[Discussion] What's one thing you wish someone had told you before starting at NUST?

Whether you're a current student, alum, or still in the aspirant phase waiting on admissions decisions, curious to hear from people who've actually been through it — what's the one piece of advice, warning, or "insider" tip you wish you'd had going in?

Could be anything: which departments/programs have the heaviest workload, how competitive the internal environment actually is compared to what people assume from outside, housing/hostel realities, which electives are worth fighting for a seat in, how the merit/CGPA system actually plays out in practice, or just general adjustment stuff for people coming from a different city.

Aspirants — feel free to drop questions here too instead of starting a separate thread. Trying to build this into something useful for people going through the admissions cycle right now, since a lot of that info tends to be scattered across old threads or word of mouth.