Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi M.A Review By Sangita Patel

For students who want to pursue economics, DSE is one of the best institutes in the country. It wasn’t a serious idea of doing Masters but because of insist of one of my professors, I decided to have a go at the famous D-School as it is known. In 2010, US crisis were always in the media and knowing about the ups and downs in economy fascinated me and the stock market back then was quite volatile. My father also insisted that I should and learns ‘Game Theory’ which is being taught at DSE. One thing that may baffle many is that there were engineering students who enrolled for M.A. in Economics. DSE has an entrance exam for this course and cracking it was a tough nut. For me cracking the entrance of DSE was a milestone as coming from a humble background of studying economics from Mumbai University wasn’t enough because students who enrolled were from a higher education background and some even with work experience have joined the course.

Academics to me were so tough because I was not used to study for that long in the classes. More than the classes it were practicals and experts were called to teach us a lot of things. Economy in 2010 was running through a crisis and learning all the concepts of demand and supply was the core of the course at DSE. Economics is one of the vastest subjects and one can never study all the acumen of economics but DSE had almost all covered as there were 7 subjects in each semester including the practical. One can pass only if they study seriously and make sure that they cut out themselves from distraction otherwise it is impossible to clear the exams here.

If I name who were invited and who were among the core faculty you will surely doubt me. Amartya Sen the Nobel prize winner, Indian economist was the guest lecturer here and the likes of Kaushik Basu too were invited to take some lectures here. All the lecturer other than those were also gold medalists in Economics from some of the most decorated universities. The core faculty was fantastic and after mentioning the names of our guest faculties, I think I have spoken enough of the kind of people that have given their all to make sure they take D-School name to at par with LSE.

Placements were fantastic and because not many could complete the course in time the placement rate was low but the median CTC was still around 6 LPA and 10 years before now this was a nice figure to start with. If you pass and do well in exams the placements will surely be beyond your expectations.

The college doesn’t have its own hostel but have tie-ups with university hostels and other hostels that are managed by DU. One such hostel was Rajiv Gandhi Hostel for girls where I studied. The hostel is only for girls doing PG or PhD from DU. The hostel is one of the best hostels of DU as there were 6 blocks and some new getting constructed then. The hostel rooms were allotted only on twin sharing and the hostel used to have all the events and festivals at their campus. There were also many competitions and a farewell and freshers party to make students understand what it is to be a part of DU.

DSE is in North Campus and is flanked by Ramjas College on its left, Hindu College on its right; St. Stephens was right in front of us and FMS at the back. So, we had almost all the premiere institutes of DU in our geographical location. There are 3 blocks at DSE, as one block each for Geography, Sociology, and Economics. DSE campus was so beautiful because of its landscapes and trees that were inside the campus. The campus was quite big and was stretched all the way to JK Tea stall which was our best hangout spot. DSE canteen was always full of students who flaunted the best fashions of the North Campus. DSE campus best part was RTL (Ratan Tata Library) which was humongous and had air-conditioned rooms inside for students to study. The computer lab too had latest machines and they were changed as soon as the new one comes in market.

Life at campus was spent in classrooms or RTL. RTL gives you a perfect 360 view of the campus and holding book and simultaneously looking at the large crowd was the best view for me. I used to sit quietly along and study as I couldn’t make many friends as perhaps, I was the only one from Gujarat in my batch of 2010-2012 and didn’t fit in many groups. Hostel was rather fine as I never rushed back to the hostel just after the college but once I reached there, I made sure I am not opening my books again. RTL staff became like my family and I had a great time at the library. The campus was full of life as DSE campus would see students of nearby college come and pick some fashion tips from the students of DSE.