Symbiosis College of Arts and Commerce B.Com Review By Arshit Gupta

Symbiosis is as famous as Pune city and one can ask anyone for that matter because, as soon as you tell someone you are from Symbiosis, people tend to look at you differently. It has happened with me and I am sure it must have happened with many Symbians who have passed out from here. One good thing about Maharashtra is that they have Colleges from 11th itself. I came in first year and therefore even 83% in HSC couldn't get me a seat here and had to pay some caption fees to get admissions here. However, it was worth it because life at Symbiosis has given me memories worth billions. The main campus where the Arts and Commerce College is located is where the Institute began its journey from and today they have campuses all over Pune and Lavale too. Most courses are affiliated to SIU (Symbiosis International University) but commerce is under Pune University.

For the first few months, I was so excited, and even though the B. -Com classes were from 7 am, I hardly missed a day. The class strength was 120 and it started with 70-odd and got confined to 10 in a couple of months. I hated to be among those 110 who didn't attend College, but the campus vibe is such that I came to College regularly but avoided the classes. No attendance issues here as one has to submit the practicals and keep on checking the notice board for midterms exams. So, academics here were easier than walking in the park with friends.

If I had to answer the number of faculties we had, I have no idea. I was regular for the first few months and in that, I saw 6-7 faculties teaching us. Of course, the numbers would have been added, but because I hardly had any interaction with them. The faculties, though, were amazing because in a few months of attending classes one thing that made me never regret my decision to come here and study was the kind of faculty that Symbiosis has. Even for a course like B. Com, faculty members were at least 15-20 years old in teaching. Thus, their experience helped the ones who were regular. B. Com is a course where basic things can never change and therefore adding the recent past graduates anyways doesn't make any sense. The College has gone with experience when it comes to faculty.

Some call centers, marketing, and baking odd jobs were offered by many International BPO that have their offices in Pune. Banks like HDFC, Kotak needed marketing people and were more than happy to offer the jobs for account opening. I was like, if these are the kind of placements that College provides then better, they shouldn't have any. Many students took these jobs as they needed experience, but I chose higher studies over doing such odd jobs.

It is sad that in our country a College has made an NRI hostel but no hostel for Indian students. The NRI hostel building was right next to our main campus building. The hostel was great as previously there were four Institutes of Symbiosis in the main Institute. Now we are the king, as rest all other Institutes have gone to other campuses, and no NRI students now have to find a PG, as the rooms were not sufficient to accommodate all the students. Well, Symbiosis is one Institute where 1 out of 20 is an NRI student.

The smallest and the cutest campus one will ever see is Symbiosis campus. The campus is guarded with guards as there's no entry without an I-Card, so security-wise the campus is great. In terms of Infrastructure, the five-floor building had one lift and it is used by faculties. There is RO water purifier and washrooms on each floor. The canteen is close to the gate and it is huge. Pohe, Wada Pav, Bun Maska and Thali are some of the famous items that are served in the canteen. Outside the College, there is a NCC canteen which used to have more crowds than the College canteen. The NCC ground was right behind the campus and food joints like CCD, and Dominos were close to the campus.

Life at Symbiosis was too great to get fit in words. All special days like friendship day, Valentine's Day, etc, were celebrated at the campus or some of the best clubs of Pune. Students have to keep checking the notice board as everything was posted there. From freshers' day to graduation day, I was present at each event of the College.