Making a wise decision is easier with these options if JEE score is low

By: Suraj K. Maurya

Keep back-up options, explore these options and make a wise decision to achieve the goals.

Engineering is the dream of almost every Maths stream student in India which makes the JEE Main exam having the highest number of participants every year. This is the reason scoring high becomes utmost important in this exam to increase the chances of getting admission in NITs and various other top engineering colleges across the country. For some reason, if one could not score well in JEE Main, they should not lose hope. In this article, I would share my experience and the available opportunities/ options to help you select the right one.

During the preparation for the JEE Main Exam, the students have enough time to realize their strengths and weaknesses and work to improvise the same. Despite the countless efforts, improvement in the scores was not consistent in my progress tests. Hence, I started looking for some back-up options, in the process I considered the three most general career options that I could pursue after my graduation.

1. Higher Education/Research (MTech/MS, PhD)
2. Join the corporate world (private jobs)
3. Government jobs

Being a Science student and considering the above three options, there were two suitable options for graduation, i.e. BTech and BSc / MSc

BTech

Completing graduation with a technical degree is in trend these days. Many government and private engineering colleges offer admission through their entrance exam. Many private engineering colleges offer admission based on their entrance exam or JEE Main score. These are: 

Government Universities	Private Universities
MMMUT - Madan Mohan Malaviya University of Technology DTU - Delhi Technological University (DCE) HBTU Kanpur - Harcourt Butler Technical University	BITS Pilani - Birla Institute of Technology and Science VIT University, Vellore Graphic Era University - GEU Jaypee University of Information Technology - JUIT Galgotias University KIIT - Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology LPU - Lovely Professional University Amity University, Noida

State Technical University: In every state technical university, some good colleges fall in both private and government categories. The most important factor is that the fee of these colleges is less as compared to other private universities and they offer scholarships. Therefore, one must apply for a state university.

A BTech degree will help to pursue any of the above-mentioned careers after graduation.

BSc / MSc

Most of us do not consider the BSc/MSc honours degree, however, it offers really good courses in traditional fields like Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, as well as in trending field like Nanotechnology, Material Science,  Electronics, Geophysics, Computer Science, Biomedical Science, etc.. This could open up a wide range of opportunities in the future.

Few good universities for BSc degree are:

• BHU - Banaras Hindu University
• DU - Delhi University
• Allahabad University
• UoH - University of Hyderabad
• JNU - Jawaharlal Nehru University
• AMU - Aligarh Muslim University

 

After the intensive research from the beginning of graduation, I have come to know that there are some national-level entrance examinations, which take students for the integrated MSc and most of the courses offered in these degrees are highly research-oriented.

• NEST
• CUCET

Key points to remember 

1. Getting a BSc honours degree from some recognised university is better than BTech from the average ranking engineering colleges
2. Honours degree in Physics, Mathematics, Statistics, Computer Science or any other analytical field could help to get into the field of Data Science, Machine Learning or Artificial Intelligence. So the opportunities for the students having a BSc honours degree is similar to BTech in Computer Science, the only additional thing required is the knowledge of programming any language.
3. A BSc degree would help in pursuing any of the above-mentioned careers after graduation. It is more preferable for the students who want to prepare for non-technical government jobs as it would save one year.
4. For someone interested in research could take any degree, BTech or BSc, as it would not matter much in the long term.

This assessment helped me to find the best available options. I would like to give one more advice from my experience, apply for a maximum number of universities for both BTech and BSc so that you would have sufficient options to make the best choice.

About the Author:

Suraj K.  Maurya is pursuing his BTech in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Ajay Kumar Garg Engineering College. He is an active member of Robotics Club AKGEC. He has completed several robotics projects and participated in various international robotics competitions.