrance exam and everything else is really easy because when I was seeking admission, I thought that getting admission would be the most different part but what is actually difficult is going through it. Getting into college is really easy, it is the first step. The actual job actually starts when your course starts.