CSE: The Kohinoor among the engineering branches??

From last few years we are seeing that everyone wants to do their B.Tech in Computer Science and Engineering only. The other streams are only the compromises they are forced to make. Is it justified?

I asked the same question to Prof. Sanghi and I got a very apt response from him. Below is the verbatim transcript of that

Question:Sir just your own thought regarding the future prospects of CSE. In last two three years we are seeing a mad rush for CSE and it has clearly become the first choice miles ahead of any other stream. Don't you sometimes feel that one anything gets so much hyped its usually at its peak and a slide could be very near. Don't know whether its appropriate to say that its the peak yet.

Prof. Sanghi Response: @Siddharth, there has been a mad rush for more than a decade. And this is primarily because people indulge in wishful thinking. The total number of graduates in CS/IT/MCA, etc. is about 10 lakhs a year while the IT industry is recruiting around 1.5 lakhs. Let us be generous with the estimates of non-IT industry recruiting CS/IT persons and assume another 0.5 lakhs. This still means 80% unemployment. This is perhaps the highest amount of unemployment amongst all engineering discipline. And yet people prefer CS/IT over other engineering disciplines. And I am not talking about IITs and NITs. The graduates of good colleges would anyway be in the top 1.5 to 2.0 lakh graduates of the country. But smaller college. Why. Because the media talks about high packages, high number of jobs created, and never talks about unemployment. It does once in a while mentions unemployability, which means that the training is so poor that they can't get jobs even if there were jobs. So everyone assumes that they will study hard, and they will be in the top 1.5 lakhs, after all 1.5 lakh is a very large number and to assume that you won't be in that number is difficult for an individual. And when everyone in the country is doing that, it is difficult for an individual to say that most parents and students are being stupid. There is safety in following the herd, till it hits you after 4 years that you don't have a job.

The same thing is happening at IITs. Follow the herd. We shall choose disciplines based on last year's closing ranks. After all, not everyone last year could be stupid. 

You are going to have a career over 50 years. It is very unlikely that you will have a single career. You would probably change your career 3 times, and you are likely to make more money in later careers than the first career, that is why you will change. Does it then make sense to worry about current placement data. Does it not make sense to think of what will enable you to change careers, what will enable you to keep doing well in a career which is not in the area of your under-graduate studies. Is there any statistics that point to that people who did CS 10-15-20 years ago are richer than their non-CS counterparts. (Actually, I have examples to the contrary.) But in the era of instant gratification and with a strong sense of entitlement, one can not look beyond last year's closing ranks and placements.

I get a lot of emails telling me how useful this blog has been for them. A lot of sites link to this blog. However, what is the impact. So one year, I got the data from JEE about the program that all the candidates got finally. I looked at the data from the following angle: How many students got the program which was the best s/he could have got based on last year's closing rank and the next two programs in order of closing ranks, or the best option (again in order of closing rank) within the zone of that candidate. (It was little bit more complex.) More than 98% candidates had such a program allotted to them. Just think about it. We would like to believe that these 10,000 are absolutely the best that this country's school system has produced. And almost all of them go with the herd. Even the toppers amongst a billion people do not have the confidence of thinking independently. This blog has no impact what so ever.

So, CSE will remain the best option for many years to come.

Joint Counselling: Revised Schedule

JOINT Counselling Postponed: Revised Schedule to be released on 26 June

The filling-in of choices for joint seat allocation (JoSAA 2015) was scheduled to begin on June 25, however, it has been postponed. The reason for the delay has been cited as the non-availability of JEE Main 2015 Paper 1 and JEE Main 2015 Paper 2 ranks.

The revised schedule for students to opt for their choice of course/institution will be released on June 26.

The official website of Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JoSAA) 2015, for admission to IITs and ISM through JEE Advanced 2015 and to NITs, IIITs, Other GFTIs through JEE Main 2015 was launched on June 23.

JEE MAIN RESULT UNLIKELY BEFORE 26 JUNE

The wait seems to be getting longer for the 13 lakh+ students who appeared for JEE MAIN this year as CBSE looks unlikely to be in position to declare the results before 26 June.
In the latest circular uploaded on official site they have asked boards to provide results in prescribed format latest by 25 June. It also warned that in case of failing the results for such board students won't be declared and CBSE will not be responsible.
Again such warning only appears foolish as CBSE can't take such step .

