“It’s going to be a rollercoaster ride,” said my TCF interviewer. The “rollercoaster ride” the interviewer was referring to was IBA, not the internship—you see, she had recently graduated from IBA. I just smiled and nodded my head in agreement. I didn’t take her words seriously and thought it was just random wisdom that seniors gave to juniors to satisfy the philosophical persona they proudly portray on their WhatsApp bio. However, this wisdom became a self-fulfilling prophecy and the words of my TCF interviewee started to become a reality. As I mark my first year at IBA and ready up to embark on another, I want to give my two cents to the freshman batch of 2024, to guide them through their first year at IBA.
Procrastination Is Your New Guilty Pleasure.
Procrastination is a new trait you unlock when you become a university student, and just like any trait, it has its pros and cons. The pros of procrastination come in handy when doing a task that involves creativity, such as making a presentation for an upcoming term project. Procrastination in this scenario helps you in deciding how you want the respective presentation or poster to look like and be able to come up with new ideas in making these unique. The cons of procrastination come in while dealing with tasks that are objective and lengthy in nature, such as homework and term reports. Procrastination during these is just going to decrease the quality of the work you submit, which in turn will leave a huge dent on your grade you may not recover from.
Good Group Mates Only Exist in Your University Life Fantasies.
After participating in group projects throughout my freshman year, I believe I’ve gained enough wisdom to talk about what it’s like working in a group at IBA. It’s no secret that sophomores at IBA don’t make good group mates when it comes to electives they share with freshmen. If you end up having a sophomore as your groupmate, all I can say is good luck. No matter how good their GPA is, the probability of them helping you out with the group project is rare. Furthermore, this leads to another wisdom I would like to share: do not choose your groupmates based on a good GPA or grades. Good work ethic has nothing to do with grades or GPA. I would suggest that when selecting team members, make sure you choose someone based on their class participation and the work they are ready to put in the given subject.
Choices Will Play a Huge Role in Deciding How Your University Life Will Roll Out to Be.
“She needs to sort out her priorities,” famously quipped Ron Weasly in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. The quote may be old and forgotten but it sure is relevant, especially as a freshman. The glitz and glamour surrounding IBA’s many clubs and events will allure you to participate in them, because who doesn’t want to be popular. However, not all that glitters is gold and priorities need to be set. Too much studying may get you that perfect 4.0 GPA but no one to celebrate the victory with, and too much partying might make you consider joining the Student Council to save your CV. You will need to create a balance according to what you want to achieve at IBA.
Sleep Is Inversely Proportional to the Number of Semesters.
If you feel that the Intermediate/A-levels all-nighters have prepared you for the ones you have to pull in IBA, Child, you are very wrong. As the semesters increase, the workload and the complexity of the subject increases jointly, and since you only have 24 hours in a day and two active brain cells at any given moment, sleep is going to become a myth.
Conclusion
Your journey at IBA will unfold through the choices you make as you proceed further on your path. The journey you take is going to be far from perfect, as the IBA itself is. Moreover, the institutional flaws of IBA and the politics that haunt its social circles will create mishaps in your journey. However, through my limited wisdom and the knowledge, you will accumulate in your time here, you will make it out alive from IBA.
5 thoughts on “Top Four Things I Wish I Knew Before Coming to IBA”
Very aptly put! This is such important advice and I really hope everyone takes away valuable lessons from it.
Was able to relate to each and every thing, still trying to find balance in this craziness!
Couldnt agree more, been through this “journey” and I just wanna add that all freshman must also be well aware of who they decide to become friends with since alot of those fRieNds may not stick along post elections
I love this comment 🤭
Procrastination is something that is tied to mindset I guess. One chooses to procrastinate when they feel they have their identity tied to the work they are doing. Hence, they ‘procrastinate’ to avoid facing the difficulty of carrying ou t the task. What makes things worse can be the fact that we have to live up to the standards of being a student of IBA. Sed Lyf.