This article is for Indian parents who are looking for advice on choosing a good engineering college for their children.
It’s a parents’ choice
In India, the selection of engineering college is parents decision. Students don’t decide which college they want to join. At the age of 18, having just finished their 12th, they don’t have enough maturity to choose a college to study engineering. Nor do they have sufficient financial authority to take independent decisions. So parents take an active role during this time. It is entirely parents’ responsibility to find the right college for their ward. So this article is dedicated to the Indian parents searching colleges for their children.
Know your child
The first and foremost thing you should do as a parent is to analyze the psyche of your son/daughter. Understand what your child expects from an engineering college. Not just in the academic angle but in a general view. Find out where you ward wishes to study. Does he/she prefer an urban environment or sub-urban or rural environment. Can he/she stay without you? Do they prefer to stay with parents or do they prefer to stay away from parents to learn to be independent? Does he/she have any regional or cultural preferences? Students from South India take time to adjust to cultural differences in North India and vice versa. Find out if your ward is comfortable with the food change and climate change.
Is public opinion useful?
Asking your neighbors or friends for opinion is a good thing. But they can only tell you which college suits them, they can’t tell which one suits your ward well. Their opinion is personal to their situation and not to yours. Their children may be smarter or dumber than yours. Their expectations from a college may be different from yours.
Rely Newspaper advertisements?
Don’t trust newspapers alone. Advertisements are meant to be advertisements. The very purpose of an advertisement is promotion. Don’t believe whatever is written in advertisements. Nothing can be a better check than a personal inquiry.
Get the inside story
I advice the parents to at least visit the college of interest 2-3 times before deciding to join their ward. Visit the college campus and observe. Don’t do anything else. Simply observe. God has given human beings a wonderful skills of deduction from observation. If you observe the college environment for half an hour or so, you will get a little idea about the college, how it works and about the students’ level of thinking.
Asking students for opinion inside college is a bad idea. Because students would not give your their frank opinion inside the college campus for the fear of talking against the college that holds the education and future career. You may ask students outside the college campus for a frank opinion. It is also a good idea to talk to the parents of students studying in a particular college. Again, asking teachers may not be a good idea. Teachers can’t voice a frank opinion against the colleges for which they are working.
Careful while paying admission fees
Do not pay the admission fees to unauthorized agents. Be sure to pay only to authorized agents registered with the college. I have known a case where parents of student from Bihar have lost 1 lakh rupees by paying to an unauthorized agent in Bihar.
College that fits your budget
Carefully plan your budget and decide whether or not to join your ward to a college. Think long term. Be sure whether you will be able to pay fees for all the 8 semesters in span of 4 years. I have known parents who had to sell their lands to pay fees of their students owing to the lack of forethought about the fees.
Placement is not everything
Career placement is not the only criterion for selecting a college. You should carefully examine the teaching standards of teachers in the college, facilities provided by college for education, food and health.
Make the best use of what is available
And after joining a particular college, you can’t compare the facilities of a particular college with other colleges. Once committed it’s done. You can do nothing complaining about the facilities in the colleges. Try to make the best use of the facilities given by that college.
About the author: Professor Kanniga works for Bharath University, Chennai. She has a teaching experience of over 10 years. She holds Masters degree in Engineering and Business Administration.(M.E, M.B.A). Professor loves her work as worship. You can ask education related questions to professor via email kannigatruth@yahoo.com
About the Author: Sridhar Jammalamadaka is the Editor of Interview Mantra. He's a typically non-typical Software Engineer from Pune, India. He likes entrepreneurship, web technologies and Micro Controller programming. He enjoys playing cricket and piano (but rarely does these activities). Through this website, he wishes to gather a large community of aspiring engineers, entrepreneurs and professionals from all parts of the globe. You can connect with him on Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/sridhar.j 
on 
on 
on 
on 