AIPMT RE-TEST ON 25 JULY

As per the statement issued by the CBSE on Tuesday, no fresh applications will be accepted for this examination and it will be a retest only in respect of the candidates who had applied within the stipulated time - from December 01, 2014 to January 31, 2015 with requisite fee. 

Further details and updates regarding the re-examination will be hosted on website www.aipmt.nic.in 

The CBSE has requested all eligible candidates to ensure functioning of their email ids and mobile numbers given while submitting their applications to receive the updates issued from time to time.

ECONOMICS @IIT KANPUR

Economics as a subject fascinates me and I many times advice my students to go for this but almost all times I can't convince them to go for Economics instead of engineering. While surfing I found this article on Quora. I am sharing it with you

Firstly, I would like to congratulate you on this remarkable feat of clearing IIT-JEE 2015. Feel good about yourself, and tighten your seat belts further. You will now step into a roller coaster ride for the next 4 (maybe 5) years. It will have its ups and downs...but it's your choice to either scream or enjoy the ride.

For introductions, I am Pushp Toshniwal, Final Year Dual Degree Undergraduate at the Department of Economics at IIT Kanpur.
I have been receiving a queries regarding BS Economics program at IIT Kanpur and Economics in general. This post is about a couple of points that I would like to bring forward that I think will help certain students who are totally clueless about their interest and Economics program at IIT Kanpur.
To begin with, I would urge you to go through Professor Dheeraj Sanghi's blog "A Guide to JEE Counseling 2011" and his latest posts on counselling. It enlists everything you must know before filling in your final options.

Since, all of us are in race against time, I'll take some excerpts from some of the excellent posts written by my friends and professors here at IIT Kanpur.  

Firstly, Why IIT Kanpur? I believe Shashwat Chandra does an excellent job of answering this question

Why IIT Kanpur? The cultural festival of IIT Kanpur, Antaragni, is run virtually entirely by students. The Students' Gymkhana is a body made by students of all batches. The New SAC (Students' Activity Centre, a place for people to hang out) was majorly planned by the students of three batches, and the franchises selected for its food court were selected by a panel of students. The degree of freedom given to students at IIT Kanpur is, in my opinion, definitely larger than most other institutes. IIT Kanpur also has the distinct advantage of being in a city that is much lesser developed than places like Mumbai and Delhi. Why is this an advantage? IIT Kanpur has become self-contained, because there is a larger incentive to make everything available on campus. The choices of extra-curricular activities are larger, the food options are cheaper and more varied, and all sections of the campus are together, making it a tighter, closer-knit location. Each club has its own advantages. Some clubs improve your speaking skill; others teach you a new art; even others let you hone your intellect in the direction you want. Art, music, literature, dance, electronics, robotics, photography, whatever your interest, there is going to be an outlet. If there isn't, it is not hard to create an outlet or a club for an interest you feel will benefit you. There are certain to be more people interested in the things you like.

Switching back to our agenda here, the first reaction of all the people who see this in the brochure or to whoever I tell is that how come there is an Economics program at a technical institute like IIT Kanpur? Isn't Economics a Social Science? Would we be discriminated on any grounds whatsoever if we opt for this branch?

Mr. Vimal Kumar, Assistant Professor of Economics, at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur shares his thoughts on this, 

Yes, Economics is basically a social science. However, it has acquired certain characteristics of engineering disciplines.  According to New Oxford American Dictionary, Engineering is the branch of science and technology concerned with the design, building, and use of engines, machines, and structures.  Of course, Economists don't design or build machines or any physical structures for that matter. However, if you pay attention to the definition of Engineering, you will see that the keywords used in defining the discipline are designed, build, and use of structures. Exactly the same words are used to describe the dominant methodology of Economics, Economic Modelling.

For example, engineers (TATA's) sensing the need and  a market for cheap cars in the society, designed and built a small car called Nano. The process can be described as the combination of formulating the problem and providing a solution. Economists are increasingly called upon to work in the similar fashion. They are supposed to design and/or provide a solution of myriad social problems. The key words are design and provision of a solution to a problem at the hand. The similarities between these two disciplines don't end at the abstract level. The way Economists search/design/provide solutions to societal problems is very similar to the way engineers search/design/provide solutions to engineering problems. At the core is, most of the time, a sound mathematical modelling. Yes, of course, engineers go further and build a prototype which economists can't. But mathematical modelling at the core remains the same.

