Getting into Engineering

Engineering .. the application of science to the optimum conversion of natural resources to the uses of humankind.
Sounds great, isn’t it? Every year, million engineering graduates are produced in India and hence it is obviously the most common choice among the Indians, so was mine.

IIT JEE

I knew that I wanted to be a Software Engineer 👨‍💻. I chose that because it opens a lot of opportunities in other fields too. We could get into Army, Banking, IT, Teaching and many other sectors. But to get into Engineering I didn’t know that I have to give some exams. I got to know about this in the 10th standard when I saw one of my classmates solving his modules of Vidyamandir Classes. I didn’t know that time that I would be doing the same thing after a year.
My parents don’t know much about studies n all. And I knew that I had to clear this JEE exam and maybe I have to go to some coaching classes after the 10th. I told all this to maa, about the exam, about engineering, about future opportunities. She was okay with it. I didn’t know how much money it would take for the 2 years. I with my paa went 50 km away to some coaching center. I was confused about whether to go for it or not. Paa was always okay to spend on us for our betterment. They never denied anything to us and so as that day. I got admission to it.

The grind started after the 10th. I with one of the classmates used to go to coaching on weekends. Getting up at around 5, catching the bus at 6, traveling for 2 hours, attending classes from 8 a.m. to 4–5 p.m., then traveling back to my hometown and doing the same the next day. And then attending school on weekdays. It was very very tiring. The months went by. I was not the worst-performing student there. I was good in school and okayish in the coaching. I made some friends there. They are still on my friend list :) of Facebook. We used to listen to music, used to gossip, play Clash of Clans, Mini Militia, teasing each other with crushes’ names, discuss solutions, and the most important thing, sleeping in Bus (and classes too) 😴.

Sometimes I was frustrated, sometimes sad and the ranks during mock exams were not that good too. It was in thousands. One day, paa asked me why the rank is so high, are the studies going fine. I was a bit frustrated and said a bit loud that I am trying my best, I am doing what I can do. I regretted inside for speaking like that for many days.

Counseling

Months passed solving all those modules, thinking about the new life I could have if I get through this time. I was able to clear both of the exams, JEE Mains and Advanced. I gave Bitsat but couldn’t make it through. The advanced exam rank was not good enough to get into IITs. I had to make the choices keeping the placements as well as the family in mind. Normally, there is always someone elder in the family or in relation who can tell about the colleges or have done Engineering. It was not the case here. Neither the parents know about it nor my sister. I took help from Facebook. I messaged a lot of students from their respective college pages. I asked whether the college is good or not.

My sister tried asking from people in her contacts. I know I have to be close to family, have to choose Computer Science and have to give importance to the placement record of the college. There were NIT Kurukshetra, NIT Jaipur, NIT Delhi, DTU, and NSIT. I didn’t include NIT and IIIT Allahabad for one reason. I didn’t like Uttar Pradesh and it is far from home too. There were 2 NITs in my counseling list and others were IITs (imagination of getting into it with the rank of 23k). I preferred NIT Jaipur over NIT Kurukshetra because the highest package was more of Jaipur. I was not able to get CSE in DTU and NSIT both. Days later, I got Kurukshetra in the first round and Jaipur in the second.

I went to NIT Delhi for the verification of documents. The campus was huge, but it was a lot away from the main city, in some forest. To be honest, I was happy for not getting into NIT Delhi. Parents were happy for getting their child to a good college 😁. Mom was already starting giving some gyaans .. to eat properly, to take care of health :). I was happy too. Finally, the grind of two years produced some results. And also it was the first time I was going to leave home. Fortunately, things went well for me. I did all that I could have done. I was proud of myself. There were many instances where the neighbors cursed me for my straightforward nature. But despite all that, finally, the career was taking a step ahead.

Thanks for reading this blog!

All the trouble you are going through right now, tomorrow it’s going to be worth it.