A bit of prologue: I am a student at BITS Pilani, Pilani campus and I had taken part in the semester exchange program recently. I spent my last semester in Goa - the tourist hub of India. From now on, I will be using notations like 2-1 to denote 2nd year 1st semester.
It was a crazy semester. The policy of intra campus transfer was introduced last semester only and I was one of the first student in BITS to take a campus transfer to another campus. It was a brave decision, as my friends told me. Only 2 people, including me, took a transfer from Pilani to Goa campus.
Making the decision to take a transfer
I was kind of bored of living in Pilani - a very small town (almost a village 😂) for 1.5 years. At the time of 2-1 compres, an email comes in my mailbox. It was regarding a new policy introduced by the admin. It was the email for the campus exchange program. I always keen to take part in a campus exchange program, mostly some place abroad. But, seeing the email made me really happy. I had previously explored the options for a campus exchange program but there were a lot of complexities and it would end up costing a lot so I had kind of dropped the plan earlier. But, this email reignited my interest in it.
There was an option to take a campus transfer to any of the BITS campuses for 1 semester in the entirety of our degree(s). There was an option to take a transfer to Goa, Hyderabad or Dubai. I chose Goa as it seemed like a perfect blend of fun and academics. Plus, I also had a lot of school friends and seniors there. So, I knew many people there.
I am a dual degree student to so I technically have 1 year extra as compared to single degree students. So, this further added to my capability to take risks and experiment. Since 2nd year is the most free year for dualites, this further motivated me to take the plunge.
I won’t go into the technicalities of how I applied and how I got selected here.
So all in all, these were the main reasons due to which I made the bold decision to take a transfer for 1 semester to Goa. I ended up spending my 2-2 at Goa campus :D
Settling in and making new friends
I am kinda active on the BITS Pilani Discord server so I knew a few people from each campus. This included a friend from Goa campus whom I met on the server. Let’s call him X. We used to talk a lot and discuss many things. We were also in same branch. He helped me a lot in the transfer process.
When I reached the campus, I just had my clothes, books and laptop. I had to buy all the necessities like mattress, bucket, mug etc. and had to setup my hostel room. This was the first time I was doing it all by myself. As Pilani is just ~160km from my home so usually parents used to come and help me setup my room. But this time, I was all alone and had to do it all by myself. It was a nice experience as I finally felt independent :)
So X came a day after. He helped me a lot to buy the necessities. Our hostels were different so he introduced me a lot of people in my hostel who also became my friends. It all felt like freshman year again. Meeting new people, randomly approaching people and talking to unknown people. Basically, I was figuring out my way all again.
I got to know a lot of people. Met the Economics secretary who was really helpful. Apparently, my hostel had the highest number of 2nd yearites so I was not alone :) Met a looooot of people and instantly vibed with a lot of them.
I also met my school and coaching friends. I wanted to surprise one of my friend but it was ruined as he knew that I was coming lmao. Met all of my school friends and seniors. It was really nice to rekindle with them. It was a pleasant experience.
I met my school friends after ~2 years. Hadn’t met them after graduating from high school. We instantly vibed and I met his other friends. We all gelled together and became friends. So I natually became a part of their group.
So I made many new friends and had a fun time with them. We all used to sit in common room or play cards in someone’s room. It was really fun. Also, Goa had single rooms from 2nd year onwards so it was my first time living in a single room in hostel. It was a really new experience for me. I thought that I would feel a bit lonely. But ironically, it felt much better. I could live however I want and it gave me a lot of freedom. I could also invite friends whenever I wanted. It was also a great experience.
A bit on academics
So I am was my Economics 2-2. I planned on taking a CS department elective - Systems Security this semester as it was being offered in Goa campus only and not in Pilani. But I was not able to take the course this semester as it clashed with a compulsory discipline course Econometric Methods 🥲. So I took an interesting Economics elective - Computational Methods for Economics. More on that later!
Apart from the core courses, I took nother Economics elective - Security Analysis and Portfolio Management which was also nice. It was an introduction to portfolio management theories and strategies. It introduced different portfolio models. It was a nice course overall but felt a bit theory heavy. The assignments were really interesting and very relevant.
Another elective I took was from the humanities department. It was a humanities elective (HuEl). It was Development Economics.
I kinda regretted taking it as my entire semester had economics courses. As it is, I don’t like economics much and find it a bit boring. I took this elective as apparently, it had the best grading out of all the available HuEls. Regretted taking it based on others’ advice :(
Now, about the Computational Methods course! It was a really good course taken by Dr. Sandip Sarkar. I felt that it was the best economics course I took till now. It was really interesting and a bit different from the other economics courses. It had a bit of machine learning part as well. It started off with basic regression and advanced to disciminant analysis and thhen IV regression. The course ended with decision trees. The course assignments were awesome and very practical and relevant. The only thing I didn’t like much was that the course used R language instead of Python so that was kind of a bummer.
