How to select an engineering College?
Engineering college selection process
There are thousands of engineering colleges in India. There are national level engineering colleges, state level engineering colleges, Govt. engineering colleges, Pvt engineering colleges & deemed universities. In fact it has become a problem of plenty. Only few of them are good & rest are only teaching shops. But selection & admission in good colleges depends upon your national or state level entrance exam rank. So you have to choose one, from the available options & have to weigh it on numerous parameters, few of those are as under:
1. Infrastructure
2. Faculty
3. Kind of management/ promoters
4. Placements records
5. Location
Infrastructure: Infrastructure includes sufficient lecture halls, well equipped labs, workshops, computer labs, well stocked library, and internet-wi fi facilities. You also need a canteen & hygienic mess facilities. Hostels are a must in campus compound. And open spaces & play grounds always add value to the brand. Arrangement of a gym, indoor games & tuck shop for day to day requirement will save you from un-necessary botheration. So good infrastructure will make four years of your college & hostel life enjoyable. And this is the one of the most important factors of college selection process.
Management/Promoters: National level Institutes like IIT’s & NIT’s are heavily funded by the govt. But the state level Govt colleges & PVT colleges have to fend for themselves. So while getting into the PVT colleges & deemed universities, you will have to check the background & reputation of management/promoters. Look if they are serious education field players & are willing to put some extra effort for student welfare or are there with money making motive only. You have to see what they did to enhance the learning experience of students in previous years.
Faculty: This is another important factor in selection of an engineering college. Look at the qualification & experience of the teachers. Find out if the faculty members have M-Tech & P.HD qualifications along with sufficient number of years of teaching or industry experience. Also look for student–teacher ratio and visiting faculty. Check the faculty’s research output which is a yardstick of quality of faculty & department & the same will also reflect in the teaching. The said parameter must be given high importance in selection of a college.
Placements: Now a days, the placement claims have become the main attraction point of colleges. So, do the reality check for actual number of placements. Check the kind of companies visiting the campus & average salaries offered. Find out the branch wise placement records. There may be a college having good placements in computer science while the other rock in mechanical branch. This depends upon the faculty & facilities in that particular department. So you must ask for the figures for your preferred branch.
Extra curricular activities: As the current engineering education curriculum is not fully compatible to industry requirement so some good colleges are providing industry oriented add-on training modules to students to make them job ready. In addition to traditional learning one needs to take part in extra curricular activities for his overall personality development. So have a look for activities like annual functions, tech fests, seminars, workshops, sports activities etc. These activities will develop the communication, team work as well as leadership qualities in you which is very much the requirement to succeed in professional life.
Location: The factor does play an important role in overall development of a student & is really important in case of state level colleges lacking in-house facilities. The colleges situated in or near the cities i.e. industrial centers always prove advantageous in terms of industrial trainings & placements. Good, city location of the institute can prove beneficial in industry oriented learning & advance networking with professionals during studies.
Final college selection: So give due weightage to all above factors in selection of college but the question is that how you can get so much reliable information about each & every college? So we have another piece of advice for right college selection process & to start with, make realistic choices of 2/3 colleges in line with your entrance exam rank. Then visit the college website & check mandatory disclosures, where you can find previous years closing ranks, placement records & faculty information which will give you the fair idea of college’s standing. But don’t wholly rely on it & visit the college & talk to the senior students or may be faculty members who will really give the actual eye opening statics to help you to make your mind. Spending few hours in campus looking at the infra will certainly help. Thereafter you can also take the help of an experienced counselor.
So after getting info about your chosen colleges, make use of the college selection assessment tool given hereunder to evaluate the colleges on given parameters for further consolidation of your choice. For this you have to give some marks for each parameter out of maximum of ten, in last empty column at the right hand side of the tool & the total marks out of 100 will automatically be displayed.
Give due weightage to all the above points in selection of college and if you find it difficult & cumbersome, we can provide you the above data of each and every college of your interest for comparison.
