In the wake of belated announcement of EAMCET ranks in Andhra Pradesh, lakhs of intermediate passed students of MPC & Bi.PC streams are confronted with many perplexing problems as to their choice of branch and college for their UG study. Many of these students have become scapegoats by the exploiting advertising techniques of corporate junior colleges and are victims of multiple entrance tests for no fault of theirs. They burnt their fingers by appearing for IIT-JEE, BITSAT, AIEEE and entrance examinations of many deemed Universities like VITS, Satyabama, SRM, Manipal, GITAM, Vignan, KLC, etc. spending huge amounts. Having paid an exorbitant yearly tuition fee for intermediate instruction and simultaneous coaching for the above entrance
exams, the students were subjected to tremendous pressure by both the college authorities and parents.

All this is because of the over anxiety and enthusiasm of both parents and students which was taken advantage by corporate junior colleges. Without verifying the suitability of their mental profile to crack IIT-JEE, AIEEE, etc. which demand high-level of critical and analytical skills, attempting such entrance tests even by above average student is not warranted. The students and parents realise this, only after the conduct of these tests and announcement of their results, ultimately resulting in frustration.

All those students, whose hopes are dashed to the ground in other entrance tests, wait with great anxiety for the publication of EAMCET ranks. The EAMCET ranks makes the students eligible to get admission into hundreds of engineering colleges for MPC stream students and a few medical, dental, agricultural, veterinary, pharmacy UG courses for BiPC stream students. The rankers of BiPC stream are not faced with much problems as to the selection of branch or college as the colleges are few in number and the order of priority between medicine (MBBS ), Dental (BDS ), Pharmacy ( B.Pharm ) or Agricultural B.Sc, BVSC etc. can easily be known by the general trend prevailing.

For EAMCET rankers of MPC stream, there are many key issues puzzling both the parents and students as there are large number of branches and colleges. Roughly there are 92 engineering branches available globally, 66 branches in India, 42 branches in AP and more than 700 private engineering colleges.

Besides high package, to be called as an engineer or doctor is a matter of status hence there is greater demand for the study of engineering and medicine. Even today, despite economic recession in Europe and USA, the craze for engineering education has not decreased. By default, almost all Intermediate MPC stream students are opting for Engineering UG courses. The accessibility for technical education, which was once domain for richer sections, is now open for all eligible students. It is further widened to all sections due to very liberal funding policies of Government of A.P. Hence many first generation students from BPL families are aspiring to do engineering courses with lot of hope to raise their family’s economic position from the present level. The multiplication of number of colleges and the variety of Engineering Institutions with different brands and names are further confusing the parents and students.

The absence of career guidance & counseling at the junior college level to these students is narrowing down their choice. They are totally unaware of the plethora of jobs and panorama of careers as they are not presented before them by anybody in their  intermediate. This aggravates their anxiety as they are ignorant of the availability of hundreds of bright careers and job opportunities which make them to think that engineering education is the only alternative.

It is in this context, number of key issues involved is being listed to be sorted out to make a correct decision that determines the destiny of the students. All issues in this regard surround around two basic points, mainly,

