The Scholars' Avenue Presents
KGP Happiness Trends 2015
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Happiness is not the absence of problems, it is the ability to deal with them.
Steve Maraboli


On August 2015, we invited you to participate in the KGP Happiness Estimator Survey.

The study explores corelations of happiness with parameters such as CGPA, Relationships, Societies, Hall of Residence, Gender and Year of Study statistically.

We tried to understand with a greater insight the multiple facets of Happiness in the campus. So, what are the ingredients to a happy student life?

We are excited to share the results with you.

Here's some nice music to listen to while you browse through the results.
Disclaimer: The Scholars' Avenue owns all proprietary rights to all the information and inferences presented in this work. Individuals need to seek formal permission from The Scholars' Avenue if they wish to use this survey output, partially or fully, for any purpose, personal or professional. This work may not be duplicated or distributed without The Scholars' Avenue's permission. In case of any disputes, The Scholars' Avenue's decision will be final.

Instruction Manual

The only boring, preachy part of this page that we pester you to read.

Word of Caution

  • When data is tampered using analysis, outliers are removed and order is enforced through averaging patterns that are inherently chaotic. Sure, there are ways to be precise and accurate, but it comes at the cost of simplicity. We have tried to prioritize simplicity over rigorous statistics.
  • Please don't get confused between causation and corelation. One may very rightly observe that people who live long have more birthdays but may wrongly infer that birthdays, hence are good for one's health and longetivity.
  • In the context of our study, if you notice say, high CGPA implies high happiness values, the inference could either be 'High CGPA scorers are happier' or 'Happier people achieve high CGPA scores'. We advise you to ponder over both the possibilities as the results are open to interpretation.
  • Feel free to report errors, demand clarifications and suggest edits.

The
π
Index

It is reasonable to be skeptical of a study titled 'Happiness Trends'. It seems to imply to have measured happiness, and hence more arrogantly, to have defined what happiness is for everybody. We know that happiness is a relative state; it is based on our ever evolving expectations and perceptions. Hence while we sincerely agree that no unique definition of happiness exists, we need some model, even if an imperfect one in order to understand corelations, as opposed to having no model at all. Researcher David Sze presents a model of Happiness that we chose to apply in this study. According to Sze, there are three factors that happiness depends on:
  • Life Satisfaction
  • Moods
  • Emotions
This tells us that what motivates us to stay happy isn't wealth, fame or glory but the end mental rewards we get in the form of more positive emotions, positive moods and fulfillment of Life Goals. Extending this analogy to our context, we wanted a mathematical term that is blind to external factors like CGPA, Department, Friend Circle and only measures the subjective perceptions, moods, and expectations of students. Hence, we cooked up the Pi Index (affectionately called the Peace Index) to measure these three factors of Happiness. This index is a function of responses to five particular questions that were best indicative of the aforementioned parameters of happiness. Even if you haven't participated in the survey, you can still find out your Pi Index right now and follow along the results.

Calculate Your
π
Index

Neither the data nor your result is stored.
How strongly do you agree or disagree with the following statements:
The first year version of me will be proud of myself now.
I am usually in a positive mood and even if I was in depression, I have been able to overcome it well.
Irrespective of how it may seem, I feel calm and composed mentally and spiritually.
Which of the following factors do you think have played an important role in your life?
CGPA
Social Life
Friend Circle
On a scale of 1 to 10, how much do you agree with the following statements?
My Academic Profile best expresses my talents, skills and abilities.
I have real friends that I can count on.
I feel like I belong to a community.
Impact Of IIT In Your Life
The Pi Index ranges from 0 to 10 and is an aproximate estimate of your happiness. Higher the Pi index, higher is the probability of you being a happy person holistically. The participants in the survey weren't told that these particular questions would be ingredients of the Happiness Formula. For the computed Pi Index to be of significance, please ensure that your answers are indeed true.