Speaking from experience, in your first semester your friends might raise a question on why you opted for Economics after qualifying JEE, you could have opted for DU instead? To which you can always give an answer after reading this write-up. Apart from this little issue, there is no discrimination on any grounds whatsoever (academically or otherwise).

Now moving on to the curriculum, academic curriculum at IITK was revised in 2011 and the new curriculum is probably one of the most flexible among all the IITs. 

During the first year, all courses are department neutral. You will get to learn Mechanics and Electromagnetic Theory in Physics, Organic, Inorganic and Physical Chemistry in Chemistry, Basic Life Sciences (yes Biology), Engineering Graphics, Linear Algebra and Calculus in Mathematics and (the dreaded) morning exercises. Having a department-neutral first year curriculum works out for students who change their branches (Branch changes are tricky, don't count on them). And to widen your horizon a little, you will be doing five courses in Humanities and Social Sciences (apart from Economics) during your four year stay.

From the second year onwards, you will have courses in Economics along with other compulsory courses and electives.
For the departmental core courses (compulsory courses related to Economics), please refer to the following document, "Economics Core Courses - Google Drive"

There would be 2 Science electives (to be chosen among Physics/Chemistry/ Maths courses offered as Electives) and 2 ESO's (Engineering Science courses offered) to be chosen. Along with these, we have 6 Open Electives (option of doing a course of your liking from any Department you desire including management courses) and about 3 to 4 Departmental Electives (courses from economics itself). By choosing the open electives from a discipline which interests you, you can even go for a minor in that discipline provided you fulfill the criteria set. For example, if you are interested in Mathematics, you can take OE's accordingly that make you eligible to obtain a Minor in Mathematics after 4years with a Major in Economics.

Coming over to placements (which I don't know why you should be concerned about if you are good in your subject!), I can assure you almost all jobs are high profile. We get placed along with other department fellows in profiles that fit us. The paychecks are good enough and I would prefer keeping this portion short.
And yes you have a lot of options after your graduation, MBA/ IAS/ Government organizations and MS from a good foreign university always open.

In my opinion, Economics is a unique program with a wide range of scope and application. The courses are very interesting and you surely won't hate your branch if not love it. Personally, I feel I made a good decision choosing Economics over my other options (that being core courses like Civil/ Chemical at IT-BHU in 2011). The plethora of activities we have here, and the curriculum flexibility (which I personally make utmost use of) are one of the prime reasons for this. 
Lastly, if you are worried what your relatives/ acquaintances would think of you opting for Economics instead of Computers (been there, experienced that), just ignore them.  As someone rightly said, 'kuch to log kahenge, logo ka kaam hai kehna'

Hope this helps in making an informed decision.

Feel free to ask any questions, you could drop a mail at 'pushp@iitk.ac.in' or you could ping me on Facebook Pushp Toshniwal | Facebook. 

Pushp Toshniwal,
11546,
IIT Kanpur.

JEE ADVANCED: Board Wise Candidate Performance

JEE ADVANCED 2015: Results at a Glance

IITs have released the summary of lists.

• SATVAT JAGWANI is AIR 1 (469/504)
• Total students >=124 : 21156
• CML Breakup:  Gen-15502 +97(PwD);  OBC-6337+41(PwD) ; SC-2555+3; ST-753+2

The Goa Dream postponed by an year

The new Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) allotted to Goa by the Union human resources development (HRD) ministry will not admit students for 2015-16, IIT Bombay has said in a release on Saturday.

IIT Bombay, which will mentor the Goa institute, has said that IIT Goa will now become operational from 2016-17, subject to the site for the permanent campus being approved by the HRD ministry.

TOI had reported in April that Union HRD minister Smriti Irani had written to Goa chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar expressing her unhappiness about the state dragging its heels over the identification of land for a permanent campus for IIT Goa.

The state government had proposed to start IIT Goa temporarily from the Goa Engineering College campus at Farmagudi in Ponda taluka in North Goa. But Irani had intimated the Goa CM that permission to start the new IIT will not be granted until adequate land is identified.

"The newly-announced Indian Institute of Technology in Goa will not be able to admit students for the 2015-16 academic session. Considering that the seat allocation process for admission to IITs is to commence shortly and the site for the permanent campus has not been finalized as yet, the government (at the Centre) has decided that the first academic session of IIT Goa will now commence from 2016-17," the IIT Bombay release of Saturday states.