1. Which is a good branch and how to evaluate it?
2. Which is a good college and how to evaluate it?
While adjudging these two issues many other points creep in to be enlightened further.
• Order of Priority of Institutions- IIT, NIT, Universities, Deemed Universities, Private Colleges
• Is college to be preferred or branch to be preferred (College vs Branch)
• Details of convener quota and management quota
• Fee variation between the two
• Admission process of Management quota – Donations/ Capitation Fee etc
• Web counseling – Exercising of options, changes of options,number of counselings
• Accreditation or Non- Accreditation
• Core and Non- Core branches
• Circuit and Non-circuit branches
• Traditional and Non-Traditional,Newly emerging branches
• Reservation- Social categories
• Placements scenario – global needs of engineering
• AIEEE Ranks – All India Rank- State Rank - Admission process- will they get seat inNIT, Warangal
• Priority between NIT and Deemed Universities
• ICET- Rank- Probable colleges
• City colleges vs District or Rural colleges
• Local and Non- Local seats
• Standards of universities, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka
• Regular Universities, Deemed Universities, Main campus/Off campus
• Five-year integrated course details,whether to opt or not
• Dual Degree Courses, whether to opt or not
• Gender specific branches
• Career options
• Other education programmes with higher employability
These points require a deep contemplation. All branches are having good employment opportunity whether they are core or non-core and circuit or non-circuit. The services of engineers are required not only in India but also abroad. In fact, we are exporting technically trained manpower to both developed and developing countries of the world. The purpose of such large number of engineering students being trained in India is to serve not only the needs of India alone but to cater to the global needs also.
Six important questions to be addressed before opting for a branch by any student are:
a) What are the requirements for the study of engineering?
b) What are the branch specific require ments?
c) What are my intellectual and physical abilities to study that branch?
d) What is the course content of the branch?
e) What new abilities/ competencies/ skill sets, the study of the branch gives me
f) What companies/ organizations require those branch specific abilities/ competencies/skill sets?
Each branch provides a particular set of branch specific core competencies and skill sets to that branch students and demands certain abilities from the student to pursue that branch. The prospective student must be aware of those abilities required to study that branch and also the competencies and skills the branch provides to him/her. In the very beginning, they should be aware of their place of work after four years of study. They should know the names of the organizations, companies, industries in India or abroad that require his/her chosen branch core competencies/ skills. If this is done most of the confusion that is there can be avoided and the road map of each student will be very clear. Choosing a branch due to peer/parental pressure should be avoided. The student must have genuine interest and passion to study that branch. This can be decided by the students when they are aware of the curriculum and competencies of that branch. Some branch graduates like CSE, IT with their software jobs, if selected in oncampus placements will get good package of Rs. 3+ lakh per annum. Whereas the student of core branches like Civil, Mechanical, Electrical,though have chances of immediate employment, the package offered initially to them is Rs.2+ lakhs per annum. With one or two years of experience they will occupy a very good position with higher package in the hierarchy of any industry. All students of all branches have chances of employability but they differ in their work place ambience, hours of work, security of job, chances of going abroad, leave, promotional avenues, job satisfaction, team building, mother tongue communication, English communication skills, gender specific requirements, occupational hazards, etc. Hence, the parents and students shall be aware of all these before they choose a particular branch. Lack of this awareness is resulting into more admissions into circuit branches, ECE, CSE, IT in large number and resulting in unemployment and fierce competition among students later. The core branches like Civil, Mechanical and Electrical are evergreen always having employment potentiality irrespective of software boom or doom. Further, branches like Metallurgy, Automobile, Aeronautics, Marine, Mining, Leather Technology etc. offer immediate and excellent employability.

It is interesting to note that most of the CEOs and M.Ds of big organizations/ Industries in both Government and Private sectors are from core branches. In these branches, the number of seats is less and almost all students will get on-campus placement in their core area. Without being swayed away towards software job, for which all branch students are eligible if one wants to stick on to the core area specialization, a better choice will be these minor branches with greater chances of employment, higher education and research. Viewing from the total number of EAMCET candidates, it can be stated that every qualifying ranker will get a seat in engineering as the number of seats available are more than the rankers.

The curriculum of each branch, the branch specific requirements, the competencies and skills honed by each branch students, the companies/ organizations that offer placements to these branch specific skilled students,the career prospects, opportunity of higher study, branch related hazards differ from branch to branch and becomes a big topic that can be elaborated in a separate article.

The next most vexed problem confronting the rankers of engineering is the selection of the college/institution.

