MES's Garware College of Commerce B.Com Review By Vandana Mrigwani

People in Pune chase BMCC or Symbiosis College for studies. Even I chose Garware College as I didn’t get admission to the above-mentioned college The College was established in the year 1967 by the Maharashtra Education Society. The college was built almost 20 years after the Science & Arts College was established. The college campus is of decent size as the college is located in the heart of the city. The college has all the basic facilities and yes the teaching is still the old method that is on blackboards. At least by the time I passed out, it still had blackboards will most of the colleges started the digital way. The commerce college has a different building and offers a range of courses from junior college till Ph.D. The college has a great team of qualified and devoted staff that takes care of the student in all possible ways. Even though the strength of junior college was 360 as each section had 120 students. The teachers knew each and every one personally. I had friends from various other colleges in Pune and they all complained that their teachers don’t care whether you attend college or not. However, it wasn’t the case in our college. During my S.Y.J.C. attendance was strict and the parents were informed immediately if the attendance were less. The revision was done thrice I reckon and that was the reason why the result of H.S.C. was over 85%. Much higher than the so-called big colleges.

The admission process is simple as all you need to do is fill a centralized form and based on the preference, you can add your college. For B.Com, you get direct admission, if you have done junior college from the same college. The B.Com College was though chilled out. No attendance issue or anything else. All in all, I have had a blast in the 5 years that I spent in this college.

Academic wise I would split it into 2 parts. The junior college was perhaps the best. While the senior college, must say was disappointing. It seemed like the college wanted us to enjoy rather than focusing on our studies. The portion was never on the priority list of college and the teachers themselves encouraged us to join classes. Having said that, not all teachers were the same as some of them were strict.

The college is known for their academic value which I believe is half true. Thus you should consider this college if you are someone who bunks college and spend more time sitting chilling with your friends on the campus. The B.Com College is affiliated with Savitribai Phule University and the syllabus was not that tough. Last 2 months of studies will help you attain a good score.

Faculty on papers was certainly the most experienced. However, hardly a few of them cared. Faculty was easy to go to but was of no use as they asked irrelevant questions more than anything else. However, Rajpur sir was different. He was quite sincere and always encouraged us to take up some extra vocational course as this time won't come back. Rather than sipping coffees in the canteen pay attention in the class. Still, only 30% of the students were present in most of the classes.

The faculty encouraged us to indulge in sports that were great as tennis and chess became our forte and at the University level competitions, we were the ones who won trophies in my time. The faculty had bigger issues to solve on a day to day basis and not just the students but even the professor’s attendance too was not great. They used to come but enjoyed sitting in the staff room rather than conducting lectures. We also complained about the same and the problem got addressed for a few days and again it went the merry ways soon.

If you have such teachers, how can 1 expect to get placed from college. Thus don’t see the information provided by them on their site. Yes, some companies visited the college during the final year and some 15-20% of people got placed as well. The college started running a placement program off late and I have heard that the ratio has gone higher. I wish it was the same in our time as well. Companies like Religare Enterprises, IIFL Holdings, and LIC came to hire and to be honest left without much of a cheer. I also attended the placement interview but unfortunately got rejected as I hardly knew about the corporate world. I can’t blame teachers alone for that. Still, I feel the college should have done their bit in grooming students.

All the students who got placed got an annual package of Rs. 3-5 lakhs. To survive in Pune I feel is not enough and therefore most of the students decided to indulge in higher studies. The B.Com students too, 40% of them already indulged the C.A. course.

The college campus has 3 hostel buildings. 2 for boys and 1 for girls. Since the hostel capacity is less the hostel is provided on a merit basis. Those who have scored higher get the first chance. Hostel rooms were clean and huge. Twin sharing basis was the formula and daily cleaning was done. Thus no complaints with the hostel apart from its timings. The hostel gate used to open after 7 am and many students complained as they had their tuition classes from 7 am. The night also the hostel gates for boys hostel used to get close by 10 pm while for girls hostel it was 9 pm. The hostel also had a mess facility and the food was just above average. Many students on some days used to skip meals at the mess as it had fixed menu from Monday to Saturday.

Still, based on my experience, I would hostel rates more than the other facilities that the college has. The hostel also had their own parking space and therefore it made it easier for us to park our vehicles since college parking is quite small in comparison to the number of students that it caters to. If you still can’t find a way to the hostel, you can stay at nearby places. There are enough flats, paying guests, and other hostels around. For girls, Kimmins girls hostel is at 2kms from the college campus. For boys, Baramati, Firodia, and Lahoti hostels are located nearby.

The college is built in a limited space and all three buildings are adjacent to each other. The campus is lush green and also just outside the college campus, the college owns a huge playground. This is the best part as the students who love playing sport can spend their time there as attendance is not an issue in senior college. The college campus is completely Wi-Fi though there was a restriction on many sites. The college library is I felt a little small as not more than 400 students can be seated in the library while the strength of the college is over 3k. The college also had a small little canteen which served chips, vada pav and cooldrinks. However nearby college there were n numbers of food joints and one can have all that they have nearby college campus.

The buildings need renovations I guess as they haven’t been renovated for the last 20 odd years. The classrooms were huge and had enough fans. Overall I was happy with the infrastructure of the college as it had everything one can ask for. One thing which should be noted here is that the Deccan bus stand was at walking distance and also the Shivajinagar railway station too. So for the students coming from far off places can easily travel. For the ones who can afford a rickshaw or taxis also don’t have to worry as the auto-stand was just next to the college.

Life at the campus was something that I will cherish always. I made some of the finest friends and met some of the most beautiful teachers on the planet. The college had a very strict policy against disrespecting girls. Thus the students never dared. So from a security point of view, one can feel completely secured here. Also every year once or twice jam sessions were arranged and that was definitely the best time in college. Even the teachers came and shake legs with the students. The college as I said earlier needs to work on a few departments such as campus placement. The seniors were also quite co-operative and were kind enough to come and tell us that if anyone tries to rag us, we can contact them.

The hostel is inside the college campus and therefore outsiders will also have a sigh of relief. Pune is a vast city and finding accommodation can be expensive. All an all the campus life I enjoyed but the attitude of the teachers in the senior college I wish changes.