My Four Years at MRCE

The College I Didn’t Dream Of, But The Journey I’m Proud Of

This isn’t a college review. It’s simply the story of how I ended up at MRCE, what I expected, what actually happened, and how these four years shaped me.

Before Engineering

COVID Changed Everything

Like everyone else, my Intermediate years happened during COVID. Classes were online, and life was different. Instead of spending two years only preparing for entrance exams, I also explored things that genuinely interested me. Some of my favorite memories from that time were simply spending evenings playing games with friends, like Valorant, GTA V, Fall Guys, and many more. Those games weren’t just entertainment; they became the way we stayed connected during lockdown.

Discovering Web Development

While everyone around me was preparing only for entrance exams, I discovered programming—something that fascinated me much more. During my Intermediate first and second year, I started learning Web Development (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and React). Building websites felt far more exciting than solving another Physics numerical. I spent countless hours watching YouTube tutorials, reading documentation, and trying things on my own.

Looking back, that decision probably changed my career more than any coaching class ever could. Unfortunately, it also meant my focus on JEE and EAMCET wasn’t as strong as it should have been. I don’t regret learning programming, but I do acknowledge that it affected my entrance exam preparation.

Entrance Exams

I appeared for JEE Main 2022 and scored 73 percentile, so I decided not to participate in JEE counseling. Then came TS EAMCET 2022, where I secured an AIR of 39,048. Being in the General Category without an EWS reservation, my options for Computer Science were fairly limited. The realistic choices were mostly Malla Reddy Colleges, CMR Colleges, and a few other private engineering colleges.

Why MRCE?

During counseling, I kept MRCE - CSE (Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning) as my highest preference—not because I believed it was the best college, but because it was cheaper. At that time, its tuition fee was around ₹60,000/year, whereas MRITS and MRCET were around ₹80,000. That was honestly its biggest advantage.

But before admissions were finalized, MRCE also increased its fee to ₹80,000, so now it cost almost the same as the other colleges. I considered changing my options, but eventually, I didn’t and accepted the seat. Sometimes life doesn’t give us the perfect option; it simply asks us to move forward.

My Father’s Advice

One conversation with my father has stayed with me throughout these four years. He told me:

“MRCE may not be the best college among the Malla Reddy colleges. But why can’t you become the best student in MRCE?”

That sentence changed how I looked at everything. Instead of worrying about rankings, I started thinking about what I could actually control. The college was around 25 KM from my home, so every day began with a commute. Eventually, even that became part of the journey.

What I Expected

Before joining engineering, I had very different expectations. I wanted to meet people who loved Computer Science, built projects after class, discussed new technologies, stayed up for hackathons, and genuinely enjoyed programming. I expected technical clubs, coding communities, passionate classmates, lots of projects, and friendly competition.

Reality

Reality was… different. The best thing I found wasn’t a coding culture; it was my friends. Some of the best friendships of my life came from these four years. The college had clubs, but they weren’t exactly what I had imagined, and there were opportunities, just not many. Most of my classmates had chosen Computer Science because it was the most popular branch with good placement opportunities; very few seemed genuinely interested in software development beyond the syllabus. That isn’t necessarily wrong, as everyone has different goals, but it simply meant I had to build my own learning path.

My Academic Goal

For the first two years, I genuinely wanted to become the best student academically, and I worked hard. Some achievements I’m still proud of are getting a 9 SGPA in First Year Second Semester and securing Full Marks in Engineering Graphics. Engineering Graphics was one of those subjects everyone struggled with, so getting full marks felt incredibly satisfying.

However, during my second year, I realized that focusing completely on academics wouldn’t be good enough, especially given the declining job market in India. I knew I needed to pivot, so I inclined more towards building real skills, gaining hands-on experience, and focusing on growth rather than just grades.

My First Technical Event

Even though there wasn’t much club culture initially, I got an opportunity to organize a technical event. I helped conduct Code Marathon. It wasn’t just another event; it was one of my first experiences organizing something technical rather than simply participating.

My First Internship

Towards the end of second year, I got an internship opportunity at YAR Tech Services, a company managed by one of our faculty members. I worked as an ASP.NET Developer, which was my first professional software development experience. For the first time, I was writing code that wasn’t simply for marks—it was for real work. That internship taught me discipline more than programming.

Plexus

One exciting thing happened in our department when our department, CSE (AI & ML), started its first student technical club called Plexus. I became the Design Head. This role introduced me to event branding, poster design, social media creatives, certificates, banners, and organizing technical events. It was a completely different learning experience, and design slowly became another skill I enjoyed.

UrbanLoop

During my third year, something unexpected happened. Thanks to Aman, I got an opportunity to interview at UrbanLoop and joined as a React Native Developer Intern. This internship exposed me to mobile app development. Working on a real product with real users was completely different from classroom assignments, and this experience probably taught me more practical software engineering than many academic subjects combined.

Learning Outside College

One thing became very clear: college alone wasn’t enough. Most of my learning happened outside classrooms, where I spent time building projects, learning new frameworks, reading documentation, watching tutorials, and experimenting with new technologies. The internet became one of my biggest teachers.

College Life Beyond Academics

Engineering isn’t only about classes; some of my favorite memories were outside classrooms. I attended hackathons, coding competitions, technical events, workshops, and events in other colleges. One surprisingly enjoyable experience was writing semester exams in other colleges, which almost felt like mini college trips because every campus had its own vibe.

Trips

Engineering also gave me the freedom to explore. With friends, I travelled to Hyderabad malls, movies, cafés, and local hangout spots. I also went on memorable trips with my school friends to Pondicherry, Chennai, Tirupati, and Arunachalam, and with my parents to Agra, Mathura, and Vizag. Some of my best memories from engineering have nothing to do with engineering.

Final Year

The job market wasn’t easy; placements were slow everywhere and many companies reduced hiring. Despite all that uncertainty, I received an offer from TCS, which felt like a huge relief. It wasn’t just about getting placed; it was validation that all the effort over the past four years had finally paid off.

Looking Back

If someone asked me today, “Would you choose MRCE again?”, I honestly don’t know—maybe, maybe not. A better college might have offered better opportunities, a stronger coding culture, more competitive peers, bigger clubs, and better exposure. But here’s what I know: MRCE gave me enough opportunities, and the rest came from my curiosity, my internships, my side projects, my friends, and my willingness to keep learning. College can open doors, but you still have to walk through them yourself.

Things I’m Grateful For

Looking back, I am incredibly grateful for my amazing friends, internships, Plexus, and Code Marathon. I am also thankful for learning web development early, exploring Hyderabad, going on trips with friends and family, and every project, failure, semester, and late-night debugging session.

It wasn’t the story I expected, but it became a story worth telling.