Hailing from a small village of an under-privileged and far off area of Tharparkar desert, it was anything but expected of me to feel at home in the most prestigious university of Pakistan, right away. With this article, I wish to share my incredible experiences during my first semester here at NUST!

After the tiring admission process, I was very ecstatic when I received the call that told me that I had been accepted into NUST. I had not even seen the pictures of NUST’s campus, and used to imagine and create the maps of NUST in my mind, while sleeping in the cold starry night of the desert. At last, it came the day of August 25, 2018, when I packed my bag and headed off to NUST.

The first week was “Orientation Week”, with different activities and fun for freshmen. Indeed, the orientation week was awesome! Visits to different schools of NUST, batch photo, sports, “Qawwali Night”, Open Mic, “Tambola Night”, Tree plantation Drive, and all other events really made our arrival at NUST tremendously memorable. The best part, however, was the fact that I didn’t get ragged- needless to say I was terrified of it, but I am grateful I didn’t get to experience this one particular thing, or so I thought; we had to face ragging in the name of “ice breaking”, however, it’s all fun and games at the end of the day, and you make lifelong friends with this small custom.

After the hectic and gratifying week of orientation was over, it was our turn to sit on the benches of the classrooms of NUST, about which we had dreamt to sit on. The first thing that I noticed at NUST School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (SEECS), was its timetable with classes from 09:00 A.M. to 05:00 P.M., and, for me, someone who would stay in college till 02:00 P.M. unwillingly, it was nearly impossible to even begin to imagine. At first, we were really happy because there weren’t many assignments, but as the days went on, the number of assignments and quizzes just started piling up, and there seemed to be no stopping it. Our seniors, however, always told us to enjoy our time while it lasted, and that the GPA doesn’t really matter- well we have yet to find that out.

Anyways, quizzes and assignments are a part of university life, but I was surprised to find out that these things weren’t just cramming books on end, for the sake of getting good grades; done properly, these assignments and quizzes added a whole more to our knowledge than we expected them to.

However, one can’t talk about NUST without giving due credit to the active student societies. Using these societies, we are able to build new skillsets, and foster existing skills, which ultimately serve to highlight our leadership abilities, and help us in standing out from the rest of the crowd!

In a nutshell, the maiden semester at NUST was perhaps the most incredible time of my life and I hope the remaining seven semesters will be just as good, if not better.

Until next time!