How I chose my course and college: Abhijeet Das

Talking about my choice of course, the process started after Class 10^th when I had to opt for different streams for my further higher secondary studies. I opted for Science as it was my hobby as well as I was good in Mathematics and Science from my childhood and had a keen interest in that subject. Then along with my Class 12^th board studies, I started for the preparation of IIT-JEE and AIEEE and other all India entrance tests for getting admission in an Engineering college.

Now talking about my college, I chose BTech in Computer Science and Engineering at a renowned private institute of West Bengal namely, 'Haldia Institute of Technology'. Everything just happened all of a sudden, a I got very less time to decide what should I go for. At that time, I just decided engineering and was unaware of what is a 'branch' in engineering. So after a lot of research and analysis, I got my preferred branch and went for it. And today I can surely say I opted for the right path.

I prepared for IIT-JEE entrance examinations and got admitted in a coaching institute for it. After that, I didn't get a good college according to my rank in the very first attempt. I was targeting the IITs and the NITs for my graduation. I decided to drop a year and prepare for my entrance again and improve my rank this time at the risk of losing a year. I took the help of internet and various online study materials and was finally able to secure a good rank in AIEEE (now JEE Mains), KIITEE as well as COMEDK. I decided to opt for Haldia Institute of Technology as this college is a semi private college. The fees is quite low as compared to the other private institutes and this college is ranked amongst the top 3 engineering colleges in West Bengal. It is also the oldest private engineering college of west Bengal.

College life

My first year at college was pretty awesome. The days were filled with fun as well as a lot of work and assignments. I liked attending the Computer classes as it was fun. I just opted for a new field all of a sudden as  slowly computers became by life. Delving deeper into computers and Information Technology gradually became my dream and this took over me. It became the ambition of my life.

I rarely participated ever in any cultural activities in my school but in my college life, I gave it a chance. I put my hands in photography and started clicking photos for college magazine. Soon after, I became the editor of that magazine through an interview by the magazine core members. I soon became a coordinator to organize college events and later became the editor head of the magazine. Shortly, I got the required knowledge about sponsorship and advertisement for being a coordinator, from my seniors and then got into sponsorships and advertisement for the magazine for which I used to click photographs and submit.

I was fond of electronic circuits and robotics, so I participated into an inter college robotics tournament which was building a racing robot. Unfortunately, my team secured the 3^rd position. I still didn't get disheartened and learned about a skill under my branch which was 'Android development'. I got interested and I decided to learn everything about it along with maintaining a good score in my semester. So, I went deeper in the field and learned a new skill about Android through an industrial training. I got internships and projects which helped me realise my goal. The internships and project were offered by national media houses like Hindustan Times and companies like Sports Café where I was an android developer.

I went deeper into this field and was selected as a Google India Scholar for android developer challenge across India. I was the one among the top 300 student developers of India. I joined Facebook for developers' association and started to work for a company which was my batch-mate’s startup. I designed an android application for him as well as many android applications for my college.

Currently, I am continuing this skill along with photography as my hobby. I am also a representative for Shiksha as well as Student coordinator of Spoken Tutorial research Centre, IIT Bombay. I believe this is not the end  and there are so many other things I am yet to explore.

Getting into this institute was not enough for me. It took me no less than a few days to discover that the journey has just started.

About the Author:

My name is Abhijeet Das and I am a final year BTech (CSE) student at Haldia Institute of Technology (HIT). I am an experienced application developer and have also worked in the education management industry.