The first assignment was that we were given the National Sample Survey Office’s 68th round dataset. We had to interpret data, identify relevant variables from the different .dta files and run regression to predict many things.
The second assignment focussed on IV regression. We were given a Noble Prize winner’s paper on Instrument Variable Regression. We had to take its dataset and implement the findings. This was the paper that I had implemented. It was the first paper I had ever implemented. It was so much fun. I had a lot of fun in this course. The professor was also very supportive and guided us whenever we were stuck.
Rest all other courses felt kind of boring. Same old economics courses - Macroeconomics, Microeconomics, Econometric Methods, Economics of Growth and Development etc. Didn’t enjoy them much but had to bear them 😛
This was the most hectic semester in my degree as I had 8 courses and all of them had midsems and compres. Maxxed out my credits this semester 💀.
Expeditions and Treks
This was the most fun part! Exploring Goa!!!
Trip to Cabo De Rama Beach
In the beginning of semester, we all planned a trip to Cabo De Rama Beach. It was in South Goa. It was a nearly 47km journey from BITS Goa to Cabo De Rama. We rented 4 scooties and 2 bikes from Vasco Da Gama. We were a group of 12 people. While I didn’t drive, it was still tiring travelling a total of nearly 100km+ on a two wheeler 😅.
Initially, our plan was to go to Cola beach because we were mainly interested in kayaking. But on our way, we saw that Cabo De Rama beach also had kayaking and it was around 10km nearer so we rerouted to Cabo De Rama instead :)
It was a really nice journey. The scenery was really amazing! It was definitely a once in a lifetime experience.
It was January and there was a lot of Christmas decorations on traditional Goan houses. They were very well decorated, which added to the beauty.
We reached the beach and did kayaking. It was really fun. We then enjoyed and relaxed on beach for a while. The beach was really good and not crowded at all. Southern part of Goa is not as crowded as North Goa and has its natural beauty preserved. So the beach experience was really good.
We then left the place at around 7:30 and it was dusk by then. We were a but anxious as we had heard that it was not that safe to travel around the beach at night.
We also saw magnificent churches on our way back at night time. They were very well-lit and decorated.
Lucky for us, we had the JBL Flip 6 and we just blasted songs on our way back which further added to the enjoyment. We had dinner at Madgaon and then headed back to the campus and reached at around 11:30p.m. We had to ask our parents to send an email to security guards and were eventually let in 😛.
Trek to Tulaskond Waterfall
This trek was organized by the Trekking Club, BITS Goa. I couldn’t even find the place on Google Maps. It was such a remote location. It was somewhere in the Sasahyadri Ranges in the Western Ghats near the Karnataka border I believe.
It was the first trek of my life. It was a really nice experience for me. The trek was easy but tiring. It was around 4-5km one side if I remember correctly. After reaching the waterfall, we enjoyed in the waterfall and the pond created by it. It was not too deep so we were able to swim in it safely.
This was the waterfall. It was very isolated and surprisingly very clean. It was an awesome experience connecting with the nature and being completely isolated. There was no cellular network as well. We were totally disconnected from the outside world. It was a great experience overall!
Trek to Devil’s Finger Beach
This was the second trek organized by the Trekking Club this semester. This time, it was not as smooth as the last one. But nevertheless, it was still a really nice experience with breath-taking views.
Devil’s Finger Beach was almost 20km from Panjim. The trek felt a bit longer than the previous one and had undefined pathway. But, it felt a bit easier than the previous one.
Some shots by me:
This trek was the best in terms of natural beauty and the views.
There was one more trek organized but it was very close to the compres so I didn’t go for it. Now that the compres are cancelled (more on that later), I wish I would’ve gone for that as well.
It was my first time trekking and I absolutely loved it. I plan on going on more treks now, it’s kind of addictive 😛.
Apart from these trips, I went to Vasco Da Gama once to watch Chhaava. It was a single-screen movie theatre. It was my first time going to a really small cinema. It was a different experience for sure xD
Fests
There were 2 fests this semester: Quark (technical fest) and Spree (sports fest).
Both of the fests were quite energetic. One thing I liked about fests here is that the day after the fest is off so that the students can relax after the exhausting events in the fests and can return to studies refreshed.
The artists were way better than Pilani this time in Goa. So, I was lucky in that sense.
For Quark, the lineup consisted of Shaan and Ritviz. There was a pre-quark standup show as well which was performed by Madhur Virli and Nishant Suri. It was also awesome. For quark, Vivek Samtani was also invited for a standup show. Quark inaugration ceremony was also very lively and some performances were really different from Pilani. For example, BITS Goa has an A Cappella club - Synchronoise. I was honestly blown-away by their performance. It was too good. Pilani doesn’t have such a club.
