More than this all engineers, well almost all of them will agree to the fact that the time they have spent in the 4 years “doing Engineering ” has made the least difference to them. So the big question is – Do i really want to do engineering is it is such a royal waste of time ?  -or lets paraphrase the question – Do YOU HAVE ANY OTHER OPTION ? or Do you have any other passion that you have ever felt you have wanted to pursue – starting from Making Films, writing scripts, reading literature ?

For me the answer to this question 5 years back was a FLAT No.  Probably science should students should have asked this question when they were in 10th standard – before they actually jumped in the rat race. But now that you have already taken science and coaching for entrance exams and have also appeared in a dozen of them – The question changes to – How do I really select a good college ?.

Here is my take -

In the 4 years of my IIT life, I haven’t met any iit’ian who ever referred to his IIT as a college. All of them have ALWAYS referred to their IIT’s as an institute untill and unless they are talking to someone who confuses the word institute with coaching center or to those who would start interrogating. This fact very well holds for the bestest of colleges – NID’s – IIM’s, IIIT’s NIT’s, BITS – all of them. I have distinctly observed this difference when I talk to my friends in private engineering college. The only common thing about all these colleges – their community.

More than the academia, in my humble opinion the reason that these institutes have excelled for so long is because they have had extremely strong and deep rooted communities.Students and Parents, more than often tend to assume that placement of the college as the deciding criteria while selecting a college. A fact that they need to understand is that, beoynd pay packages, a student has a lot to take away from the place where he graduates from. Its the experience of staying in a insititution that makes the difference. At 19 years of age – its can be a bit difficult to understand the importance of the word community but what one needs to understand is the fact that it is the cultue of the place they are joining that will make the most significant impact on their lives.

So the next time you are evaluating a college – do consider the age and history of the college and the existing culture of the college.