How to choose a College / Institution for your B.Tech?
With numerous colleges offering B.Tech courses at one’s backyard, it has become essential for parents and students to make an informed choice. But what is an informed choice? Is it the first paycheck that one is expected to get at the end of the 4 year course or is it the brand name? Or do we have to go deeper into the whole exercise and see how the students from these colleges fare in their career 5 to 6 years down the lane?
Here are some questions to ponder about when you choose your B.Tech College;
How good is the Faculty?
- Number of full time faculty members
- Faculty qualifications-How many of them are PhD Qualified or do most of them have only a B.Tech?
- Is the Faculty into Research activities also?
- Student -Teacher Ratio-Is the institute adequately staffed?
- Teaching Experience of Faculty
Research Output of the Department/Institute
- Do the faculty members have research publications?
- Does the institute organise and participate in Research seminars
- Industry tie-ups for research projects
College Infrastructure
- Is the library well stocked with relevant books and journals
- Campus facilities for students-Hostels, sports, Internet, Labs, Classroom infrastructure etc
Curriculum
- Number of courses
- Electives in each course-Does the student have flexibility to choose electives of their choice
- Is it a trimester or a semester system?
- Does it promote self learning or learning by rote?
- What are the extracurricular activities promoted in the institute?
- How often is the curriculum reviewed and updated?
Campus Placements
- What kind of companies come to the campus?
- How many students have at least 1 job offer?
- Branch wise placement history
- What is the average salary offer?
- How reliable is the placement data on the institute website?
How do other people see this college?
- Do the Alumni of this college have a good opinion about their college?
- Is it NAAC accredited? How is it Graded?
- What does the Faculty of this college say?
- Does the huge advertisements and brand image of the institute paint the right picture of the institute?
Deciding on a college or institute to join might not be as easy as you think as there might be personal considerations like location, proximity to your home etc that might be important to you. However, spending some time in researching the institutes that you are interested in will help you make the right choice at the end of the day.