Points of Information

  • By the end of the survey period, we received a total of
    763
    entries. Out of them,
    710
    passed all fourteen spam checks, which made it to the sample set.
  • The survey only invited current second year, third year, fourth year, fifth year UG batches and second year PG batch to ensure participants have sufficient exposure with the campus lifestyle.
  • It is ensured that at least 10% of every demographics is represented in our sample set for the analysis to hold significance. For example, if the strength of ARP is 140 students, at least 14 entries from ARP are analyzed. Having said that, we acknowledge that the results of the survey may not be the best representative of the overall population of the campus. Whenever a statement such as 'X% of the students think...' is made, it implies X% of the 710 respondents and not the entire IIT campus.
  • Considering the previous point, all demographics unadequately represented in the filtered sample set are not part of their domain specific topic results. These include Department of Chemistry and all non-UG Halls. Their entries have not been included in Department specific and Hall specific topics.
  • Humans err. In case you want to suggest edits, please feel free to drop a mail at thescholarsavenue@gmail.com

The Most Common Respondent

  • Is a heterosexual boy.
  • Has 5 close friends, mostly from his Hall or Department.
  • Has a CGPA of 7.71 ± 0.5 .
  • Has never been in a relationship.
  • Is involved in no society.
  • Desires an annual package of 12.5 lpa.
  • Has π = 7.28 ± 2.42 .
π INDEX
  • Variance gives an idea of how best the mean is the representative of the overall sample.
  • High variances imply higher deviations from the mean.
  • The Pi Index and Variance tabs can be clicked to sort the data.

Happiness Rankings Across Categories

Category

Browse Satisfaction by Categories

CGPA

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Department

Society

Hall of Residence

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Year of Study

Gender

Relationship

Friendship

Addictions

Peace of Mind

Native Place

Just for Fun



  • One of the strongest indicators of satisfaction.
  • Effect more prominent on lower end of CGPA Scale.
  • Corelates with even social and personal parameters including academic satisfaction.
Happiness Index Profile
The numbers on the bars represent Percentage Satisfaction. 100 implies Complete Satisfaction.
Panji
Chaggi
Satti
Atthi
Nehli
Agreement Profile
Strongly Disagree
Disagree
Neutral
Agree
Strongly Agree
Placement
Panji
Chaggi
Satti
Atthi
Nehli

