Gargi College: Pretty wonderful place for Academics & Extracurricular

The course for Life Sciences appealed to me because of how well rounded the course is with three different subjects of Chemistry, Zoology and Botany, which would eventually help me prepare me for the post-graduate exams which include all the aforementioned subjects. Also, one has more options for further specifications in one's academics later on. Even though the syllabi for all the papers were well-thought of, since there's only one paper of one subject in every semester, one couldn't learn a lot about one specific topic, which made it slightly difficult to perform extra-curricular projects. The multiple discipline aspect helped with learning about many types of experiments in different labs. And the practicals are performed with all the required materials and apparatus. The difficulty level of exams isn't very high and it mainly focuses on the basic knowledge of the subject.

The yearly fee for the first year (during admission) was 17,000 INR. And it went on increasing to 18,000 INR for the second year and 20,000 INR for the third year. Additionally, there are examination fees which include result certificate, theory exams and an extra fees for practical exams, which sometimes sum up to more than 2000 INR. There are certain CGPA based awards with cash prizes, amounting up to 10,000 for the top scorers.

Gargi college is known for it's numerous fests and functions, with the major annual fest being Reverie, that plays out around February of each year. It's a 3-days fest with all-campus decorations, sponsors, performers with a well played-out theme. There are also the Diwali fest, Annual Internship fair (Elevate), departmental fests, various seminars by established speakers, workshops, etc. The college library has a large selection of books for every department, with an arrangement of reading hall and availability of issuing books for a time interval. Though books are often in outdated editions and a few reference books aren't up for student's to issue. There are projectors in almost every classroom, as well as 3 computer labs, and multiple labs for different discipline of science. The student council is very active in every aspect of college, with multiple cultural andf technical clubs for every interests and skills. There are funds and leniency for students involved in clubs.

I preferred Gargi college to the rest of them, because it's located in a pretty green and residential area of Delhi, and also the Science department of this college is one of the best. And it being an all-girl's college was another plus, as it includes more freedom and openness in being a woman. I applied to Hansraj college, Hindu college, Miranda college, and Kirori Mal college as well. I couldn't get into those because of not having enough cut-off percentile in my CUET-UG exam. DU started accepting CUET marks from the year 2022 itself, the year of my subvmission. We were the first batch who gave the qualifying exam and started off with the new NEP courses. The final marks are based on percentile, and hence, there are no specific cut-off marks. It's all based on which college you're applying to and how many number of seats are available. I'd recommend applying for as many college/course options as you're eligible for, to increase your chances.

There are usually 2 teachers who are responsible for the theory of one batch of around attending 30 students or so. Teachers are usually helpful and approachable regarding exam details and doubts. Some of the best teachers Dr. Ruchitra Gupta, Dr. Samira Chugh, Dr. Neetu Chaudhary from Botany department; Dr. Poonam Sharma, Dr. Smriti Sharma, Dr. Rashmi Saini from Zoology department. These teachers were very instructive, professional and informative in their teaching styles. Officially, there are the scheduled end-semester exams, which initially starts with practical exams and ends with theory exams. But there are also internal tests for every paper for the internal marking scheme, where for every paper of 4 credits of totaly 160 marks, 70 marks are for internal marking and 90 marks are for external examinations. The syllabus and paper choices are often quite relevant to the course, with well-rounded topics and practicals to understand the topics in depth.