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So, I got a rank of 7XX and got into HNLU but am now having second thoughts about going there. There are primarily two reasons for that:
1. I chose Humanities in class 12th for my passion's sake but then I looked at the bleak financial opportunities (especially in BA History which I so much wanted to pursue) and decided that after school, I would turn my mind to the money part, even if it meant letting it trump my passion a bit. This was how I found out about law, through a random video that denoted the average packages in the top firms. While it was made clear there only that one had to be from the top NLUs to have a good chance of getting in, I was relieved to find at least some way to reach that spot. However, now that I have gotten HNLU in my second attempt, I notice two feelings - a. Even after two attempts, I could only get HNLU, and b. I ended up swaying away from why I initially entered this field. If I would give up both my interest and chances to land those particular jobs, what is the point?
2. Recent posts and talk about the autocratic/high-handed administration, which is constantly coming in the way of students (for eg. the mooting fund allocation changes), and most importantly, placements. I saw that in the past year, AZB was the only T1 to come to campus and took 3-4 people, the rest were PPOs (and I would think that they are considerably tougher to land as your pool grows much larger compared to the campus placement scene). Also, even in its good years, it managed to get only a few T1s. So, the chances aren't that high. Another thing I noticed is that in order to calculate their placements, just take NLUJ's figures and divide it by 2, that roughly works out to be the correct number.
Also, I get that this was maybe just a bad year and I'll be graduating 5 years from now, but what if that's a bad year too? What will I do then? At least in the top 6, even in the bad days, I won't lose access to firms rather only my chances of landing at each would get lesser (i.e. the positions might reduce).
At this point, I don't even know what I am doing with my life. I hate myself for getting allotted HNLU and whenever my parents speak about how I got into here, I feel myself slouching and just ducking in my blanket of shame and guilt. Never in the worst of my days, had I thought about going into HNLU or any T2 for that matter. I used to get consistent 90+ (at least 85+) scores in mocks and got scores good enough for getting NALSAR at least, in the previous year papers except for 2021.
I've also heard that even the workload and work quality is differentiated based upon which college the associate is from (might be baloney, don't know). I just don't like to be associated with the college. That T2 tag just haunts me everyday. Almost all of these months have been spent on sleepless nights, as I have tried to make sense of going here. When I initially thought of this idea to just totally drop and attempt till I get a T1, I felt such an ease like I hadn't felt before in the months since the results came out.
But then my mind turned on and I noticed that I was getting a bit too emotional thinking about this. While I did plan for preparing for both CUET and CLAT/AILET if I were to give the exam next time and sort out for either my passion or financial goals, I just couldn't exactly trust myself with another attempt. In the past, I gave countless hours to critical reasoning and got comfortable in it but then those analytical reasoning questions came, made my head go blank and just like that, it all worked out for nothing. I saw certain facts/articles in newspapers or somewhere randomly that I didn't pay so much heed as to actually remember them, they came in the exam. While I will never back down from this opinion that the Consortium just took its syllabus and threw it out the window, I also blame myself for those oversights. However, it's just that, how am I going to find those oversights this time around, how will I stop my mind freezing in the exam hall, will anything that I will prepare for actually come in the exam (for instance, I religiously solved LegalEdge and LPT mocks, and it's without a doubt that I can say that they helped me jacksh*t).
There is so much uncertainty, it feels like gambling, hoping my preparation aligns with the paper. I also feel so scared of the possibility of me messing up the GK section once again or getting stuck at that one AR question again. I might just go all in and do everything, but then you can't do everything as that's only human, but then those things that I couldn't do, would come in the exam.
At the end, I just want to say that I don't know what I am going to do now. The college just doesn't ignite anything within me. I have swayed away from my intention of getting into this field in the first place. I am "sure" that something would again get changed up in the next attempt and I will still not get a good college. Maybe I might, and that is what keeps the cycle going. One more thing, is that I don't want to take a partial drop as it's impossible that your CGPA doesn't get affected and in the unfortunate situation of not clearing CLAT with a desired rank, what will one do with that messed up CGPA (also the first semester matters the most, as it most greatly affects the overall average of future semesters).
