GMGC Kolkata: Scholarship Opportunities and Affordable Fees

I took admission to Gokhale Memorial Girls' College. GMGC as we called it, is a girl's college, which was initially a complete culture shift sort of a feeling for me, as I always had studied across co-ed schools. I took up Political Science, since I was told that the faculty for Political Science department was one of the best across all the colleges in Kolkata. All the professors, from JM Ma'am, MM Ma’am, and our HOD SMC Ma'am are good at what they do. What made me feel that it is different from the rest of the colleges was the fact that there was a complete care taken by professors across all the departments in what they inculcated amongst their students. This college was all about nurturing a student from the base, teaching them the intricacies of the subject and making them understand the root cause and the effects of every concept. Initially getting into this college was just like a feeling of getting into an A+ graded college, but when I completed by graduation I took back a whole lot of wholesome memories.

The basic eligibility that was required when I was enrolling included students having cleared their 10+2 with an aggregate score of 80% and above. 90% in the subjects that they wished to apply for. I scored 93 in Political Science so I applied for Political Science. There were not any entrance exams, so whatever selection was made, was done based on merit. Now, if I discuss the frequency of exams, there used to be 2 major exams for every year. One was the internal exam and the other was the university exam. Internal exams were scheduled almost close to the final exams for every year. Students had to score at least 40% in each paper to be able to go on to the next year. Honestly, I cannot say or judge how the academics prepared me for real-life challenges as I chose a completely different subject for my post graduation. However, the morals and self-integrity that our professors instilled within us, still stayed with me and I will be forever grateful to them for all that they did for us.

Being from a CBSE background, I got a scholarship for my studies until my graduation as far as I remember. The scholarship amounted to Rs. 6,000 every year. Apart from this if I discuss the fees, I guess the amount was Rs. 75,000 for overall course whose duration of 3 years. I guess students from reserved categories were given discounts on their fees as well as the overall aggregate score for them was relaxed by 5% to 10%.

With the mandate from the government, it is now compulsory for almost every professor to complete their PhDs before being selected for any position in a state run university and college. During my time, all my professors were PhD qualified. In fact the guest lecturers were hired on the fact that either they are pursuing or have completed their research on any designated subjects. The teaching method was based on lectures and written notes. Professors would initially explain the concept and then provide us with notes. As far as I remember almost every department had a ration of 25:6 excluding the guest faculties. Every professor was aware of their students personally and knew their drawbacks.

My course never had placements. In fact, majority of the students who cleared their graduation went on the pursue masters in the same or chose a different subject. There were never any placement offers that were spoken off. However, the Nutrition department did have placements where the average salary offered ranged between 2.50 LPA to 3 LPA.

Gokhale Memorial Girls' College is located centrally in Harish Mukherjee Road very close to Victoria Memorial in Kolkata. Students can avail bus, metro and private cars to reach the campus. The campus size is decent with 2 playgrounds one on the front and the other on the back. The college accommodates an auditorium room where majority of the events take place. For many students in Kolkata, the canteen become one of the most cherished places to be, however in GMGC the corridors and the stairs remained witness to so memories.

I will be honest, I was never fond of my college initially when I took admission. Being from a co-ed school all my life there was something that felt uncomfortable initially. However, then who knew what future held for me. This college has given me my best friends, has given me a good career, and most importantly has given me the confidence of being able to tackle down any situation that comes my way. So overall the campus life and outside campus life was something I thoroughly enjoyed through my 3 years. Sports day used to have decent events, but what stood out were the freshers welcome and farewell events. One such major event is the foundation day on December 18. Apart from that, there are other events such as sports day, annual fest, science day and others.