Should I take Admission to Autonomous college ??

The Final year Results are out !! Like every year students started asking me questions related to their career and higher education. This year, a frequently asked question by my students is “Should I take admission to FC or MIT for post graduation?”

A current trend in education is that famous colleges under Pune University are becoming autonomous and are taking freedom to design their own syllabus and way of implementing it. It’s not new concept as Bharti was the first in Pune then Symbiosis and then COEP did it. Following their footsteps now Ferguson and MIT are going on same track.

For admission it’s difficult to take a call at the moment as this is their first year. According to me those who wish to take admissions to these autonomous colleges FC or MIT should go ahead because of following points :
– Compare their syllabus with Pune University. It’s better than Pune University.
– Their placement will be same as it was due to efforts taken by the college and brand created in market.
– Another thing is because it’s their first year, they will have to give their best to prove their quality and get more admissions in future.

The only hitch is, these colleges(now Universities) may not be famous internationally or may not have world ranking like Pune University. Pune University is famous all over the world and is known as Oxford of the east.

After all Quality of education depends on how that college delivers it and it mainly depends on their teachers. I hope colleges like Ferguson and MIT will maintain their quality of education.
Last but not the least, it also depends on that student as a individual How much s/he has interest in learning, willing to study and develop his/her abilities and skill set to match with industry requirements.
Remember !!  college or educational institute alone can not do anything.
Good Luck !!

Failed in First year of Graduation?

Now what ? 1 year break
Should I change course or should I repeat first year? Should I change college?

You need to understand, What are real reasons of failing?

– Failed in choosing course?

if you misunderstood your current course or now if you realize that you are not liking your current course then better change it as you will not succeed if you do not have interest in it.

– Failed in understanding subjects?

What efforts have you taken? did you attain college lectures? did u read books ? did you join classes for extra coaching if you are not understanding in college? In spite of taking all these efforts if you have failed then better change course. If you honestly feel that you have not taken those efforts then join good coaching class and build your foundation strong. Alternatively change your college and take fresh admission to better college where you will get better teaching and you can create your fresh new image.

– Failed in preparation of Exam?

Some times you treat first year as rest year and enjoy your new college life too much as a result you study less and when exam comes it’s too late to realize that you have very less or no time to prepare. In this situation you can repeat first year either in same college or fresh admission in other college and focus more on studies.

– Failed in writing papers?

Refer to EQPS or answer papers of scholar students to understand how to score good marks. Practice writing papers with time limit and ask your subject teachers to check and give their feedback on improving your scores.
Request University/college and get photocopy of your papers and find out where you went wrong. If possible also get some scholar student’s help and get their answer paper photocopy to compare their answers with yours.

– Are you outsider (hostelite student)?

You need some time to adjust with new city, people, climate, food style(mess), responsibilities,  etc…
if you are leaving away from home for the 1st time then normally you tend to enjoy your freedom as it’s new city for you and mostly no body knows them, so freak out, Enjoy Life ,  party !!. Eventually you Study very less and result is FAIL in academics.

– Failed because of Medical or exceptional problem? you could not prepare or give papers.

Better repeat 1st year, study hard, score high and make best use of your break time.

Now what ?   

If you are year down then now you have to think of Whether to repeat 1st year in same college or take fresh admission to 1st year in different college?
it’s up to you. If you are self driven and if you think you really did not study last year then use this year and study hard. If required get coaching from good class to build your foundation strong.
If you take admission to college then again you will have to attain college compulsory (lectures and practicals) which will leave you very less time for studies. instead I will advise you to join classes. Further if you are really weak then try to get some personal tutor to help you personally.
If you take admission to same college for 1st year for same course then it won’t make much difference as most of the things will be same. Instead you can think of changing college and create your fresh image. Take college that has good faculties / placements / near by your home.

How can I make best use of year?

– study in depth of failed subjects, practice earlier year question papers, score high, get good percentage which will help you in getting job.
– In Pune university backlog exam will be in October, so till October exam focus only on ur failed subjects and make them strong. After your backlog exam start studying 2nd year syllabus on ur own (from books, Internet, private institutes) so that you will shine in 2nd year and give you more confidence.

Remember!!

“First year is not a Rest year, it’s  a Test year”.

You need to test whether you are in right course. If it’s not suitable to you then better change course instead of just dragging your self for another 3 years and get paper degree which will be of no use.

Job or Post Graduation?

This discussion is for final year graduates(focusing on BCS degree),  who are holding job offers and want to do PG(Post Graduation), so basically in confusion state, what to do ?

Parents play important role

I have seen some parents are extra caring and want their son/daughter to complete their formal education(PG) first as  job is not mandatory right now for them and feel that you will not do PG once you start earning. This normally happens when parents are financially sound. So these graduates are now in dilemma what to do with job offer???????  Parents will also say that you will get better opportunity after PG. You can’t oppose parents as they are/were your financers.

I am not saying, parents are wrong, but we need to really ask some questions to our   selves or at least think on it.

“Why are we learning?”  Is this formal education really going to give us what we want? We are in just loop “ while( ! job)  study();  ”    We will be escaping out of this loop only when we get job. Learn from our parents and grandparents (how much they had to learn to start earning?). My point is there is no need of further education since you got a job, better start working and later on learn only what is essential for your career growth.

Another question is “Do YOU really want to study?”  Or are u studying because of parent’s force, peer pressure, etc..? Did you enjoy studying during your graduation? In my last 18 years of training experience (10,000 students) I have learnt that 99% students don’t want to study as they don’t really enjoy it. They are learning because they have to.

