Engineering is a profession that never goes out of demand or out of favor. After all in this age of technology where everything is driven by technology, there is more need of qualified individuals who can handle that technology, understand it and utilize it to the best. Therefore engineering as a profession still commands the same respect albeit it has become a little easier to become an engineer as compared to earlier days. With privatization of education, a lot more number of colleges now provides this course and therefore the number of engineers has also increased. Whether this increase in the number has had an effect on the quality of education still remains a matter of debate, with most of the academicians agreeing that it has indeed created a less effective crop of engineers, unsuitable to handle the new and challenging job requirements. Therefore, it is easy to deduce that only enrolling and completing a professional degree is not a guarantee of a successful career. A great deal depends on other things like from where you have completed that degree. This article is meant to serve as a simple guide to help you make the choice better for your career.
What to look for in an engineering college?
For many, the one answer that fits this question is placements. True, but not the complete truth. Placements do reflect a college’s ability to provide a head-start to the career of the student. It also exhibits the industrial acceptance and corporate identity of the college. However, one can only expect a college to have good placement record if it has some solid academics backing it. Therefore, try and look beyond the usual and make the best decision.
Some points that deserve your attention are:
- Brand Value
Well, this one criterion is not for every college. Only a handful of Top Engineering colleges in India like IITs and IIITs amongst others boast of brand recall value as they have repeatedly proved their mettle ever since their inception. For lesser mortals, a check on the following points will help you out.
- Faculty
A college is as good as its faculty, period. Teachers are the one who you will be dealing with day in day out. They will be molding your career, telling you what to study, what not to study, and more. Therefore, the first thing to notice about a college is its faculty. Take a stock of the qualifications of faculty members. A college with more PhD faculty members is certainly better and similarly colleges with M.Tech degree also have acceptable level of academic standards, but below anything that is totally unacceptable. In addition, faculty members who are active in research will be in a better position to understand the basic concept of the subject. A good researcher can always become a good teacher; however the reverse is not true. Last but not the least, a quick glance at the total number of active faculty members will be enough to give you a rough idea about the quality of education in the institute.
- Infrastructure
A solid infrastructure does not always guarantees better education but goes a long way in ensuring that the college is serious about its intent of offering quality education to students. Library is the soul of any educational institution and this is where you will find more than half of your questions answered. An engineering college’s library should have multiple copies of all the course books of all the years and journals, periodicals and other research papers must have their presence so as to keep the students and faculty members aware of the happenings of the technological world. If library is the soul then labs are the mind and heart of engineering colleges. This is where you will spend most of your time in the college and therefore a quick physical inspection of all the labs will enrich you with the information whether the college deserves your time and money for the next four years or not. Since it’s difficult to make out all of the above information from the website alone, a physical inspection of the college is highly recommended.
Author Bio
Saurabh Tyagi is a prolific writer and a frequent blogger who loves to write on topic related to career, best B Tech colleges in India, education and technology. He is a regular contributor to education sites like Shiksha.com.