About 1.5 million
engineers graduate in India annually. Many colleges don’t get enough students
to join them, and other colleges have students lining up to get admission. Have
you ever wondered why such a vast difference exists nowadays?

There are myriad
reasons for this. One could be the reservation system for different caste-based
minorities. This shuts down the dreams of a number of engineering aspirants. When
you have an open category student, who’s burnt the candle at both ends, worked
hard for two years, given the exams sincerely, to see a reserved category
candidate get a seat in a prestigious college by putting in less efforts, the
situation may seem very hopeless. The poor student is like a diode working in
reverse bias: no matter how much effort (voltage) is put in, the result is not
there at all (the current doesn’t change)!

Although the system
has only a handful of supporters, the education system of our country has
become hollow.  Actually, the system is
killing the student from inside. They feel suffocated. As if the current
reservation categories weren’t enough, new categories keep coming up to eat the
seats kept aside for the open category. Be it ladies, tuition fee waivers, scholarships,
etc. There are less categories on Flipkart for shopping than reservation
categories.

If that wasn’t
enough, you’ll see brats with rich daddies show up. Whichever college the
darling wants admission in, the father will arrive with a bag full of cash to
ensure it. The official word for this is ‘Management Quota’, but the right
phrase to be used is ‘under the table’. By such an act, you’re ensuring that a
deserving candidate’s file doesn’t get processed ahead above the table, that’s
all.

What is more
disheartening is the sinusoidal curve the students’ lives take. Those who got
excellent marks in their 10th & 12th, suddenly their
scores start deteriorating exponentially. Their life is filled with highs &
lows, preparing for competitive exams like JEE, BITSAT & their ilk. They forget
to breathe in this race, and yet their returns are unknown, dependent on a lot
of unknown external factors.

Another factor which
is an issue is the quality levels in the education provided. Discounting the
IITs, NITs, and similar well-funded institutes, the difference between the
education provided by them and the mushrooming private institutes is vast, like
a chasm. The level of teaching is very low, as is the quality of teachers. They
lecture students just for the sake of taking classes. As a result, a majority
of colleges are those where no one wants to take admission in. The remaining, quality,
colleges are where students make a beeline to join, making the competition to
join them touch sky-high. It becomes impossible task for a true aspirant to
join these colleges, then.

But…

Napoleon Bonaparte
once quoted, “The word ‘impossible’ is not in my dictionary.”

Each engineering
aspirant should have one thing in their mind, just one. What colleges decide,
how many seats are reserved, who’ll get admitted on money power, who else is
deserving: these questions are to be set aside. You don’t control them. What you
can control, is your own effort, your own hard work. If you can assure that you
work & study to your level best, without any complaints, then even God can’t
stop you from getting in a good college. You will need your work, your
dedication, your willpower to not give up, and put in full effort. If you do
so, you’ll reach your goal one day, and be satisfied in getting admission in
one of the best engineering colleges in the country.

This article is part of PaGaLGuY’s innovative Internship programme for engineering students. Currently, two such programmes are on – one on Creative Writing, the other is a Certification on Digital Media. If you are interested in partaking and  bagging a certificate, besides learning the nuances of effective writing, mail us at [email protected].