Every summer, millions of students have a tough time selecting the right engineering college that will open doors to an exciting career. Typically, students go round about their universe of 10-odd colleges, in hope of zeroing in on the best-known one. They enquire about the previous year’s placements in terms of median and maximum salaries offered. Everyone assumes that the answers to these two questions will help them find a college with top quality of education. Two more assumptions:
Smaller (and newer) colleges do not attract enough recruiters either. Companies that recruit thousands of students from campuses every year would typically not go to campuses where they are likely to get 5-10 potential employees. And companies that recruit very few students would typically not add a new college to their recruitment drive.
The Parameters So, how does one find out which college provides quality education? We list some parameters, which will help you compare colleges. Most of the information is available on the website. If not, try to get it from current students and alumni of the college. In a worse scenario, make a personal trip. Not all this is easy, but this must be done in order to make an informed choice, as your entire career will be influenced by this.
The Faculty
Infrastructure This is the second important aspect. How good are the labs in the discipline of your choice? Do they have modern equipment, and in enough numbers, so that, students can work simultaneously as opposed to just a demonstration by a lab instructor? How good is the common infrastructure? How many books are there per student in the library? What e-journals do they subscribe to? How much bandwidth on a per capita basis do they have? Are lecture halls equipped with PCs, LCD projector, screen and audio facilities? What sports facilities exist for the student body? These are difficult questions to answer from the website alone. So, you may need to talk to a current student or an alumnus you can trust, or make a personal visit to the campus.
Other Factors The following should be given less weight than the faculty and infrastructure
SummaryThere is inherently a spark of intelligence in every one; what matters and is needed is igniting it. Several factors play a role in this – family background, the company that one keeps, the tenacity one develops towards setting a goal and its achievement, in most cases, the real worth of a person does not emerge until one completes his or her college education. It is at the precincts of these academic institutions that the latent talent of people blossoms to the fullest extent. He develops the skill of understanding, analyzing and interpreting things during his education.
There are many palatial campuses, which are of no use, as they do not have quality faculty. At the end of the day, what matters the most is the quality of knowledge production rather than size of the campus. What is important is the quality of teaching, dedication of the faculty, general learning ambience, admin facility, library, culture of academics orientation and value inputs. Buildings alone do not make an institution.
- The college with a high brand recall provides quality education, and its alumni are successful in the real world.
- Employers know which colleges provide better quality education and go only to those campuses for recruitment. Unfortunately, both the arguments are primitive.
Smaller (and newer) colleges do not attract enough recruiters either. Companies that recruit thousands of students from campuses every year would typically not go to campuses where they are likely to get 5-10 potential employees. And companies that recruit very few students would typically not add a new college to their recruitment drive.
The Parameters So, how does one find out which college provides quality education? We list some parameters, which will help you compare colleges. Most of the information is available on the website. If not, try to get it from current students and alumni of the college. In a worse scenario, make a personal trip. Not all this is easy, but this must be done in order to make an informed choice, as your entire career will be influenced by this.
The Faculty
- How qualified is the faculty?
- How active is the faculty in research?
- The number of faculty members.
Infrastructure This is the second important aspect. How good are the labs in the discipline of your choice? Do they have modern equipment, and in enough numbers, so that, students can work simultaneously as opposed to just a demonstration by a lab instructor? How good is the common infrastructure? How many books are there per student in the library? What e-journals do they subscribe to? How much bandwidth on a per capita basis do they have? Are lecture halls equipped with PCs, LCD projector, screen and audio facilities? What sports facilities exist for the student body? These are difficult questions to answer from the website alone. So, you may need to talk to a current student or an alumnus you can trust, or make a personal visit to the campus.
Other Factors The following should be given less weight than the faculty and infrastructure
- Status of the institute: a university status typically would mean greater academic freedom for innovation.
- A fully residential campus usually provides a better learning environment.
- Curriculum: How often it is updated? How many courses do they teach? Note that an institute that has too many courses is in fact not likely to do a quality job of teaching.
- Curriculum flexibility: How many electives does it offer? Do all students go for jobs, or do they go for higher education? If graduates are going for higher education, then it shows that the institute has been successful in igniting academic pursuit in the students.
- A related point is the performance of students in third party exams like GATE, CAT, etc.
- Is there an active Alumni Association (particularly for colleges, which are more than 10-15 years old?). Logically, if the alumni do not care about this college, then why should anyone else?
- Campus placements: Of course, it should be considered. Just don’t consider it as the only parameter.
- Accreditation by NAAC or NBA
- Student activities: You want to enjoy your four years and not just spend time in labs and the library! So make sure that there are enough extra-curricular activities on the campus.
- Student participation in Institute Administration: Do they groom leadership qualities amongst the students?
SummaryThere is inherently a spark of intelligence in every one; what matters and is needed is igniting it. Several factors play a role in this – family background, the company that one keeps, the tenacity one develops towards setting a goal and its achievement, in most cases, the real worth of a person does not emerge until one completes his or her college education. It is at the precincts of these academic institutions that the latent talent of people blossoms to the fullest extent. He develops the skill of understanding, analyzing and interpreting things during his education.
There are many palatial campuses, which are of no use, as they do not have quality faculty. At the end of the day, what matters the most is the quality of knowledge production rather than size of the campus. What is important is the quality of teaching, dedication of the faculty, general learning ambience, admin facility, library, culture of academics orientation and value inputs. Buildings alone do not make an institution.
