Life at Symbi Design

Due to the pandemic which began in 2020, the entire experience was based online. My first preference was to get into NIFT, but since I did not clear the exam I had to go with my second preference which was SID, Pune. I had also applied for UCEED exam and scored 1230 rank AIR. I did not go for it because I wanted fashion communication which was not available. I also cleared extrance exams of Srishti, MIT, WUD and I did not go for them. Srishti and MIT did not offer fashion communication. When I talked to few seniors they told me that SID Pune is better than WUD since WUD is a new college. I am from the general category. The admission criteria for my programme for all colleges is entrance test, situation test (offline) and personal intrview. Due to the pandemic all the colleges mostly had entrance test and personal interview/ portfolio review only. For SID Pune, they first selected us on the basis of our portfolio and then shortlisted us for the interview. The interview was pretty great.

I have always had an aptitude for visual arts, fashion and photography. Fashion Communication offers all 3 of them. The faculty of our college is great. For our 1st and 2nd semesters, we had 5 courses. Each course has a course incharge and a guest faculty. The teachers are admirable and understanding. Since our entire first year was online, it was difficult for us to study online but our teachers made it as intresting as they could. The teaching methods are gratifying and they deserve a lot of praise for it since teaching online was new for them as well. Since it is designing, we dont have written exams. At the end of each semester we have a jury in which we are assessed for our entire semester's work by external jury. 60% weightage of internal marking and 40% weightage of external marking. Juries can be challenging but if you are thorough with your work and know the principles taught by the teachers, then you can easily do it.

In the 3rd year of our college, the college provides a list of companies to intern with. These are excellent companies. You need to do an internship in the 3rd year as it is compulsory or you can even do freelance work. Mostly the companies provide creative roles only. This is all I know from my seniors as of now.

You become eligible in your last year i.e the 4th year of college. Our college has a placement cell. This cell works like a connection between the students and the industry. Pre-placement and placement work is arranged for eligible students. So far the students have gotten placements in companies like Infosys, Whirpool, Autoline, Mudra Communications, Onio Design, Leaf Design, Book My Show, Buzzfactory, Deloitte, Vaachie Apparels, Tommy Hilfiger, Craft UX, etc. I am not quite sure as to what direction I want to go in. I am sure after my 2nd year is done, I will have more clarity about it. Mostly I would love to do Art Direction or Visual Merchandising and work for a fashion magazine.

The academic fee is Rs 4,00,000 per year. The security deposit is Rs 15,000 and the library fee is 5,000. There is no increment or decrement in the fees. There are scholarship opportunities available for meritorious students.

The annual college fest called Fundamental Fest is held every February. Other than that we also have Lakshya, which is a 24 hours sketching workshop and Shilpkatha which is the annual craft showcase. The library is equipped with the best books you can find regarding designing and other related information which can be useful to us. The classrooms are equipped with good infrastructure and basic items required for teaching. We have different portfolios with 3rd years as head. The 1st and 2nd years volunteer for a portfolio for the entire year. The portfolios are - Activities and Events, International Relations, Sports, Clubs and Societies, PR and Promotions, Student Welfare, Documentation Team. I personally volunteered for activities and events and the doc team. You get so many opportunities to learn and interact with people. Our college has 3 Instagram pages - the main page of symbidesignofficial, a page for the college fest fundamental_sid and a page for the clubs sid_clubs_socities.

The rooms are neat and clean equipped with the basic furniture which is needed by college students. Washrooms are separate for each room. The meals are good and the menu has a lot of variety of different meals. The registration for hostels are easy and the per year cost depends on which room you have chosen. There is 2 sharing and 3 sharing. The college is situated in Viman Nagar, so if you were to get a PG you should stay around campus only. Viman Nagar is the most happening place in Pune. It has a lot of PGs, flats, etc.

We usually have a situation test that is done on the campus but since the pandemic, it has been put on hold because students cannot travel. We had a portfolio round where they reviewed our portfolio and shortlisted students for the personal interview round. There were 2 teachers for the interview. The questions were related to the field I had applied to i.e fashion communication. I was asked about the future of the fashion industry after the pandemic, my favourite brands, my favourite designers, etc. The questions were challenging but very interesting. Overall the experience was great. One must be equipped with the knowledge of the field they are applying because the questions are based on it. For the situation test, you must know material handling, for the portfolio round you will have to prepare a portfolio of all your creative work to present to the interviewers. The work can include sketches, paintings, photography, designing, writing, anything creative.