I graduated a while back. Here are a few things I think you should know.
1. If you're knew to computers/typing, start using an online typing tutor and improving your typing speed. It will help.
2. Placements are good. But in first year, focus on keeping good grades and trying to do things other than academics.
3. Trimester system is difficult, but it is what it is. I wouldn't change colleges just because of semester system.
4. I would tell my 18 year old self that I am working in house and making bank. I am very happy and fulfilled. And all the work does pay off in the end. What I would also tell myself is that no matter what the setbacks and challenges, it is best to be forgiving of yourself and move forward.
5. Take care of yourself. Be around positive people. For me the best thing I got out of law school wasn't the degree or the opportunities, but the amazing friends. They are still a huge part of my life even if we don't stay in the same cities. They are your rock when you need support, and they are there when you have something to celebrate.
6. It is very tempting to just do what everyone else is doing, but I think if I were to do things again, I might have tried to study and work smarter. Spent more time outside the campus when I could, but again this requires money, which at the time I didn't have.
Best of luck! I hope you have a great time in Law school.
Honestly as a nalsar alum- who has seen up close what the nls alumni circle is about- yeah we’re missing out. Our alumni circles barely exist and even then only to meet at a bar once in a while. Nls alumni have each other’s back. When my friend from nls was applying for masters programmes - she had like an nls person at every school she wanted to apply to and she had that person agree to review her work and give her comments and coach her application. I had a couple of seniors who did agree to read my SOP and stuff - but even they got back to me too late without any real comments. I actually ended up having to use his connections and speaking this seniors about the things I wanted to do. I’ve been around older nls people - there is obviously love and affection for folks from their alma mater. They donate more, they mentor more, they push more fiercely to hire and work with folks from their university. Nalsar just doesn’t have that kind of culture - yeah if you meet someone who went to the same college you might get a drink with them maybe reminisce about nani dhaba, or sai/Shankar’s, or even some older professors. But you genuinely don’t feel ownership enough to want to help them out.
Nls alumni will gather together to make sure a Sudhir type person will be the next VC. Nalsar alumni were divided on faizan mustafa which is okay- but they did not come together to think of another suitable candidate and did not bother looking or pushing for anyone else. It’s almost like there’s no sense of ownership of the place - only a sense of- having survived the place - commiserate with fellow survivors - but don’t necessarily do much to change things.
Add to that nalsar today looks very very different to the nalsar of even 5 years ago. There’s ever more increasing number of students. And programs like mba/ whatever else whose students are seen as separate entities. We don’t do ranks families, we don’t really do mentorship apart from whatever happens organically. We don’t really do institution building. We learnt what little of it we could from an nls alum who teaches at nalsar and tried to replicate some of it - but even he would acknowledge that the alumni of the two universities behave very differently.
Even nalsar alumni who turn up to teach at the university- just so many of them have left over the years. And not for good reasons. And they’re not necessarily keen to come back. Some have left because admin did not give them proper consideration/ did not regularise positions, some left because they did not see proper mentorship from university professors they were keen on, some left dejected over how things had gotten progressively worse in terms of academic standards and even more left because that recent FM Kista drama and others left over greener pastures which is unavoidable. There’s one or two folks who are still roughing it out- but there’s no self reflection about why that number is so low when every nls alumnus from Sudhir to raag to whoever is keen on working with their university.
This is not to say that this is a fixed state- nalsar alumni could grow to be more collectivised in the future. And I still did have alumni who helped me at other points and I did have professors who continued to work for me long past what should have been expected. And maybe nls alumni will also change behaviour now that they’re increasing programmes and numbers by quite a bit. Or maybe the kind of mentorship you get will change somewhat unless the university has some sort of plan for all this.
But yeah. There’s definitely a difference to being an nls kid and a nalsar kid. Not for a long time in terms of the kind of education you got- though that’s changing. And not in terms of raw intellect- but in terms of what kind of support you’ve gotten definitely.
Even in terms of opportunity- fewer Oxford admits, fewer Rhodes scholars, fewer people who have done varied and interesting things with their careers, fewer people in Consulting roles and in world banks and fewer people ( almost none?) working at the top 20 law schools in America.
That makes a difference. If we acknowledge it we can do something about it. If we’d rather ignore it things will only get worse.
1. If you're knew to computers/typing, start using an online typing tutor and improving your typing speed. It will help.
2. Placements are good. But in first year, focus on keeping good grades and trying to do things other than academics.
3. Trimester system is difficult, but it is what it is. I wouldn't change colleges just because of semester system.
4. I would tell my 18 year old self that I am working in house and making bank. I am very happy and fulfilled. And all the work does pay off in the end. What I would also tell myself is that no matter what the setbacks and challenges, it is best to be forgiving of yourself and move forward.
5. Take care of yourself. Be around positive people. For me the best thing I got out of law school wasn't the degree or the opportunities, but the amazing friends. They are still a huge part of my life even if we don't stay in the same cities. They are your rock when you need support, and they are there when you have something to celebrate.
6. It is very tempting to just do what everyone else is doing, but I think if I were to do things again, I might have tried to study and work smarter. Spent more time outside the campus when I could, but again this requires money, which at the time I didn't have.
Best of luck! I hope you have a great time in Law school.
Nls alumni will gather together to make sure a Sudhir type person will be the next VC. Nalsar alumni were divided on faizan mustafa which is okay- but they did not come together to think of another suitable candidate and did not bother looking or pushing for anyone else. It’s almost like there’s no sense of ownership of the place - only a sense of- having survived the place - commiserate with fellow survivors - but don’t necessarily do much to change things.
Add to that nalsar today looks very very different to the nalsar of even 5 years ago. There’s ever more increasing number of students. And programs like mba/ whatever else whose students are seen as separate entities. We don’t do ranks families, we don’t really do mentorship apart from whatever happens organically. We don’t really do institution building. We learnt what little of it we could from an nls alum who teaches at nalsar and tried to replicate some of it - but even he would acknowledge that the alumni of the two universities behave very differently.
Even nalsar alumni who turn up to teach at the university- just so many of them have left over the years. And not for good reasons. And they’re not necessarily keen to come back. Some have left because admin did not give them proper consideration/ did not regularise positions, some left because they did not see proper mentorship from university professors they were keen on, some left dejected over how things had gotten progressively worse in terms of academic standards and even more left because that recent FM Kista drama and others left over greener pastures which is unavoidable. There’s one or two folks who are still roughing it out- but there’s no self reflection about why that number is so low when every nls alumnus from Sudhir to raag to whoever is keen on working with their university.
This is not to say that this is a fixed state- nalsar alumni could grow to be more collectivised in the future. And I still did have alumni who helped me at other points and I did have professors who continued to work for me long past what should have been expected. And maybe nls alumni will also change behaviour now that they’re increasing programmes and numbers by quite a bit. Or maybe the kind of mentorship you get will change somewhat unless the university has some sort of plan for all this.
But yeah. There’s definitely a difference to being an nls kid and a nalsar kid. Not for a long time in terms of the kind of education you got- though that’s changing. And not in terms of raw intellect- but in terms of what kind of support you’ve gotten definitely.
Even in terms of opportunity- fewer Oxford admits, fewer Rhodes scholars, fewer people who have done varied and interesting things with their careers, fewer people in Consulting roles and in world banks and fewer people ( almost none?) working at the top 20 law schools in America.
That makes a difference. If we acknowledge it we can do something about it. If we’d rather ignore it things will only get worse.