How much does the College matter in Engineering

C

cyanide911

Adept
I'm posting here because from the short time I've been lurking here, I think this is a pretty helpful and most importantly one of the very few intelligent indian communities online, and I'll be able to get good advice here.
I'm in 12th, so in that dreadful study for boards+IIT phase.
Now I was debating with my friends, and want some opinions from other more experienced folk.

How much does the college we get a degree from matter in Engineering? No, I'm not comparing top institutions to small shop like roadside 'engineering' institutions. Those are obviously a joke and don't mean anything.
I'm talking about stuff like DCE, NIST, IIIT, NIT, BITS, VIT etc, those which come a level or two below IIT.

I mean, truthfully speaking, I'm aiming towards IIT, but not really hoping for much. Maybe I'd manage around 8-9k in the JEE, but that'll only give me shitty courses in the newer, less relevant IITs which I don't want to go for.
On the other hand, being a Delhiite, I have quite a good chance for delhi institutions like DCE and NSIT.
Now I have an opinion that as long as I have a degree from a good institution (Something like DCE/NSIT/NIT/BITS/IIIT) the name of the college we got the degree from doesn't matter much after the first or second job. Rather the course we have taken, and our job performance matters after that.
Some of my friends, teacher differ with me here.
What do you guys think? For those of you who are experienced in such a field, how has your experience been with employers?

Thanks a lot.
 
How much does the college we get a degree from matter in Engineering? No, I'm not comparing top institutions to small shop like roadside 'engineering' institutions. Those are obviously a joke and don't mean anything.
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First things first.. if u got talent.. those so called roadside Engg colleges would get you the req degree to kickstart your career.

And if you are good enuf, you ll get into a good company .. Infy for eg.

If you are really and too talented to call the reg college as roadside college.. you prolly wouldnt have started this thread.

Now that we got that out of our way.. If the Reg colleges are coming under the umbrella of one University, then it really doesnt matters which college you graduated from cept for the placement record+cell of that college.

Once you slogged for considerable time and ready to switch (1-1.5 yrs), all on your talent and skill set to come on par with the best of the lot from that univ.

And if we are talking about the DCE/NSIT/NIT/BITS/IIIT ,these are pretty good too ( actually majority of them are 'roadside' for the IITians) you ll be getting decent opening for your first job ( mind you if you dont perform, you might wanna study 5 pt someone for mental bracing of events. Seen students from those 2nd tier Inst landing in the 'Roadies' College ppl crowd)

But at the end of the day the second year of job means examining your skill set and the experience you gained.

So you are thinking correctly, only your vernacular for some of the college categorization is out of place.

Wish You Luck.
 
College really doesn't matter . Your stream + your talent + Employee reference. Out of three ... the third one is the most important. It may not make sense to you now, but later it will :)
 
I'm sure the brandname helps but when I tried to impress a girl(an engg. graduate btw) by saying I got into IISc, she asked me how much salary I was getting and what kind of work was I doing there :(
 
^^ Actually college does matter a lot, atleast in the good MNC's. For the 1st job, its nothing but the college name, and thereafter it relegates below your work ex, but it always does matter. An IITian have a halo effect in most workplaces, they will command a huge premium, get the best of positions etc...

It sound shitty, but there are millions of engineers, and the only way employers sift through them is college brand name. I have worked in the HR field and I know it, there are some companies who will just not shortlist you no matter how good your work reference is, if the college does not fit in their requirement as tier 1 college. That said apart almost all the colleges you have listed fall in the tier 1 list so dont worry. Get an engineer degree work for a couple of years, then aim for MBA :)
 
college matters to get kickstarted .... u will land up in a good job directly from these good colleges which may take 3-4 years to reach if u did it from a road-side one

obv. comparing with the same person and intelligence level

and dce/nsit/bits are better than new iits ..... in Nits ,some are good which are in the south but most are not that good :)
 
The first time when college really matters is due to placements. Top colleges (outside IIT) command top placements. Top notch companies, great payscales. That would be a nice way to kick start your career. After that it really is upto what you learnt in college, and how well you are able to cope up with the corporate world - you will realise that what was taught in college is non-existent in the corporate world (atleast for 99% of the companies). From here on, it's you and only you. That said, at later stages in your career, within the first 10 years, when you do look for a major shift in your career, it is you college which will land you plum offers. It adds an 'edge' to your resume - making it more visible, and giving you preference over the rest of the lot. Remember head hunters need a distinguishing parameter to make their job easier too!

