Life in an IIT: ‘How IIT BHU made me more responsible and confident’

Akshat Shrivastava of IIT BHU shares how he is managing his life at a hostel from academics to extracurricular, being away from home for the first time.

Akshat Shrivastava shares his experience of studying at IIT

Akshat plans to have his own start-up in future, (Graphics by Abhishek Mitra)

6 min readNew DelhiFeb 21, 2023 03:51 PM IST First published on: Feb 2, 2023 at 09:21 AM IST

– Akshat Shrivastava

My usual day starts at around 6:30-7 am. I wake up, have breakfast and get in the gear for the day’s hustle. After the Covid pandemic, the schedule at the Indian Institutes of Technology has become a little hectic. My classes begin at 8 am and continue till 6pm. Hello, I am Akshat Shrivastava from Rewari, Haryana and I will share what my life at IIT BHU is like.

I am a first year Ceramics student and wish to be an entrepreneur in the future working in the field of virtual reality and augmented reality. And, that’s the beauty of IITs, no matter what field or branch you’re studying in, you can always venture into other fields as there is a lot of exposure to everything. I have joined the entrepreneurship cell and the robotics club. I also plan to join the dance club next semester as well.

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While studying in IIT is a dream come true, as I mentioned earlier, the schedule is a bit hectic because the academic time-table got disturbed due to COVID. At IIT BHU, the six-month semester has been squeezed into three months. We recently appeared for our mid semester exams and the end semester exams begin February 6.

Life in an IIT

Seniors being a support system

But over here we have a great support system as well to help us get through all the difficulties. First, at IIT BHU, we have something called tech mom and tech dad — they are our immediate seniors from college who help us in everything, from academics to helping us settle down in hostels. Generally, a tech mom or tech dad is assigned through roll number. This means the student who had the same roll number as mine last year will be my tech mom or tech dad.

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The second thing to help us in academics is Student Counselling Service, where seniors teach juniors and help them academically in whatever way they can, they teach us basics, help us with revisions and more.

The professors too are helpful but it is very different from school where teachers would handhold us. Here, we have to do everything by ourselves. We also have one teaching assistant per subject. It’s a great system as teaching assistants are generally PhD students and it’s easy to connect with them.

Hostel life at IIT BHU

Here, at IIT BHU we have around 12 hostels, 10 for boys and 2 for girls. In my hostel, rooms are triple occupancy. I share it with two other boys, both of whom are from Uttar Pradesh. Being a single child, I have been pampered by my parents a lot, but since I have come here I have learnt a lot of things from waking up on my own to washing my clothes. But, my biggest learning has been managing my time. This year has been hectic and it is imperative to manage my time so that I don’t lag behind and enjoy college to the fullest.

College fest, friends and fun

Recently, IIT BHU organised its annual fest, Kashiyatra. It was my first time attending a fest and it was an amazing experience. Students from various colleges participated in the fest which included nukkad nataks, stalls, gaming zones, dance battles, and live performances. I thoroughly enjoyed the gaming zone. There were live performances by singers Darshan Rawal and Raftaar, and stand-up comedian Anubhav Bassi. It was an enthralling experience.

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In these few months, I have made quite a lot of friends, something that was so difficult for a shy person like me. And, it has been such a fun and learning experience to know these people. In the hostel, we sit together for hours and there is a great deal of peer learning. Only a few days back, I was talking to a batchmate who knows about mathematics behind the stock market and how it functions. Prior to this, I was pretty clueless about those aspects of the stock market. There are people who are doing so many different projects, learning new skills and we get to learn a lot from them during our interactions.

Varanasi and food

One of the best things about Varanasi is the food. The food at the mess and the canteens is beyond my expectations. There are several food joints in the campus too. One of the most popular spots is the Limbdi corner, where you’ll find everyone relaxing after their classes end. I eat at the mess generally. There is good variety and they prepare dishes on a rotational basis.

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Due to our packed schedule, we didn’t have holidays between semesters but since I was missing home terribly, I went for three days.

Overall, my experience has been tough, but the excitement from pre-IIT days is still present and a source of motivation. There is so much to explore and learn not only from professors but from peers as well. My IIT experience so far has improved my communication skills and made me more confident and responsible.