Engineering
"Engineers
Make the World" – reads the bumper sticker on a midsize car driven by a person
in his mid twenties. Needless to say that the owner of this automobile is an
Engineer by education and profession.
Why is Engineering considered to be one of the best career options today? There
are several parts to this answer. Let’s start with the sheer number of
opportunities available for engineering graduates today. Irrespective of their
specialization – like Mechanical Engineering or Electrical Engineering,
engineers command a large percentage of the jobs that are available today. What
makes Engineers click? We asked a senior executive of a large business house
that recruits engineers in hundreds every year. The answer – "They know how to
think sequentially, in a structured manner". Of course this answer does not
take away the value of the technical content that is taught over a four-year
period. It is just that it is taken for granted.
There
are thousands of Engineering Colleges in India. These colleges produce lakhs of
Engineers every year. Just like in any other education discipline, the quality
of education offered in these colleges also ranges through excellent to average
to below par. So it is important for a student aspiring to be an engineer to
ensure that he gets admission into a good college. The process of selecting the
good colleges need not be difficult. The thumb rule is "try to get admission
into those colleges where it is more difficult to get admission into". When we
say "more difficult", we mean the difficulty in terms of competitiveness in a
selection process.
Broadly,
the Engineering Colleges in India can be classified into three categories.
-
Colleges / Institutes that enjoy national and international reputation
-
Colleges / Institutes that are primarily know in a region of the country
-
Colleges that are yet to make a mark in the regional level or national level
How
does an Engineering College make its mark at a regional level or national
level? Obviously the reputation is created by the quality of work done by the
students who pass out of these institutions.
The Indian Institutes of Technology -occupy the top slots in the first category
of colleges mentioned above. What separates the Indian Institutes of Technology
from the rest of the colleges? Unparalleled training facilities, excellent
faculty and to top it all, the opportunity to have "the best of India" as
classmates. Anybody who cracks IIT-JEE and gets admission into one of the IITs
has perfected his fundamentals and is still willing to work harder.
A study conducted in 2004 found out that 70% of the companies in the Silicon
Valley had Indian Engineers as critical resources – and most of them from IITs.
If you look around you in the corporate world in India too, you can find many
captains of Indian Industry who have honed their skills at these venerable
institutions. Union Minister Jairam Ramesh, ITC Chief Y C Deveshwar, Nandan
Nilekani Co Founder and ex CEO of Infosys, N R Narayanamurty Co Founder and
Former Chairman Infosys have all spent the most important part of the academic
career in the IITs. The life at the IITs has even inspired a best-seller
fiction "Five Point Someone" authored by Chetan Bhagat. Chetan Bhagat is
himself an alumnus of IIT Delhi.
Apart from the unparalleled education that one gets at the IIT, there is plenty
of opportunity to get involved in co-curricular activities - activities that
would challenge all faculties of the individual.
Also
since the academic environment is very serious and focused, the question of
"what next?" gets addressed early on. Students at IITs decide pretty early on
the different career options – whether it is CAT for the MBA route, GRE for the
MS route or GATE for the M.Tech route. These are the three most sought after
options for further studies. That is if the student is not really keen on the
several job offers he is likely to be made ever before completing his course.
All
in all a four-year stint at the IITs brings about a world of difference in an
individual. Engineers make the world. And Engineers from IITs take a larger
than average share of that credit.
So
what is IIT JEE? The IIT-JEE is considered the most challenging engineering
entrance examination in the world. On the combined parameters of the level of
complexity of questions and the number of applicants, the JEE will easily
surpass any other similar examination for getting entry into an engineering
college for a graduate level programme.
The
current pattern of JEE consists of two papers of three hours each. Each paper
consists of Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics with equal weightage. IIT-JEE
2011 was conducted on 10th April 2011 in 131 cities all over India in 1051
centers for 4,85,262 registered candidates. The two papers of JEE 2011,
conducted on the same day, were broadly similar in structure, but there were
some dissimilarities also.Paper-1, which was conducted in the morning, had 69
questions (23 each from Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry) for a total of 240
marks. Paper-2, which was conducted in the afternoon, had 60 questions (20 each
from Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry). Questions had differential markings,
each subject had 80 marks and the maximum mark for the paper was 240.
