I did it: How to survive until graduation in India

Hats off.

Today, I graduated in India.

Almost a year after finishing classes, we had our convocation (graduation) ceremony, bringing closure to my 2-year experience in the Indian higher education system.

Of course, every university is different as well as everyone's personal experience, but here are a few things I learned about surviving until graduation in an Indian university.

1. Wikipedia is your friend. Don't down it. Sometimes you may not have textbooks or a syllabus, but you do have Wikipedia. If anything, use the references.
2. Your next best friend are old exams. In my experience, about 80% of the exam questions are the same from years' past. Study them, memorize the answers, make notes from from them. Beg and plead from your seniors for them. In fact, your department may have a stack of them ready for you to photocopy.
3. You are the master of the syllabus. It is up to you, the students, to make sure the professor(s) cover the syllabus. This is especially when a class is team taught., since the teachers may not update each other on where they are at on the syllabus once the class gets going.
4. Don't sweat timing. Exam times may not be set, classes may change days. Heck even my graduation date wasn't set until about a month prior, and we did not know the time of it until less than a week prior. So don't sweat it. It was Jesus who said, "Don't worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry about its own things." Let tomorrow worry about itself.

So graduation day ran off like a one-year reunion. It was interesting to see who came and who did not, who got fatter and who got skinnier, and those who went on to get accepted into programs and those are still trying to get in. Actually, there seemed to be a correlation between those who got fatter and those who were accepted into programs already. I guess that includes me. I got the fattest, I think.

After the convocation we took photos and it was like old times after fresher and farewell parties. Some of us then met up with our juniors to give them advice about applying for programs, exams and finishing up their dissertations. Tomorrow, we have decided to meet up in Sarnath, where Buddha first preached.

A year prior I was imagining this day when we'd all be back for graduation. Like I mentioned in a previous post, part of it was like we never left. However, as some have not as yet been accepted into a program, there was a bit of an unsaid sadness there.

As one of my friends who still is waiting to get into something said, "1.5 lac (150,000) rupees later and all we have is this piece of paper."