Values indicate perentage of students from each subgroup.
  • Subtle variations in constrast with the stark CGPA variations.
  • The Happiest Departments (HS,CH,ME,MA) aren't necessarily the most Satisfied ones (CSE,ECE).
  • Desire to stay in the core field is almost independent of satisfaction with Department.
Happiness Index Profile
Agreement Index Profile
Placement
  • 61% of the campus is involved in no society.
  • Students involved in no societies lie almost in the center of the overall distribution of satisfaction levels.
  • To the question Do societies help in making friends?, 69% students said YES, 29% said that there is NO CORELATION and 2% students said that Societies make people LONELIER.
Happiness Index Profile
  • The Happiest Halls (RP,LBS) also have the highest satisfaction levels in terms of Friend Circle and Social Life.
  • Satisfaction with IIT is loosely proportional to the Hall's proximity to the main building.
Happiness Index Profile
  • Most parameters spike at Fifth Year like satisfaction with CGPA, Body Image, IIT and Hall.
  • Satisfaction with Social Life decreases with Year.
  • Fifth and Second Years are the happiest of all batches. However, Fifth years are satisfied with most parameters whereas Second Years aren't.
Happiness Index Profile
  • What do 'Queer' and 'Questioning' mean? Click here to know.
  • (M,F) = (Male,Female) | Gay = Homosexual Male | Lesbian = Homosexual Female | Straight = Heterosexual
  • In spite of the decent satisfaction levels, LGBTQ students have low happiness scores compared to their straight counterparts.
  • Question: How strongly do you agree with 'I am not as happy as I was in my first year'? 0 implying Neutral, -100 being Strongly Disagree and +100 being Strongly Agree; the average score for
    • Straight Females: -17
    • Straight Males: -8
    • Gays: +15
    • Bisexual Males: +23
    • Queer Male: -32
    • Queer Female: -13
    • Questioning Male:-3
  • While the majority of straight students reported to have tackled depression successfully (78% in straight males and 81% in straight females), only a fraction of the students of the LGBT community have overcome depression. (33% in Bisexual Males, 50% in Homosexual Males and Homosexual Females.)
  • We urge the student community to be more sensitive of our gender diversity to make the campus a more open place for everybody. Our insensitivity could push a closeted friend into depression.
  • If you wish to stand up for a more gender diverse campus, you can reach the Campus' LGBTQ Support group here. If you are a closested student, we understand it can be tough, but remember that it gets better.
Happiness Index Profile
  • Analogous to Friend Circle, Relationships follow a linear variation with Happiness Levels.
  • Students who have had three or more relationships show high satisfaction levels in almost all parameters except for CGPA.
Happiness Index Profile
  • Friendship Level is the only indicator other than CGPA that strongly corelates with the Happiness Index.
  • Students with more number of close friends and those who believe their friends will stay with them even after IIT have the highest happiness levels in all aspects.
Happiness Index Profile
  • 46% of the campus has never consumed cigarette, weed, alcohol or any other drug.
  • In terms of frequency of use, Alcohol>Cigarette>Weed.
  • When asked for the reason why the students used the substance they mentioned, in the decreasing order,
    • 46% said they wanted to experiment.
    • 33% used the substances to socialize with friends.
    • 29% students said they really don't have a reason.
    • 12% students used the substances because they were stressed.
    • 9% students thought that using the substances was cool.
  • When asked how the substances have affected their lives, in the decreasing order,
    • 67% people said their lives weren't affected in any matter.
    • 17% students had their friend circle grown after using the substances.
    • 16% students reported to have lower stress levels
    • 11% students said their health had gone worse.
  • Question: How strongly do you agree with 'I am not as happy as I was in my first year'? 0 implying Neutral, -100 being Strongly Disagree and +100 being Strongly Agree; the average score for
    • No Addicition: -5
    • Occasional Weed Users: -8
    • Frequent Weed Users: +11
    • Occasional Cigarette Smokers: +6
    • Frequent Cigarette Smokers: +4
    • Occasional Alcohol Consumers: -3
    • Frequent Alcohol Consumers:-6
Happiness Index Profile
  • The North Privilege: North Indian students apparently are the most satisfied of all regional demographics.
  • When asked how diverse the friend circle is, with the exception of Tamil Nadu (37%), AP (49%), Haryana (52%), Kerala (55%) and Odisha (57%), Almost 80% of all students from other states reported having a diverse friend circle.
  • Loosely, students with diverse friend circles report higher satisfaction scores in all parameters.
Happiness Index Profile
  • When asked for the ways in which the campus deals with stress, you had a lot to offer. In the descending order,
    • 63% students said they spend time with their friends when stressed
    • 61% listen to music
    • 49% watch TV Series/Movies
    • 44% use narcotics/weed
    • 38% spend time alone
    • 27% watch Porn
    • 26% play Sports
    • 24% Eat
    • 22% don't do anything consciously
    • 13% play music
    • 9% Meditate
    • 3.4% visit the Counselling Centre.
  • When asked which factors do the students think are important for being happy in the campus, you had equally diverse answers. In descending order
    • 81% believed having a nice Friend Circle is important
    • 72% agreed on CGPA
    • 43% think internships matter
    • 33% think being rich matters
    • 30.5% students say that being in a relationship is important
    • 26% value extroversion
    • 22% think that it is participation in Hall Activities that counts
    • 18% prioritize PORs
    • and 4% think being popular on Facebook helps
Answer
Some stats just because.
Category
Conclusion
The study left us with many questions and thoughts. Is a happier life a 'better' life? Why do we want to be happy?
If ignorance is a bliss and happiness is only a function of perception, what is the material incentive in life to work for?
Do achievements make us happy or do happier people achieve stuff?

There probably is no answer and that is the beauty of life. Life is not an equation to be solved, it is a canvas to be painted.
We wish you take with you pointers from The Happiness Project to mould your life in a way that makes the years you spend at IIT worth it.
Ciao.

The Scholars' Avenue



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