The
IITs had earlier declared the cut-off of each subject as "the minimum mark
secured by the top 80% of the students in that subject". With such a condition,
the individual cut-offs had little relevance and the aggregate score of
Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics dictated the AIR of the student.
These are some newly sanctioned iits by the MHRD.These institutions also offer semester exchange programs and internships too.....
NITs and other related
institutions
National Institutes of Technology: There are 30 NITs spread
across India, in various states. The NITs at Surathkal, Warangal, Trichirapalli,
Calicut are among them. List of the NITs (as of 2011) are given below. Admission
to these reputed institutes is through a national entrance examination called
All India Engineering Entrance Examination(AIEEE).
Other than the NITs there are other nationally reputed institutes and deemed
universities which also admit students under AIEEE.
List of NITs
I. National
Institute of Technology (NITs)
1. National Institute of Technology , Agartala
(Tripura)
2. Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology,
Allahabad
(U.P.)
3. National Institute of Technology, Arunachal
Pradesh.
4. Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology,
Bhopal
(Madhya Pradesh)
5. National Institute of Technology,
Calicut
(Kerela)
6. National Institute of Technology,
Delhi
7. National Institute of Technology,
Durgapur (West Bengal)
8. National Institute of Technology,
Goa
9. National Institute of Technology,
Hamirpur (Himachal Pradesh)
10. Malviya National Institute of Technology,
Jaipur (Rajasthan)
11. Dr. B R Ambedkar National Institute of
Technology, Jalandhar (Punjab)
12. National Institute of Technology,
Jamshedpur
(Jharkhand)
13. National Institute of Technology, Kurukshetra
(Haryana)
14. National Institute of Technology, Manipur
15. National Institute of Technology, Meghalaya
16. National Institute of Technology, Mizoram
17. National Institute of Technology, Nagaland
18. Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology,
Nagpur (Maharashtra)
19. National Institute of Technology,
Patna (Bihar)
20. National Institute of Technology, Puducherry
21. National Institute of Technology, Raipur (Chhattisgarh)
22. National Institute of Technology,
Rourkela (Orissa)
23. National Institute of
Technology, Sikkim
24. National Institute of Technology, Silchar (Assam)
25. National Institute of Technology, Hazartbal,
Srinagar
(J & K)
26. Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of
Technology, Surat
(Gujarat)
27. National Institute of Technology, Surathkal, Mangalore (Karnataka)
28. National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirapalli (Tamil Nadu)
29. National Institute of Technology, Uttrakhand
30. National Institute of Technology,
Warangal
(Andhra Pradesh)
Co-founder of Infosys, Narayana Murthy cleared IIT- JEE
but could not join IIT as his father did not have sufficient money for
IIT education and to send him to a different city. Hence he joined
National Institute of Engineering (NIE) in his hometown Mysore.
Eventually, he did his Masters from IIT Kanpur though.
Prashant Bhushan joined IIT Madras (IIT-M)
but quit it after first semester to study Economics, Philosophy and
finally, Law. He emerged as a prominent face during Anna Hazare’s India
Against Corruption (IAC) movement and Jan Lokpal Bill campaign. Now, he
is serving as the National Executive of Aam Aadmi Party and is
supporting ex-IITian Arvind Kejriwal.
Dr.
M. Damodaran has a long portfolio of achievements – including being the
Chairman of Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and Head of
IDBI Bank. He started his career as an IAS officer of Manipur-Tripura
cadre. Did you know he dropped out of IIT Madras too in his second year – in the favour of Economics at the University of Madras.
CEO of Reliance Industries, Mukesh Ambhani cleared IIT JEE and joined IIT-Bombay. But he immediately dropped out to join Chemical Engineering at the UDCT Mumbai, which is now known as ICT, Mumbai.