P.S. - I know that I may not be cut out for the top stuff, that's a reality that I am willing to accept if that be the case, but to always change the playing field, test such different things that I didn't even have any idea of getting assessed has made me sulky. Plus the opportunities are so vastly differentiated that I feel like going for the game of chance is a good enough strategy (attempt till you get a T1). I feel extremely disappointed in myself for going to a "good enough" college or settling for that matter. Also, I know that I might not even end up going for corporate but closing it from the onset feels a bit foolhardy.
P.P.S. - Please don't crash out on me, I know this might seem like ragebait but I apologise if I said anything out of line or hurt any feelings, I had no such intentions. I hope you understand and provide me your valuable suggestions. Thank you.
This is very sad to see, because candidates really take coaching material and outcomes to be gospel truth. The reality could not be further from the truth. Coaching is a business; it has no objective besides creating profits for owners. This means that inputs are obtained at lowest cost, outputs are sold at the highest cost and marketed as the opposite. Allow me to demonstrate:
I have seen how coaching centers prepare their materials. First year kids (17-18 yo) in NLS (other NLUs too) used to be paid 500-2,000/month to churn out 50+ questions weekly on the side. They obviously farm this task to AI. They obviously are only doing it to pay for their booze or parties that parents are unlikely to pay for. They obviously have NO idea what a CLAT paper is like and are just doing whatever gets them a bit of cash. The centers don't care - it's the lowest price they can pay for something that looks plausibly like CLAT questions. If the centers had to pay an adult, they would have to pay a living wage, but by farming this out to first year kids, they must only pay a nominal wage.
Coaching mocks and their outcomes are WORTHLESS. They have ZERO meaning, absolutely ZERO. There is NO CORRELEATION between outcomes there and in a real CLAT, absolutely NONE. They are a commodity that exists in the market because people are willing to buy them. That's it. You're anxious and want mocks, bad enough to pay for it, so they'll sell you mocks to meet that demand (same concept as drugs or OnlyFans). Coaching centers DO NOT care about you. Coaching centers KNOW NOTHING. Coaching centers capitalize on FUD.
Yes, that's true, HNLU is an underwhelming and mediocre place in all terms - but the one that matters the most is peer quality and faculty quality, and they're both quite pathetic. However, your goal was getting jobs, and HNLU is not low enough in the hierarchy that this is at all an issue. If you stay withing the top 20 batch ranks, the advice goes, you are likely to get a good job. This advice exists and has been passed down for years because it IS true. Staying in the top 20 is NOT difficult to do - most peers are quite dim and quite uninterested in academics, so you'll fly into the top 20 if you just apply yourself a little (not even a lot), especially since your fluency over English seems to be alright judging from this post.
> One more thing, is that I don't want to take a partial drop as it's impossible that your CGPA doesn't get affected and in the unfortunate situation of not clearing CLAT with a desired rank, what will one do with that messed up CGPA (also the first semester matters the most, as it most greatly affects the overall average of future semesters).
This is entirely false. I took a partial drop: I studied the first semester and then gave CLAT again. I moved my rank from 850+ to 50+, while also having a batch rank of 13. I did not spend any serious amount of time on prep that encroached on my academics. HNLU is overwhelmingly chill, likely to accommodate for the very low caliber of the majority of the student body and faculty. There is really nothing to do most of the time. Besides, CLAT is a game of luck, and all your prep will be for nothing if the paper is unlucky, and if it is lucky then whatever prep you managed will be sufficient.
The second falsehood here is that first sem CGPA matters. First of all, prep may drop you CGPA by 10-20%, due to prep, from what you could have done had you applied your best effort, not more than that. Law school grades, like CLAT ranks, are mostly about luck and inherent intelligence than hard work. This difference is NOT meaningful, and you have many other semesters to recover any losses. Besides, the first sem is the easiest. Secondly, the first sem DOES NOT matter the most, it matters quite little, because there are many other semesters to go before your CGPA is used to allot internships by firms. You will have a lot of runway to course-correct.
Just take a partial drop, then if it works out and you get a good NLU, take a call (depending on your age and family financial position) on what you want to do - stay at HNLU or upgrade to what you got.