HOW TO KNOW ABOUT A GOOD COLLEGE
• Age of the college
• Physical infrastructure
• Intellectual Infrastructure
• Adequate faculty
• Qualified and Expert Faculty
• Number of Ph.D holders
• Contribution to Research
• Paper publications of faculty and students
• Academic Results
• University Ranks, Gold Medals
• Hosting of Events
• Tech- Fests, Seminars
• College Magazine
• College Newsletter
• Value added courses
• Hostels, Canteen, Sanitation & Hygiene
• Transportation
• Soft-skills Training programs
• Orientation programs
• Extra-Curricular activities
• Sports, Debating, Elocution, Painting,Music clubs, Dramatics
• Labs, Workshops, Library, Classrooms,Language & Communications skill Lab
• Facilities for recreation
• Projects- ideas, incubation,
• Training & Placements
• Students & Teachers Ratio
• Rapport with Alumni
• Rapport with Parents – Liaison Mechanism and frequency
• Current students feedback
• Feedback of Alumni
• Student support schemes
• Concern for Student welfare
• Ragging on/off Campus
• Measures taken to prevent ragging menace
• Mechanism of Mentor system
• Prestigious Functions and Festivals to showcase the creative talents of students
• Consultation services
• Research facilities
• Funding projects amount & Agencies
• Number of copy rights
• Number of intellectual copy rights
• Professional chapters like ISTE, IEEE
• Closer to your residence

The top rankers of EAMCET are opting for University Engineering Colleges as they have all the facilities. The order of preference, as on today, is IITs, NITs, IIITs, Regular universities,Deemed universities, Best private engineering colleges. The affordable are giving preference to Deemed Universities because of their academic performance and placement record. The difficulty comes in the case of private engineering colleges in Andhra Pradesh as there is no grading, rating or grouping of colleges done by any Government/Regulatory agency on scientific and objective parameters.

Many colleges suffer from physical and intellectual infrastructure deficiencies. A product from such colleges will not be accepted by any Employer. Despite resorting to many questionable practices the pass percentage in these colleges is very poor. They give very big and attractive advertisements misguiding the students and parents. It is here the parents/ students must be very cautious and shall make enquiry of academic and placement profile of those five or six probable colleges where they are likely to get admission based on their rank.

They should physically go to those five shortlisted colleges, verify their physical infrastructure like the year of establishment, classrooms, labs, workshops, equipment, library, canteen, hostels, transport etc, talk to the students studying there, meet the branch faculty, inquire their credentials like their qualifications, experience, research done, paper publications, obtain the track record of previous years placements, names and levels of companies that visited the college, value addition courses being conducted on the campus, co-curricular events, like seminars and tech fests being organized, university ranks obtained, guest lecturers organized, parents liaison mechanism, special efforts by the management to enhance soft/life skills of the students especially student communication skills, annual magazine published by the college, their alumni details, the forums available to blossom the creative and original talents of students etc. The information on all these aspects will give correct insight to the parents/ students to make impartial evaluation as to the good and bad of those colleges. Don’t be guided by their brochures, websites as they are mostly manipulated.

It is better to choose an accredited programme than a non-accredited, as the  accreditation to any programme is being accorded by NBA expert team after thorough verification and scrutiny of all aspects. The NBA gives Accreditation to courses, but not to the college for a fixed term of 3 or 5 years.

After the expiry of the term, the college managements have to go for another  Accreditation and get it sanctioned after due inspection etc. Here some managements play some tricks like saying that their college is accredited or advertising that a course in their college is accredited still even after the expiry of initial accreditation term. There is another accreditation by NAAC. This accreditation is for the whole college. But the students have to pay Rs. 3000 extra tuition fee per annum for such accredited programmes. Some colleges manipulated even this accreditation also by pulling the strings. The AICTE and Affiliating Universities are thorough failure in maintaining the quality and standard of engineering education despite their periodical/ surprise inspections. Yet there are very good colleges with all the required facilities thanks to zest and zeal of those managements.