According to me in some cases Parents are going wrong as they are over supporting us as a result we get settled in life very late. Look at foreign countries, their trend is different, you leave your parents home at age of 17 and become independent. Considering today’s condition in India, assuming our average life is 60 years, out of which some ppl spend half life in education, so you get only remaining half to enjoy life, getting married, kids, etc.  Ideally we should spend only 1/3^rd life in education then 1/3^rd in job and forming family and then 1/3^rd remaining life we should live for us(focusing on our wish list)

PG is common trend in science graduates

 It has become common trend among BCS students(Science graduates)  to do PG  without even understanding whether it will be useful or not? This trend is not seen in Engineers. How many students do ME after BE? BE degree is enough for them to get job. So if you got a job only on BCS degree then why do you need PG? Who should do PG is those who are not getting satisfactory job only on their graduation degree. There are chances that even after PG you might get same company or same job position and same work what graduate get, the only difference will be in starting package(it will be higher incase of PG due to their higher education). For example you get package of 1.8 lacks after BCS and 3 lacks after MCS/MCA. BE are paid higher than BCS, MCA are paid higher than MCS, it’s all because in industry you get paid based on your experience, but in case of fresher experience is zero, so measurement unit is education. Qualification matters only at entry level and then later on only experience counts.

If you are going for PG, only because you get good starting package then you should also understand that this is not true comparison. If you go for job directly after BCS then your experience starts and by the time your batch mates complete their MCS you will be 2 years experienced with salary hikes twice ( 1 per year), I am sure you will reach 3 lacks + in 2 years time.

Even if we forget money is not an issue for you, still you will be always 2+ years experience than your PG friends, this difference will help you in getting faster promotions, higher  salary, earlier  on site opportunity, will help you in getting settled in life earlier.

Some times you feel PG is necessary for getting managerial level or for arranged marriage cases, but then you can do PG side by side. I am not  saying that you don’t do PG, what I am trying to say is do/learn only what is necessary. Please avoid unnecessary learning.

Want to learn more

Some scholar students want to learn more as they are more interested in studies. Even they should think about “where do you get real knowledge?”  During job / or in college. I am sure you will get more knowledge on job where u learn only what you need. Whereas these academic courses are designed in more generic way where you learn lot of things that you may not need in your job.

 

  

What is in your control??? Job / PG

So what is most important to you? At the end it’s JOB, right? So when you get job PG becomes secondary.

Remember, as an individual we can’t control market conditions and in last 15 years IT industry has faced 3 slowdowns. Whenever there is slack in any field it first affects IT industry. Whereas we can choose when and where to do PG. Once you start earning enough you can pay donation and get admission to any college that you want. But that’s not possible with IT companies. I still remember in year 2006, 3 students from Fergusson college got job offers when they were in final year of BCS and they all being studious scored well in exams. Their parents forced them to complete their PG first, so they went for PG. When they completed their PG it was slack in market, so even MCS/MCA degree was useless that time. They struggle to get job for almost a year. Whereas same time one student from Garware college also got job offer in his final year, he went for job directly. After 3 years, these PG students were searching for a good job by this time this Garware college student was already 3 years experienced in IT. This difference of 3 years will be carried forward for whole life as he will be always 3+ years experience than them. He is going to have better life as all opportunities(promotions/onsite) he will get earlier than those PG students who entered in market later. Surprisingly one of PG student is working under his Garware college batch mate in same company.

Moral of this real story is entering in job market as early as possible is the key to SUCCESS in life. You settle in life earlier.

Combining JOB with PG

Those who believe that PG is required for promotion or marriage(especially for boys), they should not leave  job opportunity. Today’s Working women are managing their job along with their household responsibilities. So in student phase why can’t you complete your PG along with the job?

There are some IT companies who offer Bits Pillani’s MS course for their graduate employees, this course runs only on weekends whereas you work on weekdays. This course goes for 4 years(part time). To save time you can also think of taking admission to MCS/MCA to some college where they don’t mind absentee, in some colleges faculties come from industry so lectures are mainly on weekends. You can choose such college and complete your PG along with your job. In MCS there are only 3 semester X 5 papers (out of which 1 Project + 1 internal + 3 external) = 15 papers and good news is you have all subjects ATKT, so no worries about backlogs.  Along with job even if you clear 3 subjects per semester ( project with partner+ internal subject and 1 external) then effectively you have 6 backlogs in all 3 semester which you can finish off in 4^th semester. In worst case you may need 1 or 2 sem(1 year) extra, this is still good as you were also doing job.

Following  this way, 3 years after graduation you will be post graduate with 3 years experience where as in case of typical students doing only PG will be post graduate with only 1 year experience.

Off course when you combine job with PG, your life will be hectic for 3 years but then you  will enjoy fruits for whole LIFE.

For further analysis, consider example of 2 students after their graduation, A going for PG and then job whereas B directly going for job and then do PG parallely (if required)

After Graduation	A: first PG then Job	B: Directly going for Job
Year 1	-ve ( Pay fees)	+income = 1.8 Lacks
Year 2	-ve (pay fees)	1 year Exp +income = 2.5 Lacks
Year 3	Fresher income = 3 Lacks	2 years exp + income = 3.2 Lacks
Year 4	1 year Exp +income = 3.5 Lacks	3 years Exp +income = 4.2 Lacks
Year 5	2 years exp + income = 4 Lacks	Promotion / change company 4 years exp + income = 5 Lacks
Year 6	3 years Exp +income = 4.5 Lacks	5 years Exp +income = 5.6 Lacks
Year 7	4 years Exp +income = 5 Lacks and Onsite opportunity(Earn in $)	6 years exp, income = 6.2 lacks

Note: these figures are tentative for understanding growth.
From above table we easily understand that by going for job first will start your experience and income wise you will be always plus.