Choosing the right college is a significant decision that can shape the trajectory of one’s academic and personal journey. I was struck with a similar dilemma two years ago when I had to choose my Bachelors college after my Intermediate . It was a long and tedious process but every student has to go through this once in their lifetime. In my case I chose Science stream in Intermediate so as soon as I gave my National Level Joint Entrance Examination and secured an AlR of 28000 , I started shortlisting Colleges according to my rank .

I remember making an excel sheet of various colleges I could get into based on previous year cut-offs. Coming from a middle class family private colleges were not an option for me because of their exorbitant fees , so I had to apply to only Government Colleges. This was my first criteria . Since I wanted to work in a Tech based industry after graduation , I made another constraint to my list to only look for universities offering good CS/IT course. Another criteria I kept in my mind while choosing college was that my college should be in vicinity of my residence after I realised that I was still not ready to leave my parents place and live on my own in hostel or PG. All these reasons supported my decision to study my Bachelors at HBTU, Kanpur.

When the application process for admission commenced ,I applied to various national and state counselling. Usually 1-5 rounds of counselling are held in every application. With each round you face same anxiety and with every rejection you face same level of despair . I can’t recall how many times me , my parents and my little brother sat in-front of computer screen to check the result of another round of shortlisting only to see “SEAT NOT ALLOTED” message on screen . I remember I used to get teary eyed each time with hopelessness and dejection, not because I couldn’t secure a seat but when I looked at my parent’s face and realized how much they have sacrificed for me in their entire life , I just couldn’t help the tears rolling down my cheeks . My parents comforted me each time by saying “ Don’t loose hope Harshita , God must have saved something even better for you”. I believed them . Sometimes I can’t help but wonder how selfless my folks are , how can they love me when I fail, when I decide to give up and even when I talk back to them . They filled me with hope and motivation whenever I was feeling down . They still do . My only purpose in life is to make them proud . Although my folks don’t ask for anything but I want to provide them with every happiness in life .

I fulfilled one small fragment of my goal, the morning I checked my result of second round of Counselling of HBTU , Kanpur and saw my name with allotted branch IT next to it . I was completely overjoyed and ran to my parents to show my result . We all danced with joy then offered prayers to Lord Hanuman for his blessings . So my college selection journey has been one hell of a ride . This ride was filled with anxiety, self-doubt, determination , motivation and finally success. It was a period in my life that shaped the trajectory of my life and I can say confidently say that I don’t regret the decision I made at all.