A lot of guys who join professional courses do their research and homework before choosing the right college. Invariably they would search on the web for the research. No wonder I get a lot of mails from prospective students (and often from their parents) asking how is NIE or which college to choose for their son/daughter.
Here is my effort to help all those. It is organised as an FAQ. Please feel free to add to this thread or ask questions if you have any
1. Should I be doing Engineering?
Well, it is like asking 'should I get married?' you are going to regret it eitherway :)
Ok on a more serious note, you can decide if you want to do engineering based on your interests and capabilities. All branches of Engg need you to have 'decent' math skills. You don’t have to be Sreenivasa Ramanujan of course but if you think a Matrix is only a movie, then you are in trouble. You got to have a slight interest towards math and in the branch you are going planning to choose.
Also check your father's pockets. Heard that lately technical education is not all that affordable in Karnataka. So better plan in advance for any financial things you have to do.
Along with all these consider other factors that might be applicable to you like living away from family etc. 2. OK I feel I should be doing engineering. What branch is best?
Oh questions are getting difficult! Previous one was a gimmie compared to this. It is almost impossible to obtain an unbiased or unanimous answer to this question. Let me try to make it sound logical at least.
It might seems ironical that people choose branches based on their 'scope' (a colloquial term that means career potential ;) ) rather than their interests. I think there is no one in this world who can predict which branch will be best employable four years down the lane. There is simply no way you can predict that. So what is the solution? Go by your gut feeling. There is nothing called a good branch and nothing called a bad branch. A good guy in a bad branch is much more employable than a bad guy in a (so called) good branch. If you have the love towards a subject, then go for it. If you don’t have love for anything other than your pet dog then you can choose whatever you feel like.
After all we have more than enough evidence that one can achieve anything in spite/irrespective of his educational background 3. Ok finalised on branch too... but which college is best for this branch?
This is an easier question. Come to NIE :D Or if you don’t want to take my words for it here is a good checklist of what a college needs to have to make good engineers.
*. Infrastructure: you won’t really want to join a college that runs in a marriage hall do you? of course buildings are not the best gauge to measure infrastructure anyway. See how well are the labs equipped. Does the computer lab has computers and work shop has lathes? If yes, are there enough for each to get his own decent time share on them? Do they just keep them for 'show' or do they actually allow students work on them? It might be difficult to get all these info straightaway so ask the current students.
*. Staff: Let me tell you a secret if you did not know. In professional colleges they wont 'teach' you the way they do in school. The best of the teachers merely provoke you to think on your own. May the worst teachers give class notes and tell you which questions are going to come for the test. So if you want to become a 'real' engineer, go for a college that has well qualified, experienced teaching staff.
*. Students: of course it is not only the building and teachers that make a good college. Be careful about the quality of your classmates. I can tell you for sure that, your friend circle plays an important role in molding your character. If with a suitable company, you will learn how to think big, how to apply your knowledge...overall how to be successful. If you choose a wrong company, you have a though time in future. So choose a school that attracts the best talents. At this point I would also say, it is better to choose a worst branch in a better college than the other way round.
*. Reputation and placements: This is something that offers no shortcuts for colleges to gain some of these. You cant make a college reputed overnight nor you can attract companies to hire your students unless you have a very good track record. It of course helps to have good alumni base. It suffices to say here that NIE wins hands down over many other colleges in Karnataka in this regard.
*. Living expenses and standard: Doing engineering is not only about studying for 4 years but also about living for 4 years. It pays to live in a place which has good standard of living at affordable costs. 4. What to expect once I join engineering?
I will tell you confidently that it is going to be a very pleasant change to enter engineering. You would be entering a new world altogether, make new friends while you are on the dawn of adulthood, and those friends are going to stay with you for ever. Be prepared mentally to live away from your family (as in most cases), to make new friends, to learn new things, to get exposed to new culture (if you are from other states). Of course be ready to be prepared with a test with half an hours preparation that you did while brushing your teeth in the morning, be ready to have multiples of 0.75 ready so that you can precisely decide how many more classes you have to attend without paying the shortage fees, be prepared to go to a movies with 30 second's notice.. well the list never ends. Let me tell you, it is going to be fun... so much fun that you cant forget it throughout your lives and try to relive it by creating websites for your college or writing to those site ;) (Just look at the recollection section on this site's forum)
Ok, that is it for now. Feel free to post any advices you wish to give to prospective students, or to post your questions here if you are still in doubt.
[Please Do not ask questions like is branch/college XYZ is better than ABC, or I have got Nth rank in CET, what can I expect]
Finally please excuse typos if any.
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