About Choices and Compromises

The common pre-admission form with its provision to fill in every course in every college might have conveniently postponed, for most students, the dilemma of deciding which course to take up and where. Now, with the various first cut-off lists round the corner, it's inevitably 'inky-pinky-ponky' time. Mail Today set out to survey the various factors that influence the choice of course and college for the students of Delhi University and this is what we discovered:

'Two roads diverged in a wood and I-/I took the one less travelled by,/And that has made all the difference' said Robert Frost in 1920 and it still stands true. Wafa Rizvi, presently standing at the fork in the road, swears by Frost. "These days everyone has the option of converting his/her passion into his/her profession; small wonder then that students are shifting their attention to the fields they are better at instead of the fields which are considered better off." Professor S.M. Ishtiaque, who is currently teaching Textile Engineering at IIT Delhi, adds to the thought. "If you're a carpenter, be a good carpenter instead of being a mediocre engineer who easily gets lost in the crowd". Faisal Haq, who teaches Journalism as Visiting Faculty at KNC and DCAC cautions, "The glamour, jazz and glitz might attract students to media but the amount of hard work and struggle in this field fizzes out the infatuation."

Akshay Singh fears he might have to sacrifice in love, his infatuation for DU. "My girlfriend's parents are forcing her to do law; since my parents are fine with whatever I'm doing so I guess I'll have to be the one who has to make the compromise." Shalini Anant, Counsellor at Miranda House delves into the Parents vs. Peers debate a little further. "We come across both, varieties of unreasonable parents and varieties of unreasonable children on a daily basis. There are parents who want to live their dreams through their children by making them achieve what they could not in their own lives and then there are children who want to pursue a course only because their best-friends/boyfriends/girlfriends are doing that course."

Sadly both parents and children remain ignorant/unaware of all the career prospects and promising courses available. Ravneet Kaur's parents, for instance, want her to take up B.A. Programme despite the milieu of options now available, because that was the most coveted course in their time. But parents still do have their children's best interest at heart. A student applying to Stephen's felt that children today are independent but not knowledgeable enough. He wanted to go into Multimedia Designing but wasn't too sure. His father recommended him the civil services and he trusts his father's council. He has no complaints in this regard for he knows if he had been decided enough his father wouldn't have intervened. Most parents today are highly supportive of their children in whatever they do. But they still continue to have an inkling towards options which offer job security rather than job satisfaction.

Amrita Bahri, DUSU President points out to another disturbing trend. "A few days back this girl approached me at the help-desk, heavily opinionated on the fact that Eco (Hons.) is the 'in-thing' and defines the 'fashion statement'. Eco (Hons.) happens to be one of the most difficult courses and if you do not harbour a genuine interest you won't be able to cope with it, I pointed out to her, but apparently she had already made up her mind." Many students just float into a course because they are still undecided on what to do, so they apply everywhere and take admission wherever they get through. Just out of school, sick of the heavy bags and school uniforms, college is 'chill-out' time for most, a time to relax. So they pick up any general course which isn't too demanding and doesn't limit their options later.