The Drama Club’s performance was also really good. They enacted the play ‘Sure Thing’. The actors were very talented and the play had only 2 people but it wwas still really engaging. The play also used the BITSian lingo which made it quite fun.
For Spree, the lineup consisted of Ankit Tiwari and Seedhe Maut. Spree was also quite lively, even better than this year’s APOGEE it seems.
In all the fests, the main attraction was the Backstage DJ. It was a crazy DJ that started at around 11 p.m. and ended at 3 or 4 p.m. usually. Backstage DJ was a nice ending to the day after the concerts and other events.
Nullcon Goa was also held in BITS Goa this semester. I was really eager to attend it but I couldn’t get passes for it (some passes were reserved for BITS students as BITS Goa was the venue for it) despite having interest. It was a bummer :(
But it wasn’t a major issue though.
Things I liked about Goa Campus
First and foremost has to be convenience! Blinkit and Instamart worked on campus and delivered at the gate of hostel. I could order whatever I wanted 24x7. Me and my friends used to order cut pineapple at 1 a.m. 😂.
Then there was Zomato and Swiggy as well having decent options. Ordering Dominos and KFC in hostel was a dream come true honestly. Goa seemed so much better than Pilani in that sense. The level of convenience is unmatched.
Then, I liked the D side hostels of BITS Goa. The amenities and cleanliness was top-notch. They gave apartment-like vibes and had modern indoor gardens and well-maintained badminton court. It was a treat to the eyes.
This was the view from my room in DH-5 hostel and it was so much better than the view from rooms in Pilani 😝
There were different inter-hostel sports events and mini-fests as well.
Another thing I like about Goa campus was that there was very minimal politics. Some people might see it as a downside but it seemed like a good thing according to me. The CSA elections were also there this semester and it was nothing like the SU elections in Pilani. There was minimal campaigning and less candidates interested in contesting. The deserving candidates won and that’s all that matters in the end. The political landscape is much more intense in Pilani I feel.
The Dark Side of BITS Goa
Okay so this is a thing I didn’t want to write about but unfortunately it is a big deal now. The worst thing I felt about Goa campus is that there is no system of ‘wings’. A wing refers to a row of consecutive rooms in a row. People can choose upto 12 people and they will form a wing and will get their rooms alloted together. In this way, friends stay together and no one is left alone or lonely. There is no such system in Goa. The rooms are selected from available hostels on a first-come first-serve basis. This leads to friend groups being shattered and people left alone in a hostel while all their friends might be in other hostels.
I experienced in first hand that a person in my hostel didn’t even know properly who lived in his adjacent rooms or the room in front of his room. All of his friends lived in A-side which is quite far from D-side so naturally their in-person interaction was also very limited. I kinda felt bad for him but he couldn’t do much apart from convincing someone for a mutual swap.
But, the admin has taken a step and introduced a group system for hostel allotment which is very similar to the wing system in Pilani. This action was taken in light of the recent tragic events.
Apart from this, I didn’t notice anything that bad in the campus. It just felt like a normal college campus only just like Pilani.
The Compre Fiasco
During my time at BITS Goa, there were 2 very unfortunate student suicides. One took place in my hostel itself, just a few floors below my room. It was honestly devastating. There was 1 suicide in Goa in my 2-1 as well. So in total, there was 3 suicides in a span of 6 months. The most recent one occurred on the first day of compres. It was honestly very heart-wrenching. He lived in the same hostel as me.
Due to all these sad events, the admin took proactive measures and decided to cancel the compres haphazardly. We had already given half of the exams but then the rest were cancelled. We were given an option to choose if we want to be graded based on our pre-compre total (and discarding the already given exam) or consider the marks for already given exam. There is also an option to give the remaining exams in July before the registration for the next semester. So, I came back home on 8th May instead of 13th May. Then there was also the war-like sitation due to tensions between India and Pakistan. Operation Sindoor was in full force and there was a lot of uncertainty. Thankfully it has ended now but at that time, it was a horrifying watching the news of innocent civilians being killed by the Pakistani army. Maybe this was also a reason that led to the cancellation of compres.
So, this was the entire compre fiasco. It was really messy. Almost everyone had to reschedule their flights and reach back home safely. At that time, majority of the airports in Rajasthan, Punjab and J&K were closed. I was really lucky in that matter as Delhi airport was still functional. I reached back home safely without any delays.
Conclusion
All in all, this was a really wild semester with many ups and downs. My academic performance was better than the last semester for sure. I even enjoyed an economics course this semester 😅. I made many new friends, attended many events, went on a few treks, enjoyed a lot in the fests and most importantly, achieved all the goals I had in mind for this semester exchange. I am really happy with my decision and it played out to be a beautiful period. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Staying in Goa for ~4months and exploring everyday with friends and complete freedom. What more could I have asked for?
That’s all for this long post! 😀