The distinction of convener quota, management quota, or A-category or b category seats, local and non-local quota and minority and majority college seats must be known to the students and parents as there is variation of fee and admission process in respect of those seats. Fifteen percent of the seats are allotted to non-local candidates and  remaining 85 percent are called local. For this, the geographical area of Andhra Pradesh is divided into three university areas viz namely Andhra Univer si ty area, (Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam, East Godavari, West Godavari, Krishna, Guntur, Ongole  districts), Sri Venakateswara University area, (Nellore, Chittor, Anantapur, Kurnool and Cuddapa districts) and Osmania University area covering all 10 districts of Telangana. The knowledge of A and B category seats is a must. 30 percent of seats are called B- category. The remaining 70 percent of seats in a college are called convener quota and A-category. A student who got seat as per his/her EAMCET rank and option under convener quota has to pay nearly Rs.32, 000/- as tuition fee per annum. In the B-category it is reliably learnt that this year the Government is going to restrict NRI quota to five per cent and admission will be done by the Convener. The NRI sponsored seats are taken away and the remaining 25 per cent in B-category are called as management quota to be filled by the college management as per the procedure laid down by the Government. The five per cent quota for NRI will be filled on the basis of IPE marks and the annual fee payable by them is $5,000. The remaining 25 percent quota are given to students who responded to college notification on the basis of merit i.e. rank obtained in EAMCET for the residents of A.P, for other state residents on the basis of AIEEE rank. The annual fee prescribed is around Rs. 95000/-.The Government is contemplating to enhance both Convener quota and Management quota tuition fees. A very few college managements do this admissions transparently following strictly the above terms and conditions, Some private engineering colleges who have brand value, resort to some unjust practices to give admission to the students of their choice and collect a few lakhs of rupees as donation/ development fee /capitation  fee. Despite many GOs and Act prohibiting collection of donation and capitation fee, some college managements are still collecting huge sums besides fee prescribed. There is no problem at all to get B category seats in many other engineering colleges as those seats are not being fully filled up. Some colleges surrender B category seats to the convener of EAMCET and some offer these seats even for Convener quota Tuition fee or even less. There are advertisements like “pay for one year and study for four years”. It is appropriate for the parents and students to have some awareness of government financial support schemes like Fee Reimbursement, Scholarships and the  criteria for awarding them which helps in the final decision making.

A bit of understanding of reservation of seats given to different social categories, girls, disabled, defence personnel etc will help students and parents to identify their probable college/ branch. The details of college wise, branch wise, category wise cut off rank of last year admissions are available in the Convener website and separate booklets published by different agencies.

The parents/students are advised to go through them to know much early the names of the probable colleges/branches. Thorough understanding of web counseling process and procedure is a must to all prospective students. A small mistake in entering an alphabet of the college code during web counseling will land him/her not in the college chosen but in some other college. Lot of time is given to revise their branch/college options. Hence, there is no tension on this count. As the present generation of students is computer friendly they will do well in web counseling. Off late some vested interests styling themselves as Consultants/ NGOs/Social workers/Caste leaders with the connivance of some college managements are acting as well wishers and exploiting innocent students eligible for fee reimbursement and scholarships and their uneducated parents promising them to provide engineering seats in a good college/branch free of cost, get their  web counseling passwords and then they manipulate and exercise options for a  branch/college that gave bulk commissions to the brokers, ultimately landing these students in a less known and badly reputed colleges. This is happening with students belonging to remote areas, deprived and under privileged sections, disabled and with students not having computer familiarity.

It is a strange irony of facts that some caste and religious group leaders are involved in this, subverting the career growth of their own brethren. These professional students go for higher education or employment. They should be exposed to tests l ike CAT, GMAT, GATE, GRE, TOFEL, IELTS etc. and soft skills and life skills training programmes for more employability, and awareness of various competitive examinations like Civils, Group - I, Technical entry into Defence, Scientist jobs in R&D etc. Cities and big towns have more and expert agencies to sensitise and ignite the student mind in that direction and create an atmosphere to inculcate cosmopolitan outlook, interactions to broaden the mental horizon of the students.
(The author is DEAN (Administration), ACE Engineering College, Ghatkesar)