They Spoke. We Listened.

We received offer letters from a company during campus placement. We celebrated. Three months later, the offers were silently withdrawn. The college still counts us in their "placed" statistics. We found out from seniors who went through the same thing a year before us.

Half our professors were absent for weeks at a stretch. No substitutes. No recorded lectures. Nothing. We filled the gap with YouTube, PhysicsWallah, and each other. The college sent a "faculty excellence" report to the accreditation board that same semester.

The college submitted data to a ranking body showing 98% placement. I personally know 40+ batchmates who are either unemployed or working in completely unrelated fields. Nobody asked us. Nobody counted us. The number just appeared.

I joined thinking I'd build something. By 2nd year I was just surviving — attendance, internals, viva, repeat. The ambition I had at 17 was slowly replaced by anxiety about percentages. I don't think the college noticed. I don't think they were supposed to.

Our lab had equipment from 2011. We were being taught on hardware the industry stopped using years ago. When we asked about upgrading, we were told "the fundamentals are the same." The fundamentals are not the same. The jobs are not the same. The world is not the same.

My parents paid ₹12 lakhs over 4 years. I learned to code from free YouTube channels. I got my first job because of a GitHub profile I built at home. The college's contribution to my career was the degree certificate — which I needed to apply, not to perform.

I had 74.8% attendance. The rule is 75%. They didn't round it up. I couldn't sit for my semester exam. I had to repeat the subject. Meanwhile, a student who slept through every class but signed the register got 76%. That's the system.

The placement coordinator told us to "not mention" our actual package to juniors because it would "affect the college's reputation." The package was ₹2.4 LPA. The brochure said average package ₹6.8 LPA. I still don't know where that number came from.

We had a "project" in final year. The faculty gave us a list of pre-approved topics. Every topic had been done by the previous 5 batches. When I asked to do something original, I was told it was "too risky for evaluation." Innovation, apparently, is also risky.

I cried in the bathroom before my viva because I hadn't slept in 36 hours. Not because of the subject — because I was chasing attendance, submitting assignments, and preparing for internals all at once. Nobody designed this schedule to help us learn. They designed it to keep us busy.

During NAAC inspection week, students were briefed on what to say if asked questions. We were told to mention specific facilities, use certain words, and "not bring up any issues." The inspectors came, smiled, and left. The grade was good. Nothing changed after.

The syllabus had a subject called "Emerging Technologies." The textbook was from 2014. The faculty had never used any of the technologies listed. We were tested on definitions. The industry was testing on implementation. We were not prepared for either.

A classmate raised a genuine concern in class about the teaching quality. The next week, his internal marks dropped by 8 points. No explanation. When he asked, he was told "marks are at the faculty's discretion." That was the last time anyone raised a concern publicly.

The "industry visit" was a bus trip to a factory where we stood outside for 20 minutes, took a group photo, and came back. That photo appeared in the college brochure under "Industry Exposure Program." We were listed as participants in an industrial training we never received.

My parents took a loan to pay my fees. Every time I feel the system failed me, I think about that. The guilt of their sacrifice mixed with the frustration of a broken system is something I carry every single day. I don't talk about it. There's no one to talk to.

The college has a "grievance portal." I submitted a complaint in September. It showed "under review" for 4 months. In January it was marked "resolved." Nothing was resolved. Nobody contacted me. The portal just changed the status on its own.

I asked my professor a question that went slightly beyond the textbook. He told me "that's not in the syllabus, don't confuse yourself." I was curious. He was threatened. I stopped asking questions after that. So did most of my classmates.

We were made to attend a 3-day "personality development workshop" during exam prep week. Attendance was mandatory. The workshop was run by a vendor who had clearly copy-pasted slides from 2009. At the end, we got a certificate. The certificate was misspelled.

I got shortlisted for a company through campus placement. The day before the interview, I was told I was "deregistered" because my CGPA was 6.9 and the cutoff was 7.0. The cutoff was never announced. I found out when I was removed from the WhatsApp group.

By 3rd year, most of us had quietly given up on the college system. We formed our own study groups, shared Udemy links, and basically ran a parallel education system from our hostel rooms. The college provided the building. We provided the education.

The fee increased by 18% in our 3rd year. No prior notice. No meeting. A circular was pasted on the notice board on a Friday evening. By Monday, it was expected to be paid. When parents called to ask why, they were told it was "regulatory." It was not regulatory.

The "smart classroom" had a smartboard that nobody knew how to use. For 4 years, every lecture was delivered using a marker on a whiteboard — in the smart classroom. The smartboard was dusted before every inspection and covered with a cloth after.

We were told mobile phones are banned in class "to improve focus." The same faculty who enforced this rule would take personal calls mid-lecture and step out for 10 minutes. Rules, it seems, are for students. Convenience is for faculty.

The college's LinkedIn page posts "Congratulations to our placed students!" every week. What it doesn't post: the students who got placed and then had their joining dates pushed back 8 months. Or the ones whose offers were rescinded entirely. Those don't make good content.

I scored 85% in 12th. I thought college would push me further. Instead, I spent 4 years managing attendance, submitting copied assignments, and learning everything that actually mattered from free internet resources at midnight. The degree cost ₹10 lakhs. The education was free.