It’s very easy to understand how clueless our students are just by asking them their plans after HSC or A’ levels. For most people, post-college is all about getting into a bunch of different coaching centres and applying to all possible public universities.
It’s a confusing time for almost everybody. When applying and preparing vigorously for admission exams, they tend to rely on luck rather than their passions, hoping everything will automatically fall into place in due time..
Reputation and self esteem are associated with the kind of subject a person chooses to study and which university they get into, regardless of its relevance to their long term career choices. Unsurprisingly, seats in public universities are limited, and there are over 5 lac students applying every year around the country. The competition is obvious.
To the majority, it seems like selling their souls is worth the hassle if it gets them a seat at a public university. Nobody realizes that this isn’t the end of anything, rather it’s the beginning of all problems.
Expectations destroyed
A reality check: The shiny life you expect from university doesn’t exist. Things don’t sort themselves out. You need to make your own place here the same way you’ve had to do everywhere else.
The neighbors will get tired of the catcalling, butut you’ll need to live with your choices for the rest of your life. Let’s say for example, you were a science enthusiast, but you couldn’t get into the best public engineering institution in Bangladesh. So, you decided to study economics in another top public university. Your disinterests don’t suddenly vanish. After 12 years of school system making you cram everything, you’re forced into doing the same for higher education as well. You’ll see people around you doing things they’re proud of, and even if you can ever amount up to them, your achievements will never give you any sense of fulfillment.
Anxiety, depression
It does not take long for the reality check to hit. As soon as you get the syllabus, you realize that you’re in a pitfall, and there’s no backing out. You plan on somehow spending your four years here. Things keep getting worse as time passes. You hate yourself for letting your dreams go.. You don’t care about your social status anymore. Everything seems pointless.
Because you don’t understand/relate to what you’re studying, you need to put in a lot more effort than anyone. Either you are not up for it and let your grades suffer or you start cutting friends, you just can’t afford the time. You stop doing everything you liked. The admission pressure returns in the form of a “need-to-pass-from-a-department-I-don’t-care-about” pressure.
Things never get easier
If you’re one of the people that chose to study in a public university just for the “public” of it, I’d suggest not reading henceforth.
Human’s ability to develop skills is a fascinating thing. Throughout their lives, they observe. They take in everything around them. They learn from experience. Tiny and insignificant components of your life create a sense of appreciation inside you for a certain field. This is where passion is generated from. This means, the kind of things you’ll find tasteful are predetermined by the life you lead and it differs individually.
For most college students stuck in this system, the concept of passion is irrelevant. This is because, no matter what you like, you can never be sure that you can pursue higher education in that line.
Here are the long-term effects of this: you won’t magically fall in love with your chosen line. Your results will never be up to the mark, if not bad. You’ll lack the necessary skill-set for a job. Besides, there are lots of other factors that decide your eligibility for a job, but because you’re already too busy doing something that’s by itself pressurizing, you’ll never get the chance to train yourself the way you need to. You stay the same burden you did not want to be.
Here’s where the dynamics shift. You accept the fact that you’re a burden. This is the biggest turning point in anyone’s life. You stop trying to fix things anymore, because you keep telling yourself that there’s no use, that things can never be any better for you. You’ll lock yourself in your dorm room and stay there for days thinking about all your regrets, and nothing would yield any solution. You might catch your friends tip-toe-ing around you, fishing for any lethal or sharp object; that’s how vigilant your condition will make the people around you.
The Stigma around “Private”
Let’s get this cleared: we hate private universities. You cannot deny it. Ever since childhood, we were told that in order to do anything meaningful, we need to get into a public university. Since we had no reference to judge against, the stereotypes only cemented themselves into our brains like a rulebook. Therefore, when we start preparing for admissions, private universities are the last place we want to end up in.
I already mentioned that seats in public universities are limited. The seats in your preferred department in public universities are even more limited. Even if you prioritize your favorite subject during university admission, because of that stigma, if you cannot get into that department in a public university, you’ll still be willing to study absolutely any other subject in the same public university. This means that you’ll willfully choose to be miserable because your conscience will tell you that it’s still better than studying in a private university.
Nobody judges syllabi, course-materials, faculty-strength etc. before choosing a university. If they did, there would have been a more even-distribution of students everywhere, and less corpses in the cemetery of our dreams.
We need discourse
Comparing public universities to private universities was never the intent of this article. Each university has its strengths and weaknesses. But you’ll hardly see people challenging the qualities of a public university, because they’re believed to be the best by default. In many instances, through research, you’ll find that some private universities often recruit better faculty and academic resources than renowned government institutions.
We need to change this mindset. Given that there’s affordability, the primary concern of students should be figuring out what it is, if at all, that they want to study. If someone doesn’t opt for higher studies, it should be an option, because not everything in life is related to a degree certificate; there are many non academic careers, and even ones that do not follow an archaic pattern of education. If you, however, choose to go for higher studies, make sure you’ve already decided what you want to study. Make sure you first judge that department and the faculty involved in different universities before choosing to apply. Randomly sitting for admission tests won’t ensure a decent faculty.
Most importantly, start forming your own opinions. Choose for yourself what you want and ask yourself why you want it. Don’t let anyone else influence your thought-process, not even your parents (specifically not your parents).
Keep in mind that you walk in your own shoes, not anyone else’s.
The obvious solution?
No university, regardless of public or private, is good or bad. Universities are only as good as their students. Universities are only mediums to help you reach your dreams. The only way to ensure everyone has a fighting chance to reach these dreams is to eradicate the stigma around private universities and taking all options into serious consideration before making the final decision..Get rid of the blindfolds and choose accordingly so that you don’t walk on glass your whole life.
If you’re told that the grass is greener on the other side, you might as well walk on it and compare it for yourself.