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We decide undergraduate degrees and colleges at the cusp of school and university: a time when the mind is yet to undergo significant intellectual transformations. One can never know for sure at 18 what they might end up doing later in life. The moment one makes the mistake of choosing degrees tailored towards particular professional ends, all of their undergraduate years are lost in working towards a job. The experience of an undergraduate degree is diluted by this hyper-concentrated job hunt. At a time when the mind expands through varied intellectual engagements, these so-called professional degrees constrict the mind by rendering everything but that one fated job useless. 

The struggle for primacy between a university and a career path is, in itself, a false dichotomy. While each of us has childhood aspirations and feels convinced of a particular career path at 18, based on both ambition and social location, entering university with an open mind simultaneously generates a universe of possibilities vis-脿-vis career trajectories. For instance, one might be bent on taking the UPSC examinations after an undergraduate degree, but four years of Political Science at Ashoka might alter their plans. The student might end up working at a think tank or find their calling in political journalism. This is not to dismiss childhood dreams, but to suggest that there does exist a world beyond, which might just be better suited to the individual in question. However, public institutions in India do not allow for this aperture and orient students towards conventional patterns of employment.

Ashoka does its best to resolve this conflict, not by advertising certain career paths, but by fortifying its students with the skills to be able to make the right choices for themselves. To begin with, everybody gets to major and minor in any subject of their liking. Everybody has complete freedom to stray from the majors and minors they declare during their applications and explore. There aren鈥檛 any neat major-minor combinations to choose from, allowing people to study what they enjoy, not what the institution mandates. Dabbling in areas of interest, while sitting with matters one might have found difficult or uncomfortable to grapple with, there does come a moment of ecstasy when one knows for sure what it is they could go to war for. That is how interests and subsequent career paths get solidified.聽

Besides academics, Ashoka also offers assistance in looking for both internal and external internship opportunities. We have a dedicated Internship Cell that organises Internship Preparatory Programmes, internship fairs and sessions with industry experts to help students build contacts and identify interests. An internship, that is, learning on the job, helps one navigate the nitty-gritties of being part of the workforce, and decide for sure whether they see themselves in the grind four years from now.

The Career Development Office (CDO), as well as the Office of Postgraduate Studies work closely with interested students, helping them get placed in jobs and graduate programs of their choice. 

The CDO manages a system called the Superset through the student-led Placement Committee. Interested students must build their profiles on Superset and get those verified through PoCs from the Placement Committee to be eligible to apply for jobs and internships. 

The Office of Postgraduate Studies, similarly, chalks out application plans with students, assisting through the process of drafting Statements of Purpose, collating writing samples, procuring letters of recommendation, and applying for scholarships. 

Nothing, of course, is ever possible without our Professors, who remain steadfast in walking their students through this whirlwind of a journey. Conversations with professors have often helped us identify what it is that drives us passionate and insane. They answer queries we never knew we had.

The key, I think, is to enter university with an open mind. Ashoka gets us to unlearn everything we have been taught and start thinking from scratch. These four years mark that period of a thorough reconstitution, where we rebuild our intellectual abilities, and decide the vocation that shall make life joyful and worth living. 

鈥� Written by Srishti Choudhury, English Major, 51茶馆