Source TOI

In IITs, qualifying score goes down so that ST student count can go up

 A shortfall in the count of scheduled tribe students has forced the Indian Institutes of Technology to re-engineer the qualifying score to join the tech colleges. 

The aggregate marks are down from 177 (35%) to 124 or 24.5% of 504. Similarly, the cut-offs for each subject have been revised from 10% to 7%. 

Downsizing of qualifying marks has taken place across the board. The minimum percentage of marks in each subject is 6.30 for OBC students and 3.5 for SC/ST candidates. 

For the first time, ever since the Joint Entrance Exam has been redesigned as a two-tier qualifying test, the minimum cut-off score has been reduced by 30 per cent. Only those students who score the minimum required marks for both aggregate cut-off list and subject wise cut-off will make it to the rank list. 

With this revision, the IITs have now managed to push in a few more ST candidates than the total seats reserved for them, thus working to ensure that not many slots go unfilled. 

" There weren't enough ST students who had qualified. Although we now have more ST students than the seats, not everyone may take admission. They may not be happy with the IIT or the stream allotted. But we surely now have enough ST candidates who have qualified this year," said a JEE chairman. 

On June 3, the tech schools had declared a higher cut-off. But on Friday evening, they had a change of heart and the downgrade took place after compiling the performance of all candidates. Authorities realized that there weren't as many students who made the cut. There are 10,006 seats across the IITs this year; there are 750 seats for ST candidates. 

"We have revised the marks based on the performance of all those who took the JEE (advanced)," said the organizing chairman of JEE 2015. Last week, the IITs had uploaded the scanned copies of the ORS answer booklet and 150 candidates had challenged their scores. On Saturday, the IITs will upload the fresh scores, before declaring the result on June 25.

Source: TOI

Our Prediction Comes True: IITs Lower the cutoffs

CONSOLIDATED SEAT MATRIX FOR ALL COLLEGES IN JEE JOINT COUNCELLING

Seat matrix is now available for all IITs, ISM, NITs, IIITs and other colleges which will be having admissions through JEE joint counselling. You can see them on official JEE ADVANCED website.

1. Seats in IITs and ISM: 10096 out of which 4944 are for General Category.
2. Seats in 30 NITs: 17390 out of which 8548 are for General.
3. Seats in 18 IIITs: 2228 out of which 1084 are for General.
4. Seats in 18 GRTIs: 3741 out of which 2156 are for General.

So total 33455 seats are there out of which 16732 are for General.

BITSAT 2015: Statistics

So another heart braking fact foe students that scores have improved this year and it seems cutoffs will rise this year also.

IMPORTANT DATES FOR JOINT COUNSELLING of IITs and NITs

SORRY TO ALL MY READERS: I MISSED THE UPDATE FOR IIIT BANGALORE ADMISSIONS THIS YEAR

I am extremely sorry to all my readers that for some reason I just missed the change in admission criterion of IIIT Bangalore this year. They have decided to take only on basis of JEE MAIN score not AIR and form filling date has already expired.

Those who have filled the form and if get chance should consider this very good option.

For details

http://www.iiitb.ac.in/academic/admissions/integrated-mtech

SC asks CBSE not to declare AIPMT results till June 10

Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the CBSE not to declare results of the All India Pre-Medical Test till June 10, when the court may take a call on pleas seeking re-conduct of the test following alleged irregularities in the May 3 examination.

RPET replaced by REAP-2015 for admissions to engineering colleges in Rajasthan

Board of Technical Education, Rajasthan has officially announced that the Rajasthan Engineering Admission Process (REAP)-2015 will replace the Rajasthan Pre-Engineering Test (RPET) for offering admissions to various undergraduate engineering programmes in the engineering colleges of Rajasthan. Earlier, the engineering entrance exam conducted by the board was known as Rajasthan Pre-Engineering Test (RPET). With RPET being replaced by REAP from this year, the criteria for admissions will either be the JEE Main-2015 score or Class 12 Marks of the candidate, as per the choice entered by them in the online application.
Last date of payment is 10 June.
For more info visit www.reapadm.com
 

JEE COUNCELLING GUIDE: By Prof. Dheeraj Sanghi

For all those in the dilemma of picking up stream and college its really worth a read. Though I may not agree with all his observations but will agree with most of them.
Here is the link
http://dsanghi.blogspot.in/2015/06/a-guide-to-jee-counseling-2015.html