College Education - Is it a formality?

I'm doing my seventh semester in college... it'll be only a few months before I am given my UG degree... Bachelor of Engineering, specialized in Computer Science and Engineering it would read... thinking about it, I feel a pang of guilt, surging through my veins, challenging me... are you eligible for this degree, the unseen voice asks, a quiet yet imposing voice... I'm at a loss... what do i say? Am i eligible for this degree... let me recollect, what are the areas that I studied, for the past 6 semesters...hmm, we started off with data structures, went on to design and analysis of algorithms, system software, object oriented programming, digital theory, then, visual programming, operating systems, computer architecture, analog and digital communication, well, what next, database systems, computer networks, theory of computation, microprocessors, wow getting deeper into the mire...then, artificial intelligence, compiler design, software engineering, computer graphics, data mining and warehousing... phew, that's quite a lot of knowledge for 3 years, isn't it...

I ask myself, out of the heap [;)] of topics there, which of them can I say I am reasonably well versed in... not Visual Programming... that was a nightmare, which all of us managed to clear by mugging up some important questions right at the eleventh hour (my friends will be eager to give testimony for that...raised quite a stir)... not Microprocessors, I don't even know what a microprocessor chip does(I'm being entirely honest here, no exaggeration), I wonder how i managed a 93 in the end semester exam... let's see probably, Data Structures, I can say I know quite a bit of the stuff, the linked lists and stacks and queues... then, my C++ is good too, I mean, I'm not a wizard at it, but I can manage decently with C++ if asked to do something related to it... Operating Systems is one subject I'm OK with, it's mostly how the internal stuff works, so it's OK... Data Mining, well, it is the only subject I read with interest after C++ in my 3rd semester... well that about sums it up... so am I, with barely 20 percent knowledge in what I have studied for the past three years, eligible for the degree I would be deemed worthy of...


It may sound weird, but to a certain extent, the college system is at fault... Just think, a semester goes on for about 4 months, during which there are 90 working hours for each subject... the three internal tests that are mandatory take up 3*1 week each i.e 3 weeks... and count the holidays in the semester... a month gone between the two... we have 3 months on our hands... three months for learning operating systems or computer architecture? doesn't it sound a task even Hercules might be dubious about... still, the budding engineers in the making manage it... ever wondered how it was possible? OK, try this out... a week after a semester exams end, go pick out a random student and ask him a question from any subject... i bet you, he'll fail to answer it... at least 9 out of 10 students are that way... believe me, it's true... All students do is to cramp up their minds with the minimum information they need to clear the paper, and be done with it... the result, a certificate in the subject with a zero knowledge about it... I don't think this system can go on this way... how many generations can go convincing themselves that they're engineers, when actually they're not... A possible solution to this could be to extend the duration of the semester... have it as one year, instead of one semester... let the college period be 6 years instead of 4... but let it be quality education... when a student is declared an undergraduate in a field, he must be able to emphatically endorse it... an engineer should really be what his degree says he is...