Posted: May 22nd, 2010 | Author: Vivek | Filed under: Career | Tags: AIEEE, Career, College, Counseling, Engineering Colleges, IIT, IIT JEE, India, Roomno368 | No Comments »
The last time I talked about
the culture of an engineering college that makes a visible impact on a fresher’s life. Another key point to keep in mind is the faculty and their history. Ideally the college should have this information available on the website. Some key points to look for are -
1.Academic Qualification of teaching faculty –
Most of the professors are highly qualified (minimum qualification is a Phd ) and comefrom a strong research background. While this might not be the case for private engineering colleges, do check – How many professors have done Phd ? How qualifified are professors- MTech, Msc or just B Tech ?
2.Research Background and Number of Papers published -
Ideally professors tend to have a storng research background. Unlike the IIT’s where all the professor’s have their own research lab and team, private engineering colleges might not have such infrastructure but do check their research areas and their work in the past 5 years. Simply put – Number of papers/published by a college/professor/ research lab is directly proportional to their excellence as a research team.
While evaluating a college, these two points should be taken into consideration. Next post – How important are placement records ?
Posted: May 19th, 2010 | Author: Vivek | Filed under: Career | Tags: Career, College, Counseling, Engineering, IIT, Institute, NIT | 1 Comment »
Engineering – is the most over rated -yet looked upto profession in this country. The fact that 12 Lakh students appeared in AIEEE and over 3 Lakh for IIT JEE Engineer’s this year clearly establish my assumption. And then you see groups like ” I am looking for the one who said – Engineering main bada scope hai ” popping up on facebook.
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 -
1. You need a Institute – not a college -
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.
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