Why College Peers Matter More Than You Think
Everyone says you become like the people you surround yourself with. I never truly understood this until I got to BITS Pilani. Before college, I was pretty confident - I'd played table tennis at nationals and thought I was hot stuff. Then reality hit: I couldn't even make the A-team at college. That was my first wake-up call.
Here's the thing about getting into a good college - it's not just about the degree. It's about suddenly being surrounded by people who are better than you at everything. And that's exactly what you want. I walked into BITS with zero coding experience, but seeing my peers and seniors building amazing things lit a fire under me. I jumped into competitive programming not because anyone forced me, but because that was just the standard around me.
Look at my friends now - they're crushing it in completely different ways. Some are investment bankers at top firms, others are doing groundbreaking research at the world's best universities, and a few are building their own startups. When your roommate is coding until 3 AM for their startup, or your batchmate is solving complex algorithmic problems for fun, it changes your definition of what's possible.
The best thing college gave me wasn't the courses or the professors (sorry, professors!). It was the people. Even now, years after graduating, my college network keeps pushing me forward. When I was getting too comfortable in my corporate job, it was my seniors from San Francisco who showed me what building at scale really means. They helped me see that I was thinking too small.
Here's my advice to any 16-17 year old reading this: fight hard for a good college. Not for the brand name, but for the people you'll meet there. The quality of your next decade might very well depend on the peers and seniors you surround yourself with during those four years. In my case, having friends who refuse to settle has been the biggest gift - they've never let me get comfortable when there are still big problems to solve and impact to create.
Your circle doesn't just influence you - it transforms you. Choose it wisely.