Which branch and college to choose in Engineering ?

 Having represented Nitte Education trust in exhibition fairs in India and abroad, I wanted to put together my thoughts on choosing college and branch in Engineering course after +2 or II PUC. I  have seen many people just go with someone's advice or peer pressure. It is an important milestone in one's life and one needs to be careful in deciding.

I have two aspects to consider over here. One is choosing a college and other is selecting branch. I will talk about the later first. I am not going to talk about IIT / NIT / IISc institutes. The main focus is on students who
are likely to pursue their career in college other than these.

What are the branches on offer? We are all aware of Computer Science (CS), Electronics and Communication (E&C), Mechanical Engineering (ME), Civil Engineering (CV), Electrical and Electronics Engineering (E & E),  Information Science or Information Technology (IS/IT) and highly specialized  branches like Aeronautical Engg, Nano Technology, Telecommunincation and many more.

My personal opinion is not to take a specialized branch like Aeronautical / Telecommunication / Nanotechnology / Metallurgy / Marine and others unless you are completely aware of what it is and have a passion for it. Choosing these branches just because your friend did it or your relative suggested will prove disastrous. These are highly specialized ones and have been carved out of core branches like Mechanical Engineering, Electronics engineering and others. Once you do them just because someone pushed you, after completion of the course your choices of making a change in career gets narrowed down to a large extent. An aeronautical engineer has to get into aeronautics only and nothing else. The same applies to other courses also.  If you had done engineering in a core branch like Mech or EC you can always pursue these highly specialized  branches in your Post Graduate and you retain the choice of making your career the way  you want to. But if you highly passionate about these specialized branches then go ahead with it.

I would split the core branches into two main categories. IT (Information Technology) and non-IT. CS, EC and IS/IT come under IT branches where as EE / Mech / Civil form the non-IT group.

I will talk about the IT branches first. Where will you work after graduating from these branches (CS/ EC/ IS). IT companies is the obvious answer.

In layman terms under CS / IS branch, you study various programming languages and some core subjects (which hardly come in handy when you work in service based companies). CS / IS are one and the same. Companies do not make the distinction between CS and IS. IS / IT branch was carved out to increase the intake in Computer Science branch in an indirect way. And since IS branch is an offshoot of CS people think CS is better.  We also notice a trend that people prefer CS first during the counseling. It is just a perception and nothing else.

Electronics and Communication is another branch where students get employed in IT companies. The focus is on studying the hardware aspects of product development. But in India there are very few hardware based firms which do core research and development job. IT companies in India predominantly focus on software. Most of the EC students are employed by big IT companies like Infosys, TCS and Wipro. Once they join there they have no choice but to study subjects which come under CS / IS. And when they start to work, all that they studied during engineering will come to nothing in these big service based companies. They do the routine job which a CS / IS student will do. I would say that 10 to 20 % of the EC students end up getting into core hardware based companies where the knowledge which they have gained while doing EC will come in handy. Rest get placed into software field. Many struggle to cope up with it and get accustomed to it because of lack of choice.

So people chosing EC just for the sake that it is number one branch and then ending up in an IT software firm makes no sense to me. If you are really passionate about getting into a core R & D work in hardware field it makes sense to select EC. Once you have the desire to get into EC you need to work extremely hard to ensure you get the desired job else you will land up in software job. If you are passionate about EC be prepared to put in extra effort so that you are one among the 10-20 % who can get into core company in EC field.

Let me come to the non-IT branches: Mechanical, Civil and Electrical.

You have heard people say Mechanical is an evergreen branch. Yes it is. The Mechanical engineers can practically get into any industry including the IT industry. :) The campus placements in colleges may not reflect this but fact is there are innumerable avenues for them. They work in many industries including private or public sector industries and their work varies by industry and function. Once you have the degree you can specialize in other areas like Automobile, Industrial Production, Aeronautical, Metallurgy. You may not be paid as high as an IT guy to begin with but with experience sky becomes the limit. And again probability of you getting placed in core Mechanical company during campus placements might be less but the off campus opportunities will take care of your job prospects.

Civil Engineering : Infrastructure these days is getting importance. You see new roads, bridges, buildings being
built every day and it will continue for a very long time. India is a growing economy and this won't change in the near future. Again on campus placements will be less but outside world presents innumerable opportunities. Salary might be low compared with IT guy to begin with but with experience things will change drastically.

Electrical Engineering: We have seen the problems which we face daily on account of power cuts. Governments have been giving lot of emphasis on power sector and its allied branches. If you are in love with electrical appliances,  switch boards, circuits then this is an ideal branch. Again the campus placements will be relatively less compared to IT branches but opportunities outside are high.

Let me address the next question of choosing a college. I would lay out few of the facts before that.

1) No college can provide 100% placements for the simple reason that not all will be eligible for campus placements. There will be many who have less than 60% marks in Engineering who are unlikely to be placed.

2) No University or any government body ever comes up with an official ranking of colleges in the state or country. Few of the magazines do the survey but if you look at it there will be many surprises in store. Few unheard colleges would have entered top 100 or 50. :) I have seen many students come up with a sheet of paper comprising top 30 colleges in Karnataka. All these are not reliable and are not official rankings. At Bihar i have seen innumerable brochures containing rankings of colleges in Karnataka. These are prepared by agents and which ever college pays a good commission for them to get students that will be higher up the order. A college in a prominent IT area in Bangalore have advertised as being No. 2 ranked among private colleges in Karnataka and 7th in India based on some survey. Probably the survey was funded by the institute itself :)

So never rely on the rankings. How to chose a college then? Shortlist a few which you feel good. Visit the website of the institute. Find out the following:

1) Placement record: Number of students placed branch wise, number of companies visited, number of companies visited for non-IT branches, list of core product based companies visited

2) Check whether the branch is NBA (National Board for Accreditation) accredited or not? An expert committee inspects the college and gives this accreditation for 3 or 5 years. If the infrastructure or quality of faculty or placement record is not good then the college won't get this accreditation. NBA accreditation is given to individual branches and not for the entire college. Hence check whether the particular branch is NBA accredited or not.

3) Make a check on the placement record of the last 5 years. This gives an indication how consistent the placements have been in the past.

I hope i have done justice to the objective of this article. It would be nice if you can give your comments on this. Whatever branch you have taken by choice stick to it until you get the job in the same stream rather than moving to a different stream.


All said and done before deciding on Engineering do think whether it is the only option available. There are countless other career options in front of you. :) I hope to touch upon them in future.