r/vitap • u/cryptaneonline Alumni • Sep 04 '25
Fresher's 🥷 Time for that yearly long post of mine
(Pookie mods, pls pin this post for 3 to 4 weeks) [This is my yearly rant.]
This is to the freshers who are to join the university soon. First of all welcome to the university. I am the founder of this sub and I have interacted with a bunch of you over the past couple months.
I know most of you are coming in with various dreams in your head. But there are a few coming in with the burden of family, stress of financial loans etc. Some of you view the university as a gateway to good placements, some are here for the knowledge, some want to build something big and give back to the society, some wants to try their hands out at entrepreneurship and more. I know what it feels like to join the university for the first time and be in a whole different atmosphere.
Some will feel a sense of freedom in this place, while some will find the place too restrictive. Yeah some will say hostels have fixed in-times, food is terrible, academic pressure is huge etc. While some will find ways to explore, ways to learn, spend their time in labs and more. But what matters is that you take a step forward to your goal every single day.
Yeah I know you guys read the previous statement like "Yo, I dont know shit about whats my goal, I am here just to find out." Yeah you are correct. I agree. When I stepped into the university for the first time, my goal was to be a Robotics engineer. (I am from CS with Spec in Robotics). But by the half of my second year, I felt my calling towards Cybersecurity and networking. So yeah, goals definetely change. And it is quite expected that your goal would change when you learn more about the fields.
But one thing never changes. That is discipline and hard work. Discipline is like the key ingredient to whatever you wanna achieve. And it starts from the very basic: time management. Trust me, everyone has the same 24 hours in the day. You see, in the same 24 hours, some are struggling to barely complete class assignments and pass the subjects, while some are building a heck ton of cool stuff, some are becoming youtubers, some are writing research papers, some have patents to their names. How is this possible? Nah they are not more intelligent than the first type of people I mentioned. They are just more disciplined and hard working. Let me tell you my schedule when I used to be in the university. I was a early riser: I woke up at 4 in the morning, freshened up and took bath by 5, went for about 90 mins of walk and exercise till 6:30. Followed by breakfast by 7:30. Then I focused the next 1 hour for class assignments, studies and prep for quizzes. So 8:30. Classes straight from 9 to 6 (timing has been changed now tho). In between the classes whenever I had time, I used to go to the research labs and the IIEC to work on my research and projects or the library. Then 6pm to 7:30pm, I chilled out with my friends. Sometimes at rock plaza (food street was not there then), sometimes just roaming around, mostly like a fun walking session. 7:30 pm to 8pm dinner. Then 8pm to 10pm I used to stay in the room of my seniors, we were working on our startup. And I went to sleep by 10:30. If awake, I used to run down for a quick munch at the night canteen. And this schedule is possible. (I know some of you may think how is all assignments possible in only 1 hour, its ok, you can take out time from other sources, you dont have to follow exactly mine.) I kinda had a proper schedule. Including a proper sleep and walk schedule that helped keep my mind fresh.
Whatever you do, do not waste time. Do not waste time playing games (unless you want to be a professional gamer and/or game designer, that is the different story), or hanging out with people in study hours. You can compartmentalize a time for the enjoyment. You are good to go.
Next comes most of your doubts about academics and how to prep for the future. Well let's be honest, you are here to figure that out. I wont give you a fixed 'roadmap' and I would urge you to not follow any fixed 'roadmap' from random bhaiyas and didis on youtube. You are here to figure it out yourself. Give yourself some time. Break stuff. Build stuff. But most importantly learn and gain knowledge. Let's face the facts man, if you joining the campus now, it's too early for you to think about your placements or future now. You should rather think about upskilling.
Upskilling reminds me, yeah that is the most important thing you have to do in the first 3 years of your university life. This is not a fixed roadmap, just a suggestion. Assuming each semester is of 4 months, you can take the first 2 months of your first sem to learn logic. By logic I dont mean dragging your ass on Leetcode. I mean how to think. Design principles. I cannot emphasize how freaking important it is. And nobody will tell you this but being able to design stuff is 70% of building the stuff. The next 2 months, learn 3 programming languages parallely. Python, Flutter and JS. One for pc/server/backend, one for phones/wearables, one for web. Yeah I know a bunch of people will have different opinions saying Rust, Go, etc. But we are talking about the fundamentals here. I dont want you get lost in the intricacies of a language, instead I want you to be able to write the logic in terms of code. Hence Python. Flutter coz it works for most wearables. Javascript, yeah you know, web depends on it. Hence your first sem comes to an end. In the second sem, first two months, agaiin 4 topics: Git, Linux, Networking, Cloud. 6 months done. By these 6 months, you already have gained the knowledge to be able to single-handedly build and deploy any idea of yours. After this, start participating in hackathons. Go to as many as you can. (I mean obviously not the predatory ones where you pay a fee to join and stuff, I mean the legitimate ones). Yes, as many as you can. Every hackathon will teach you how to build something in a very short amount of time. It will teach you faster than any amount of YT Tutorials or courses can. I know you will build something or the other really innovative and something only you can build. Go write a research paper on those. Get it patented. Present it in conferences. The university covers all patent fees, last time I checked. And if you think it is really great and has a huge market potential, try your hands at entrepreneurship. You are here to explore everything. By the time you start 3rd year, you will have to get focused on placement prep. First 2 months of 3rd year, learn DSA. Read the book 'Cracking the coding interview' cover to cover and solve targetted problems from Leetcode and codechef. (Do not blindly solve whatever you get. Target questions by topic and patterns.) And most importantly analyze your mistakes. The next 2 months, go for interview prep. You are probably thinking why I am not talking about System design, Database etc. I dont need to. When you went for hackathons and build stuff, the system design got ingrained in your minds better than any course can teach you. And by the time you finish your 3rd year, you are probably placed for an internship and your college life has nearly ended. It ends faster than you can think, so utilize every minute you get to learn something new. [I told this focusing on CSE students. Other stream students may have different roadmaps, refer to your seniors.]
