SECOND YEAR THE MEDIAN

 

Hey everyone. I hope you guys are doing well. Welcome back to my Life Blog. Today I want to share my experience of my second year of engineering at college.

If the reader may remember, I had posted an article about my experience of First year engineering a while back. Well, another year has passed and another bunch of experiences to add to the list. Overall if I summarise everything in one sentence, I’d say I am pretty content with my progress. I may not have achieved a lot but I have figured out what’s the next step.

Semester 3 was hectic. Believe it or not but odd semesters are always the worst. I was happy to finally let go of physics and chemistry but we still had mathematics. Other subjects included in the course were - Computer Organization and Architecture (COA), Analysis of Algorithms (AOA), Entrepreneurship Development (ED), Environmental Science for Engineers (EVS), Full Stack Java Programming (FSJP), Discrete Structures and Graph Theory (DSGT), and Open Source Technologies (OSTL). This might sound like a lot of subjects and trust me, it was…A lot of subjects. Sure, we always have 8 subjects every semester but the ones that have a practical lab attached to them matter the most. This semester we had 4 practical labs. Mainly, AOA, COA, OSTL and FSJP. And 4 practical labs meant writing assignments every week for 4 subjects. That was the one thing that took the most amount of time. Writing assignments. Even if you google everything or ask an LLM to generate your answers, you still have to write it. And of course, maintaining attendance was also mandatory. I still hadn’t gotten a hold of the real engineering mindset. I still attended all classes, maintained attendance above 75% and stuck to my guts.

Thankfully the only subject that did not trouble us the most was ED. And OSTL, even though it was a laboratory subject, seemed interesting and fun. Even DSGT felt doable. The other subjects were the big chunks of our marks. Math was boring but we understood why it was there. It’s an important subject that one can’t let go of.

I don’t want to make this blog too technical. Instead, focusing on the personal aspect, I’d begin by saying that it took me time. It took me time to make myself understand that the subjects I learn at college are not everything. I had to get up and do more. I had previously enrolled myself in a college committee, something which felt exciting at first but became a burden later on. Basically, by the end all I was trying to do was stay above the water. Score enough marks to get a 9+ grade point, try to do enough extracurricular activities to make my resume impressive, and just maintain enough attendance to not piss my professors off. And very quickly I realized that this was not progress. I did not do any personal projects, I did not participate in any hackathons, I did not do any research papers, nothing. This was not the progress I intended for myself. And on top of that, my commitment to my college committee took up more of my time than I imagined. I stayed faithful to them till the end, but ultimately I realised that this was not my goal. I got the position which had nothing to do with technology. None of that was actually going to be super useful in my resume. The only good thing that I was actually doing was preparation for an internship. My father had a good contact with someone who was building a start-up. While I did not join their company immediately, I at least started a connect with them by building a tool for their use. That was the real deal in Semester 3. Everything else was just assignments, assignments, and more assignments. By the end (December 2025), I was completely drained and unhappy with my progress. I only got around 9.09 grade which made it even worse. To an outsider this might sound stupid. And if you’re a friend you might be cursing me from inside. But trust me, knowing my potential and knowing my abilities, I knew that I could do way better than 9.09. So I took an oath. Come Semester 4, things were going to be different.

 

January 2026. A fresh new start, a fresh new semester. And in the winter vacation I had started an online internship at the same start-up too. So far, my instincts were flawed. I was being loyal to the wrong things in life. Everything was going to change. And thankfully, an even semester made things easier. I personally feel that the subjects were lighter this time. We still had 4 practical laboratories, but only 2 of them required us to actually write assignments on paper. This time I also felt that the subjects were more relevant to our coursework than other semesters. We had – Database Management Systems (DBMS), Computational Theory (CT), Operating Systems (OS), Business Model Development (BMD), a multidisciplinary minor called as Fundamentals of Telecommunication (MDM), Applied Statistics (OE), Design Thinking (DT), and a mini project.

Why I say the subjects were better this time, it was purely because of the mini project, OS, and DBMS. These 3 subjects were the actual useful ones. And thanks to DBMS, I also found out my love for data analytics. I was introduced to this beautiful language called as SQL. I liked SQL so much that I actually went beyond the syllabus to read and practice it. And the reader would be happy to know that in semester 4, I started doing more extracurricular activities that actually mattered. My college committee work was almost over. The only events that were left were just online for which not much work was expected of me. So this time, I decided to start my work on 3 extra things. I first bought a subscription for GRE preparation. To the ones who don’t know, GRE is an exam you have to give if you wish to pursue higher studies abroad. I also began my work on 2 research papers, which are again a basic requirement for masters. While I did not spend too much of my time on it, I was at least content that I had ‘started’ it. And of course, every evening I’d get back home and resume working for the start-up. The founder was very easy to work with and understood my long hours at college. Because he gave me some leeway, I was able to manage everything gracefully.

And the one thing I started working on was attendance. I trained myself to maintain an excel sheet wherein I would track my attendance. I vowed to keep it below 60% this time. The whole semester I trained myself on balancing the lectures. Which ones do I attend? Which ones do I leave? Which ones do I attend and sit at the back to do some personal work? I spent 4 months juggling this. By the end I got a good idea of how attendance worked. Of course, at no point in time did I ever abuse this ability. To some extent I was still faithful to the subjects when required. I never asked a friend to sign on my behalf. Whatever happened, would have to be the consequences of my actions only.

And by the end of the fourth semester, I believe I figured out engineering finally. In fact, I even got my highest GPA so far; a whopping 9.35.

To a newly admitted second year, I would leave you with these 8 lessons:

11) Lectures are not everything. Skip some of them if you realise that they don’t add value to your time. But do not overdo it. If you feel that a teacher is genuinely good and you understand what they teach, then sit for their class. College professors are doing their job, respect them. No need to unnecessarily harass them by disregarding their profession.

22) Unless you are aiming for a sales-centric or a business-centric job, don’t join a committee. There are other things that will add more value to your resume. That said, there is absolutely no need to shame the people who do work in committees. I have been a part of one, and I have seen the amount of efforts it takes to organise one event. If you don’t wish to attend, decline politely. Don’t go on spreading bad rumours behind their backs.

33) Practising DSA is a must. Whether or not you aim for placement, having problem solving skills will always be an added benefit. Start early, take it seriously. This is something I did not do. Learn from my mistakes

44) Work on communication skills. This might sound silly, but communication and networking are very important soft skills required in life. Be the popular kid, send that LinkedIn invite, approach that senior, be active on WhatsApp groups. This is the only way to make opportunities come your way. But that does not mean you ignite idle talks. Make friends with everybody, but don’t sit and gossip.  

55) Care for your real friends. Talk to them. Help them. They are going through the same thing as you. Share your resources with everyone, even if the other person is not. Eventually you will warm up to them.

66) Enjoy life. But know the difference between enjoying your youth and destroying your future.

77) Your friend group is almost certainly going to have fights. It might even break off. There might be times wherein your group might shun you. Nothing can be done about that. It happens. It’s a part of life. Move on.

88) Make extensive use of AI as a tool, not as an accessory. Your professors may discourage you from using it, and if so then respect their decisions. But feel free to use it anywhere else. If you know how to get your job done within a few prompts, it will be a skill that companies will appreciate. I have done two internships, I have spoken to many industry leaders, everyone shares the same idea: AI is inevitable.

 

So that was it folks, a documentation of my journey as a second year student. It may have seemed a bit fast paced, but to me it wasn’t. For the most part, it dragged on for too long. But I have made a few more changes in my third year. I shall share my next experience in June 2027 hopefully!