Outside the IITs, some of the good colleges (IMO) are IIIT Hyderabad, NIT (Suratkal, Trichy), PSG Tech Coimbatore, VIT, BITS Pilani, DCE.
 
agantuk said:
......................................distinguishing parameter to make their job easier too!

Outside the IITs, some of the good colleges (IMO) are IIIT Hyderabad, NIT (Suratkal, Trichy), PSG Tech Coimbatore, VIT, BITS Pilani, DCE.
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Its DTU (Delhi Technological University) now. :)
 
Regardless of what people say, college makes one hell of a difference. In fact, most of the difference comes from the college.

IITs(Am only talking of the top 5-6 IITs over here)

Avg starting package 6-9 lacs CTC

Decent starting package 10-12 lacs CTC

Decent package after 5 years in a job with out further studies, 15-30 lacs per annum

The only bachelors degree which can pay 40-60+ lacs per annum if you are good. It at least makes the chances x5/x10

DTU/NSIT/BITS Pilani/IIIT H/Remaining IITs/IIIT A

Avg starting package 5-7 lacs CTC

Decent package 8+ lacs

Decent package after five years without further studies 12-15+ lacs CTC

You will need to go for higher studies to truly shine with these degrees

Top NITS(Top 4-5 only)/PEC/Thappar/Remaining IIITs/Other top 30-40(30-40 including all the above mentioned colleges) Indian colleges

Avg package 3.5-4.5 lac CTC

Decent package 5+ lacs

Decent package after five years without higher studies, 8-10 lacs

You are doomed unless you do higher studies, from a top college.

Average NITS/Manipal/Jaypee/VIT/Top Govt colleges(mainly NITs)/Top 100 engg colleges namely/IP University

Avg package 3-4 lacs CTC

Decent package 4-4.5+

Decent package after five years: 6-8 lacs

Not worth visiting imo.

1. When I say average I mean median.

2. When I say decent I mean something which the 70-75th percentile gets.

3. When I say decent after five years I mean a person who is good at his job but far from exceptional and who doesn't go for higher education and luck just plays neutral on him.

If you get a degree from IIM A/B/C or Top 50 world colleges MS/MBA, then your bachelors wouldn't make much of a difference, if at all, after that. However, to get through a top college abroad, IITs play a big role. Esp for MS from a good college, or even for a MBA from a top college. Other colleges won't be completely neglected, but they won't be given any preference compared to other candidates.

However, if you only want to do a single degree, your college will decide your fate in 90-95% of the cases. There may be some odd cases where people have become successful despite their degree. But then there are enough people who are successful even without a degree or sometimes even without high school. So you can't use those cases to argue your point.

To check facts and figures you can use payscale.com but it will require a lot of time in analysis and research.

I would say if you don't get the best engg college, go for Delhi University (only SRCC/St Stephens/SSCBS/LSR, other colleges won't be as good).

It isn't that it is absolutely not possible to rise high from the absolute bottom but

1. That requires more luck than with a good degree

2. You may or may not reach the top

3. You will progress, but you may not reach where you would have

4. You may take a long time. At least five years to just reach where you could have started.

For those who say Infosys is a good company aren't talking about the category I am trying to point out.

IMO

Decent Companies

Microsoft

Google

Oracle

Cisco

Adobe

IBM Lacs etc

Good Companies:

Schlumberger

Shure

Deutsche Bank

Citibank

Barclays Bank etc

I know that most of the good companies aren't IT companies, but why do you want to stick to IT when you can get a starting package of 15-24 lacs CTC in your first year with increments of about 20%-40+ per annum OR $75-100,000 per annum, then why stick to IT.

And you will get these companies only from IITs or to some extent from DTU/Bits Pilani, but IITs are in a different league altogether.

All I am saying is that try your best, it is okay if you don't make it. But if you do make it, you get much more than what you would get otherwise. Not that your life is ruined if you don't, however, you will need to work much harder for the rest of your life to compensate the few years of effort where you might otherwise compromise.
 
Spacescreamer said:
First things first.. if u got talent.. those so called roadside Engg colleges would get you the req degree to kickstart your career.
And if you are good enuf, you ll get into a good company .. Infy for eg.
If you are really and too talented to call the reg college as roadside college.. you prolly wouldnt have started this thread.