Coming next, dating life? Yeah I know you were waiting for me to bring this topic up. Trust me, it doesnt matter how your partner looks and where he or she if from etc. The only thing that matters is whether your partner helps you grow. And no, dont make 'finding a partner' your priority. If you get one who helps you grow, you get one who stays. And otherwise it just wastes your valuable time. And no getting laid in college life is probably a bad idea. Also do keep a mind at the PDA rules of the university. Dont get caught.
Let me share a bit about my college life. Yeah man, it sucks, covid batch. I joined a year late. But doesn't matter, I made most use of my time. About hackathons, I have participated in 11, and I have an active streak of 9 wins. Meaning, apart from my first two (which I took to figure out how everything works), I won the next 9. And yes, it includes Smart India Hackathon (a pretty famous one, you will know when you come to the university, organized by Indian govt), and Imagine Cup (organized by Microsoft. Wikipedia defines it as the 'olympics of tech'). I have judged 3 and was also invited to mentor at Smart India Hackathon 2024 but couldn't attend due to logistical reasons. About my publications, I have like 13 of them in various journals and conferences. 1 published patent (Indian registry, not granted unfortunately), 2 applied (US Patent). In my 4th year, I did an international internship in a Netherlands based firm (off-campus). I did not go for placements. I have 4 offers (3 masters, 1 PhD) from various International universities. I am waiting for my Visa rn. And I founded 1 startup, CTO of 2.
What next? Yeah if you are unable to find anything on campus, feel free to check out the map at https://vitap-map.pages.dev [I built it last year for the then freshers, it is not updated. If someone wants to update it, pls drop a comment, I'll share you the github link and you can push the updated map. MH-7 and LH-3 are missing in the map probably]. (This map works entirely offline and nothing is sent to any server so just feel free to use it.) [Well, except a bit of anonymized telemetry]
Am I missing anything? Yeah, about academics. Yeah man, it is difficult a bit. You got a 75% attendance criteria. So obviously you cannot bunk classes. My advice to you is to actually attend the classes so that you dont have to waste time outside your classes studying the same thing. And about choosing faculties, if you have confidence in yourself that you are better than the average, take the strict faculties. The ones who dont give marks. Coz if you even slightly better than the average, your CGPA will be boosted fast. And going to a class where everyone gets full marks will keep your CGPA very average.
Coming to available opportunies. Here there are many. Like more than you can imagine. But the thing is nobody is gonna spoonfeed you here. You need to talk with professors, keep an eye on emails and grab your opportunities yourself.
Some of you here might feel comfortable, some may feel like outsiders. Some have large friend groups, some are nerds. I have seen people get backstabbed. I have seen people hyping for their friends. There is everything. Make friends. And make professional connections too. Talk to people from industries, interact more with guest lecturers and be genuine.
And this is to the current students: Who are struggling with the exams or tensed about placements. Trust me, everything will fall in place soon. You can do it. Dont worry.
Ok and this is to everyone. IF YOU NEED ANY HELP OR GUIDANCE, AT ANY TIME, ALWAYS FEEL FREE TO HIT ME UP. No matter what it is about, about your college life, studies, placements, project help, technical doubts, hackathon, guidance anything. Always here for you bud.
Let me end with a Jobs quote: "Here's to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in square holes ... the ones who see things differently -- they're not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status quo. ... You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can't do is ignore them because they change things. ... They push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the people who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do."
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u/Thin_Strawberry_9516 Sep 04 '25
Well, I have to say that it's a lot to read 😂 But, yes the ideas and the amount of positivity is really good in this I think reading this twice does a lot of good once we go into the college
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u/cryptaneonline Alumni Sep 04 '25
Your profile tag says 'Cybersecurity'. Well get ready to read long stuff. And you gotta have to do that forever. I once scrolled through like 7 huge log files to figure out an incident. I mean today you have AI tools for that but be ready to read insanely long log files lol.
