How to Get the Most Out of Your College Years?
I appreciate how Ankur Warikoo is working for communities and interacts with people and gives people suggestions based on his experience and learnings.
This blog is just a curation of one of his Instagram AMA sessions. It is full of wisdom and I thought to share it here too.
Here’re the questions & answers from the session basically focused on Colleges.
1. Is it better to do MBA in India or abroad?
If you want to work in India => Do MBA in India
If you want to work outside => Do MBA outside
Except for the top 3, Harvard, Wharton, Stanford; They are global MBAs.
Otherwise, pick country-specific MBAs.
2. Harvard or Stanford, and why?
Stanford, because it’s in Silicon Valley, that’s where technology happens and cool things happen.
3. What is the purpose of college?
To find yourself.
Find yourself by:
- Spending time with people who are not like you
- not getting entitled
- not getting comfortable
4. How to grab the most out of a DU college and college’s societies?
DU colleges’ societies are brilliant.
- Join as many as you can. Don’t take a leadership position. Just be an active member.
- Organize events, participate in them
- Get to know people, build a network
- Explore yourself
5. Which one is better for future, Degree or Online certification courses?
Both.
Degrees are important for companies and recruiters for validations. They might reject you in screenings if you don’t have a degree. Stupid but true.
Actual learning comes from your certifications & internships.
Do both, serve the need, and learn through the other way.
6. Which degree is most useful to become a millionaire business?
None of the degrees can make you a billionaire. You’ll make a business of billion valuations if you give the degrees yourself from your own college.
7. How to improve English?
Speak in English every day. Do it with full dedication. Practice Practice Practice.
8. How to start an event management company during college?
- Build an army of interns
- Pick up a society
- Offer to manage their even 100% completely for free.
Because you want to know how it’s done.
Because you want to know where you screw up.
Do it, learn from it, then start charging money for it.
9. How to be an Entrepreneur? Learn from books, do courses, or do an MBA?
Not needed. To be an entrepreneur, you should know how to learn things and apply them.
10. Colleges are rotten, still why they even exist?
Rotten because you think of college as education, but if you think of it as a network or getting good opportunities, or getting good internships then suddenly it starts making sense. Because you can get all of this, but it’s harder without a college.
11. What if 70% of people get placed from campus but you are not?
- Try Off-campus
- Write Cold Emails — write 100 emails every day, write good emails to the founders of startups and you’ll get a response.
- It’s not the responsibility of a college to place you. Their responsibility is to teach you.
12. How can we get the most from a mediocre college?
- Spend time outside of the college
- Spend time outside of the mediocrity
- You’re getting a degree, that should be the purpose
- Your opportunities and experiences lie outside
13. 3 advice for college students?
- Spend time with as many different people as you can
- Do as many internships as you can, even multiple at the same time if possible
- Live like a poor person, don’t live like you earn money even if you do
14. Why colleges destroy the future by not giving quality education?
You go to colleges, they don’t come to you.
They sell what they want to sell.
They do not claim to be the best educational places, they just claim to give you some stupid degree that you want to buy.
15. How do I manage internships & classes at the same time?
There are 24 hours in a day, even if you sleep 8 hrs, you’ve 16 hrs to spend.
You go to college for a max of 5, 6, or 7 hrs, Still, you’re left with 10 hrs for yourself. What do you do at that time, how you spend it?
16. How can I figure out my life purpose at 22?
The purpose of life is not a process or a formula, where you input something and get output called purpose. It’s a journey, it’s a discovery and it takes time.
17. 4 years in college are a waste of time?
Wrong, it’s a fashion nowadays to say college is just a time pass. Nothing happens there.
Those 3–4 years can literally change your life if you spend your time carefully.
18. Why don’t colleges guarantee jobs?
Colleges don’t guarantee jobs, education, holistic development, and shit like that. You’ve to guarantee that. They are just responsible to create an opportunity, that’s it.
19. When to go for an MBA? After Bachelors's degree or after few years of a job?
I would absolutely recommend working for 1–3 years before going for an MBA. Because you get a perspective working in a job, so when you learn something in an MBA you can directly relate to where it’s going to get used.
20. What are the metrics for a good college?
- Very strict selection criteria
- lots of opportunities for extracurricular and societies and so on.
- Alumni perform on to do something good in life.
21. Elon Musk says there is no need to have a college degree. What’s your view?
He’s talking about the US. India is still not the same yet. Degrees are still a requirement in a lot of jobs.
So don’t dismiss degrees for now.
22. What’s your opinion about online degrees?
<NEED TO WATCH A VIDEO>
23. What to do when you feel like you’ve selected the wrong major for yourself?
If you know what Major is right for you, quit your college right away and start that one. If you’re still not sure, keep doing a lot of internships because that’s how you’ll figure out.
Basically don’t let your current status affect you.
24. Why do students opt for tuition than attend college lectures?
Because they still think that their marks will be responsible for a good career or life.
25. How to balance everything perfectly in college?
That’s the irony, my friend, nothing is perfectly balanced if you want to do something. If you have to study, leave everything else apart; if you want do not want to study, then do so many internships and nothing else.
26. I’m an engineering student and 90% of us don’t even like engineering.
So you got to know it after getting admission because most people know it even before getting admission. Still, they get admission.
27. I have realized I am in a degree I have no interest in… but I can’t just quit… what should I do?
Do internships, at least three, at the same time. Stop going to college, clear the exams and double down on real-life experiences.
28. Why college sucks?
Because what you want from college sucks. Change what you want from college and then it won’t suck.
29. How is ISB?
Fantastic, changed my life COMPLETELY.
30. Why most of the students get lost in their college life?
Because they look at others and wonder how I can live their life. But they never stop to ask what is something that I truly want from my life.
The biggest roadblock to learning is ego.
~ Ankur Warikoo
I hope this blog helped you with your questions on college.
Thanks for reading this article! Add an 👏🏻 [clap] if you liked this blog. Leave a comment below if you have any questions. Be sure to check my other Medium blogs and connect with me on LinkedIn & Twitter for more interesting discussions.
Happy Learning ❤
