How I got admission at DU’s Miranda House: Sugandha Vats

Miranda House, University of Delhi

It is perhaps one of the most difficult things to sum up your own life, it makes you question your life choices, but most importantly you don’t know where to begin. If I were to start from the very beginning, it started with my school. Salwan Public School has played a huge role in my life, from nursery to twelfth, it has been a constant in my life. But it was a small branch, so everyone knew almost everyone. I was always an ambitious kid, and fortunately or unfortunately, I never had any trouble in my academic sphere. But I was never the scholar; coming amongst the good kids, the achievers, but never the scholar and that was satisfying enough for me. There were students who won medals in Olympiads, getting over 95%, even in the junior wing. I was more of ‘jack of all trade’ and ace of none, and that suited me just fine. I diverted my attention to sports, specifically, football. Later that extended to athletics, to discus throw and long distance running.

My school life: How I chose my course stream

The transition from Junior to Senior wing was smooth. I opted for Sanskrit even in class 9th and 10th. At that time, CCE was the new experiment and we were the lab rats. Boards were chucked out and formatives alongside PSA and Open Book Tests were introduced. It is human nature to fear anything that is new, unfamiliar to you. And as was the case with CCE, these continuous assessments were foreign to us, quite literally because they were after all a concept from the west. The 9th standard is considered hard and challenging, primarily because both the subjects as well as the workload increases, some handle it with grace and some find it a little difficult to cope up. But two of the most amazing things happened in these two sessions, the first was the newfound clarity that Humanities would be my desired stream, and I represented Delhi in Football Nationals. The main challenge that I faced was Maths and that added difficulty for Physics and Chemistry. But being a sportsperson, I think it is honed into you that practice makes perfect. So I used to sit down with my mom and practiced all these subjects, giving special attention to Maths, months before the final exams. This helped me gain the perfect CGPA in both the standards.

And as is the case in the Indian society, everyone naturally assumed that I would choose Science, if not Commerce as my stream. Perhaps the most wonderful thing that my parents have done for me is to let me follow my heart. I know it is not something that I should have to be thankful for, but only a few enjoy this ‘privilege’. It is absolutely true when they say to follow your passion because studying gets ten times easier when you love the subjects. Class 11 breezed by, but one could feel the effects of the lack of boards in 10th, because suddenly you had to prepare the whole syllabus. And I got to represent my state once more in the Nationals.

But I left my football coaching for Class 12, God forbid, I don’t score well because my future was at stake, or at least that is the atmosphere in Class 12. The syllabus is rushed, pre-pre-pre-boards are taken, past year papers are examined, each book is read twice, then thrice. You are prepared as if you’re going to war. The fear of boards, is not only the fear of failure, but mostly it is the fear of the unknown, and I was no different. But one of the aspects of Humanities is that there is no one correct solution for the answers. Each answer is unique, they are subjective and you are asked to express your own views, elaborate and act on your thought process, but at the same time you have to mould your answer to please some stranger who will be checking your answers and figuring out if your opinion is indeed is right. In Science or Commerce, there will be an equation and one accurate value as the answer.

Everyone who will cross your path, will tell you to work hard and wish you luck. They’ll ask you to keep your options open, have a back-up plan. But I had none. I prepared to score well, and if not, to do well in sports and pursue a career there. So, filled with tension and worry, the boards were given. Mine lasted for about 40 days. The preparatory leaves were ample, but they only added to the anxiety. As soon as I was done with boards, I started to train myself for the sports trials. The atmosphere grew tense again when the CBSE announced that this year, they would ensure that inflation or over-inflation of marks does not occur. The nail biting period came to an end as the CBSE announced the result. I had topped my school by scoring 97.2%. And no matter what they say, marks do matter, at least in our educational system they do.

How I cracked college admission

The government universities look at your merit, the system will look at the bookish knowledge first. And like everyone had said, these marks opened up a lot of options for me at Universities. But by the time we even started looking at universities, a lot of them had already closed their applications, many of them release forms in April, some as early as November. And the foreign universities are a whole another deal. But I had decided that I’ll attend the University of Delhi.

Everyone around me was preparing to give entrance exams, people just assume that taking humanities somehow conditioned me to become the next top civil servant if not the next best lawyer. But I didn’t know what I wanted to do, in fact even now I have a sense of direction yet no clear cut destination where I want to land.

Well going back to my admissions, next came the question of which course and college I should pursue? And in order to answer that, I had to make a series of choices. This was a complex task, football made it more complicated because only Girls colleges in the south campus had football. And these colleges needed to have a good faculty for my course.

I sat down my mother yet again. We analysed my choices, going over course after course and their career feasibility in India. I was fascinated by Psychology, but since I did not have it as a subject in my plus two and some percentage would be deducted if I chose that subject. I had an interest in Economics as well, but without Maths, I couldn’t pursue it. So, it boiled down to History and Political Science. In the end, I went with Political Science. It was decided that I’ll apply at Lady Shri Ram College for Women (LSR) and Jesus and Mary College (JMC) because they had a football team and a great Political Science department.

But fate intervened, neither did I make it through JMC’s football team nor did the cut-off for Political Science at LSR drop. I ended up taking admission at Miranda House, which did have a great if not the best faculty for Political Science but it did not have football. I took admission there, thinking it would be temporary. But it ended up being permanent and a great decision.

However giving up on Football or even athletics has not been easy. It has taken me time to adjust to the new routine and even the environment filled with only one gender has taken some getting used to. But as the initial period goes away, everything becomes good again.

About the Author:

Sugandha Vats

I am pursuing BA Political Science from Miranda House, University of Delhi. I love football and have played at the National level.