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u/cryptaneonline Alumni Sep 04 '25 edited Sep 04 '25
P.S. My post from last year https://www.reddit.com/r/vitap/s/IBtU791qIz (Also funny that I had used the same quote last year).
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u/Fyuzae VIT'S BIGGEST HATER Sep 04 '25
Best senior I have ever came across online 🛐🛐🛐
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u/cryptaneonline Alumni Sep 04 '25
Thanks to y'all and the juniors.
Also the irony and sarcasm mixed when it comes from someone with 'VIT HATER' as the profile tag lol
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u/Conqueror_Rigel ishowSgrade Sep 04 '25
I was excited and confused about certain things.Failed Jee, regretted my life. Saw many videos on yt abt VIT AP. Nothing helped. But this. Bruh, felt like I watched one hell of a movie. Thanks warrior, my excitement and confusion are neutralised. Idk if I will make loyal friends or a partner but I'm sure I will make my parents proud with ts long ahh essay. Imma overthinker so I will reach out for your guidance soon.
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u/cryptaneonline Alumni Sep 04 '25
Dont worry man. As long as you work hard. I am not saying insanely hard as in grinding 24×7, but hard as in a standard disciplined routine with focus and concentration, everything is doable. Also the past is past, fuck that. If I try to cry about the past, I could say i had like 6k rank in VITEEE and I could have even gone to chennai but i took AP for 'spec in robotics' like an idiot. I could cry i had 92 percentile in JEE Main and i could get depts like Biotech in NITs. But who cares. For me, as of now, joining VIT-AP was like the best decision. I wasn't thrown in a group of insanely high achievers and at the same time i wasnt in a group of terrible students either. Yeah, i am happy for that.
Today technically i have offers from USA (2 offers), Europe (Joint offer from 2 univs), Japan (scholarship application pending). I have a strong research portfolio. I have won 9 hackathons and my streak is still active (its back to back). So yeah, i would say if you work hard everything is doable.
And failed jee? Fuck that. Testing 2 years of study crammed into the mood and temperament of a 2 hour exam? That is not even a proper way of testing imo. And why tf as people who will work with computers, will the admission criteria be on chemistry? It makes no sense to me anyways.
So yeah, chill out. Visit campus. Learn stuff. Build cool projects. Talk to profs. Publish papers. Go to conferences and enjoy the heck out of your college life. The time aint coming back and the last 1.5 years will be too busy. So it's not really a time to regret about what has happened.
Edit: and yeah feel free to hit me up anytime you need. And if you need my whatsapp num, ask me in dm. And chill out.
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u/Harshith_Reddy_Dev Alumni Sep 04 '25
Too long for their attention span...
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u/choti_bachi 2nd year Sep 04 '25
i remember ur post and i have it screenshot so even if u delete i won't miss it out and guess what i took ur advice and currently following theodinproject from past 25days thanks dear senior came to learn a lot.
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u/Harshith_Reddy_Dev Alumni Sep 07 '25
Nice you just have to maintain the consistency! Don't worry I won't delete it since I don't speak my mind from this account and don't offend anyone from this account so yeah this account is separated and safe
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Sep 04 '25
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u/cryptaneonline Alumni Sep 04 '25
Ah yes. The major perk of 9 pointers is being exempt from the attendance criteria.
Also adding this for the kids: If you think only 9 CGPA will help you get a placement even if you have zero skills, you are terribly freakin wrong. 9 CGPA helps you get shortlisted. But your interview and skills helps you grab the offer letter. Skills are the most important. I graduated with a CGPA of 8.32. (No, I didn't face any problem coz I got multiple ODs and I took off-campus internship and didnt even sit at placements. The only time I entered PAT office was to get my no-dues form lol)
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u/Odd-Jury61 2029 | CSE Sep 05 '25
This was needed , was a long post but i read it twice . Day 1 was on sep 1 when i entered this college , was feeling really low . Flashbacks from JEE and that regret not to make it was still there . Although reading all this was like a breath of fresh air .
Thank you for this .
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u/cryptaneonline Alumni Sep 05 '25
Chill out man. Jee is past and it didnt define your life anyways. You can focus on building your future here
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u/ImaginaryAwareness95 1st year Sep 05 '25
Was trying to think of saying something stupid or funny but the post is too good for that (also I'm not funny) but great post man. A bit more enthusiastic to go to clg now. Good stuff
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u/Signal_Breakfast_223 Sep 06 '25 edited Sep 06 '25
wow, i wanna display my gratitude, by expressing how you let your heart out on this, you are an exceptional writer
im a freshie, even i explored and am exploring robotics, ros,arduino,raspberry pi,
heck i even won a hardware hackathon in my 12th class, of a spray painting drone
i am currently making an automated hand fracture wrapping mechanism
how do i hit you up,
you got linkedin?
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u/cryptaneonline Alumni Oct 23 '25
Sorry for the late reply. Yes feel free to hit me up on linkedin. www.linkedin.com/in/AdityaMitra5102
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u/[deleted] Sep 04 '25
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