College Life (Part 1)

I consider it as one of my best days in life. How ironic it is as I start writing about my college life and Kak Feri who is the IT Officer from my college suddenly called me to have a review or survey on the former students by asking where am I working and my position in my company. The minute I saw the caller was ‘Socit’ which actually means School Of Computing and IT which is now changed to SCE (School of Computing and Engineering), my mind travelled all the way back when I used to get call from the same number asking me why I didn’t attend my class, or to inform me that my class have been cancelled. Those were the days.

I still remember after SPM which I took in 2005, I was basically helping my dad and that was the time he shifted office. So I was doing that assisting him till my results were released in March 2006. The question that most of the people asked me what was I going to do next or what am I interested in studying and the only thing that I would tell them is Computing or something to do with computer. I don’t know why but I have always like to do computing maybe because I used to always play computer games (House of The Dead) at that time. The next question that would pop out is which College or University was I going to join. One of my uncles who two of his daughters have studied at MMU (Multimedia University) told me to apply there. Initially not so interested, I slowly started getting interested despite the fact that I had to be away from home but I’m not going to any stranger’s land as I have my uncle’s and aunties there. So with the assistance of my cousin sister, I filled up the MMU form and waited for the reply. In the meanwhile, I also applied for Unisel, Open University and a few more institution. Finally the most awaited reply from MMU came and it was disappointing as the application was rejected. Thanks to my cousin sister who I thought she would have experience in all this according to my uncle. Instead of applying for a foundation course or diploma course, she applied for a Degree course. From Form 5 straight to Degree? Who won’t reject and I was so naive that I didn’t know about it. It was already late then as the next intake was in October which was way long.

Then a reply from Open University came by. I went with my dad and liked the campus and we even paid for the course. Then one of the personal looked at me and asked me ‘Are you working?’ to which I replied ‘No’. She then asked me ‘Then why are you studying part time? You are still young. U can learn full time courses outside what. Open University is for part time courses’, she said. Me and my dad looked at each another with a reaction ‘What did we just do?’.. Lol.. They also scared us that we can’t refund the payment we made. After meeting a few people, luckily my data was not entered into the system yet where we were still able to get our full re-fund. Now back to square one. Where to study? My mum then showed me the newspaper. It was Inti College’s advertisement. My mother asked me and my father to go and enquire. If everything is fine, enroll myself there which I was not so happy about. My cousin brother who also studied IT followed us so that we don’t make another mistake. My first impression was that it is a college and not a university. Secondly, the orange color three storey building looks like a normal secondary school. Didn’t looked like a college at all. I wasn’t so happy and the counselor who explained to me said I have to do Diploma and he showed me his own version of career path. He said I need to complete my Diploma in order to do my Degree course. So it was September 2006 intake. I enrolled on a Thursday and my next class was the next day. So the next day I looked lost. My father would send and fetch me daily. My class had many people but it still came as a change to me that the college life is different from schooling life. Words like lecturers, assignments, projects, presentations were alien to me. Then it was the next week which was the second week of the semester. I had this lecturer called Ms Angela Lee. She was young, pretty and very friendly and I was almost the first to always finish her lessons. It was around the same time the Crocodile Hunter passed away. So during my class, Miss Angela was randomly asking all the students. ‘How many credits did you get for your SPM results?’ and everyone was answering with 1 or 2 credits

My turn came and she asked me. I replied 8 credits. She and most of my classmates looked shocked. ‘U got 8 credits? And what are you doing here in Diploma? Do you intend to do Degree?’I answered ‘Yes, but the counselor who guided me about the course said I have to do Diploma first before doing Degree and my results can’t enter for foundation’. ‘Who said? I am the HOP (Head of Programme) for Foundation. Never mind, meet me after two at my office. She also called my father and she herself made all the necessary needs to transfer me to Degree within the same day. My dad came and she did all the changes and printed out my new timetable and asked me to start at my new class from the next day. I was missing the diploma class though it was only my second class and I hardly know anyone yet. Even my dad said that Ms Angela was a very nice and friendly lecturer. So the next day I started my class which was on a Friday. I had a class from 11am till 1pm and I entered that class and everyone in the class turned and looked at me. It was a lab class and it was Ms Mellisa Kaur’s class. A really arrogant lecturer I will say. The only lecturer I hated throughout my course at Inti. They asked me ‘The intake is still open for this semester? How come you just joined?’ and I had to explain the whole scenario of my entry to Diploma and how I entered Foundation. Most of the students were the smart type. There were basically two groups.