Now that we got that out of our way.. If the Reg colleges are coming under the umbrella of one University, then it really doesnt matters which college you graduated from cept for the placement record+cell of that college.
Once you slogged for considerable time and ready to switch (1-1.5 yrs), all on your talent and skill set to come on par with the best of the lot from that univ.
And if we are talking about the DCE/NSIT/NIT/BITS/IIIT ,these are pretty good too ( actually majority of them are 'roadside' for the IITians) you ll be getting decent opening for your first job ( mind you if you dont perform, you might wanna study 5 pt someone for mental bracing of events. Seen students from those 2nd tier Inst landing in the 'Roadies' College ppl crowd)
But at the end of the day the second year of job means examining your skill set and the experience you gained.
So you are thinking correctly, only your vernacular for some of the college categorization is out of place.

Wish You Luck.
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+1000

Since the colleges and stuff after that have been excelletly put in the above post, I will address one critical thing. Make sure you take it (Engg) seriously. You probably thought getting in, especially if you have to appear for a CET or something, is the toughest thing you had to do in your life till now. Believe me when I say that getting into an Engineering college is probably the easiest part.

The real fun/hell starts once you get in. I dont mean to scare you but, College is a different ball game, unlike your school where you can get away concentrating only in the finals or may be Quarterly/Hal-yearly exams. In Engg, you will have mids/internals almost every month. And before you notice, the semister exams are around the corner. Repeat rinse for 8 semisters/4 years. Take something for granted and before you can say "oh shit", you will have failed a couple of subjects (I never ever failed in my life and got 95+ always in Maths and failed my 1 sem Maths cause I was over confident).

All I am saying is, to a great extent, your entire life will probably depend on how well you do during these four years. Not just the studies/exams part, but how you treat/interact with your peers, professors you think you can mess with (and their bias as this is what you will face once you are out of College and are working under a a$$h0$% of a boss or for that matter any boss :). You may feel that the girls get good marks easily because the the professors are easy on them (sometimes they are but learn to live with it, you will see a lot worse once you are out there in the real world ;-)

Finally just because you got 75% in your Engineering, dont get cocky. No one gives a rats ass what your marks are or which College/IIT you graduated from, once you start working. Its all about your attitude, work ethic and social skills.

Best of luck !!
 
Rite: You have just rated all the companies which survived the global recession without a scratch as decent companies, and the companies which nearly failed as good companies :p but techboi and all, this seems to be one of your better posts...

I think you may rated the companies on the cream pay packages, but I guess you missed the best companies tab (Goldman Sachs, Boston Consulting Group, McKinsey etc) I dont know if its a co-incidence but even right now jobs such as Investment banking, consulting command a huge pay packets, but you will need to sacrifice your social life. Investment banking working hours are anywhere between 16-19 hrs a day, I have known a lot of people burning out after 3-4 years of working in investment banking, dont just go plainly by the glamor portrayed by the media.

OP: The bottomline though, is the college does matter. Unlike the western economies India, has a huge graduate work force. And even if you take a minority percent of them as "good workforce" the number translates into thousands due to the base effect. Just dont get too caught with the college brandnames, as long as its Tier 1, you should do well.
 
Hey,

Here is my view on your topic. You don't really need a good institute degree if you want very easy and comfortable life in future. All you need is talent, personality and self marketing technique.

I don't know how others will think about my opinions. I'm not too old to think such things (I'm in 3rd year of Engg in not so great university :) )

Suppose, you got call for an interview in any reputed computer related company.

Let's see one example, suppose..

You've completed your bachelors or masters from any low grade college/university/institute. There are few more persons who have completed same but from reputed university. You got admitted in low reputed university because of many reasons like you are not good in theories, but the practical study. That's ok.. Now if you have better portfolio, resume than others who have pursued their degrees from reputed institutes. Obviously, company will not hire others even then they have good degree certificate. They'll still prefer you because you are beneficial to company.

Got my point?

Seniors :) correct me if I'm wrong.. I am also the person who'll face such conditions in future.
 
^ You seem to be speaking from campus placements perspective. If that's the case, I am afraid you are wrong. That is the phase when the college matters the most. The logic of going by better projects works as a tie-breaker when two colleges are even, not otherwise.
 
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