How to select the perfect course at UG level

By Govind Sharma

Selecting the perfect course at the undergraduate level is very important because selecting the right course may open a world of opportunities for you, whereas, selecting a wrong course may leave you regretting your actions forever. The right course is not just about the nomenclature of the course, rather it is a blend of the right course content and selecting the appropriate institute.

An appropriate course is one selected on the basis of your own planning, your ambition, your aptitude and interest. A course should not be selected just for money you wish to earn. Although it sounds impractical that money follows passion, but it is true. You think about a particular area of study and you will find a related course somewhere. However, you should not get confused and you should not follow your friends or advertised material. You may feel confused about what job prospects you may have after pursuing the course and what salary you may hope to receive after the course. That is natural and you should be cautious.

Selecting the perfect course for yourself is like a marriage. If you get a compatible life partner, your life will blossom but if your partner is not compatible, your life gets ruined. Be wise, don’t follow anything blindly, be aware and choose the right course.

How to choose a right course and shortlist final 3 courses

10+2 is a turning point where every student has to make a vital career decision. You come across thousands of advertisements and even more suggestions from friends who may or may not have the knowledge about a course and institute (finally we Indians are often given free advice even when we don’t actually look for it). So what should one actually do? Students with lower percentage are often in a state of dilemma. They feel they are not going to be admitted by any good college so they should just accept any college and any course. On the other hand, there may even be a few students, who may feel that only the course (say BBA, BTech, BE, BArch, etc) is important and so it’s fine to opt for any institute offering them the same. However, nothing is black and white and none of these assumptions are true. It depends on certain aspects and we cannot apply a simple rule universally. You also need to be clear with what you want to do. There will always be thousands of options available but you need to focus on what you really want to become in life.

Step 1: Focus on your long term aim and what you really want to do

Having a clear mission and objective for yourself is the first step. What are your aspirations? You may want to tread a career path inspired by Lata Mangeshkar, Sachin Tendulkar, Dr C V Raman, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, Kalpana Chawla, among others. If you look at these people, they had a very clear focus in life i.e. they knew what they wanted out of life. By the time you completed your 10+2, you would have come across various subjects/topics and must have had a liking for a few. At this point you need to just think – do you want to pursue your career in any of those subjects?

You have a variety of options and can easily choose to become a biotechnologist, a doctor, a lawyer, a social worker, a psychologist, a business executive, a creative person, an author, a poet and so on.

Step 2: Search for the right course

After deciding your aim or goal in life, the next step is to search for the best courses available for you. Keep only five different areas of interest and rank them between 1 and 5. Now search for courses available in your goal/ area of interest. You may search on google, you may search on shiksha.com. Explore Shiksha Café – announcement section and also visit its Q & A section and you will be surprised to find various questions and answers posted on the topic. Remember to go through an independent review of such courses and institutes.

Step 3: Search for the USP or benefits of pursuing a course

Check worthiness of each course you have shortlisted and see if it meets your own goal. For instance, you may be interested in learning a new language. Your options range from French, Ardhmagadhi, Pali, Japanese to Spanish. You may find lot of career opportunities after learning French and English but you may not find any career prospects after learning Pali. So, Pali could then be taken only as a subject of interest.

Your objective should be to have a stable career, earning opportunities, ability to start something of your own so on and so forth. To check worthiness of the course, you should see:

1. What career opportunities does it provide?
2. Does it allow you to switch between a job and start your own venture or to pursue your interest?
3. Does it allow to go for higher studies if you desire to do so?

Step 4: Find the right institute
Being able to select the right institute after finalising your courses is equally important. However, it is not that easy a task. You will have to spend a lot of time researching this. You may find this information through professional independent blogs, write-ups and through news reports (not through advertisements). You may rank educational institutions on the following basis:

1. Rank of such institutes
2. Eligibility criteria for admission
3. Last cut-off for the course
4. Reputation of such institutes
5. Whether it has approval from required body

Some of the courses and their approving/controlling bodies are as follows:

Sr. No.	Course sectors	Nomenclature of Degrees	Approving and controlling bodies
1	Engineering, IT and Management	Diploma in Engineering, BE, BTech, ME, MTech, MBA, MMS, MBS, MBE, Master of Management, PGDBA, PGDHRM, PGDMM, PGDFM, PGDM, MPhil and PhD in engineering, technology, management	AICTE (All India Council for Technical Education), New Delhi
2	Architecture	Diploma in Architecture, BArch., MArch, MPhil and PhD in architecture	Council of Architecture, New Delhi
3	Pharmacy	Diploma in Pharmacy (DPharm), Bachelor of Pharmacy (BPharm), Master of Pharmacy (MPharm), MPhil and PhD in pharmaceutical science	Pharmacy Council of India (PCI), New Delhi
4	Nursing	ANM, GNM, Diploma in Nursing, BSc Nursing, MSc Nursing, MPhil and PhD in nursing	Indian Nursing Council (INC), New Delhi
5	Medicine	MBBS, MD, DM, MCh, MS, MSc (field related to medicine only), Diploma, MHA, DPB, FCPS, MCPS, MPhil and PhD in medicine and any course related to modern medicine	Medical Council of India (MCI), New Delhi
6	Law	LLB, LLM, MPhil and PhD in Law	Bar Council of India, New Delhi
7	Ayurvedic Medicine	DAMS, BAMS, MD (Ayurvedic Medicine), MS (Ayurvedic Medicine), Diploma in Ayurved and PhD in Ayurvedic Medicine	Central Council of Indian Medicine (CCIM), New Delhi
8	Unani Medicine		Central Council of Indian Medicine (CCIM), New Delhi
9	Siddha and Naturopathy	Diploma in Naturopathy (ND), Bachelor of Naturopathy and Yogic Science (BNYS), Bachelor of Naturopathy (B.Nat.)	Department of AYUSH, Government of India
10	Homeopathy	DHMS, BHMS, MD (Homeopathy), MS (Homeopathy), PhD Homeopathy	Central Council of Homeopathy, New Delhi
11	Teaching and teachers education	D.Ed, B.Ed, M.Ed, MPhil and PhD in Education	National Council for Teachers Education (NCTE), Bhopal
12	Rehabilitation and special education	D.Ed Special Education, B.Ed (Special Education), M.Ed (Special Education), Post Graduate Diploma in Rehabilitation Psychology, Hearing impaired, learning disability etc., MPhil and PhD in special Education	Rehabilitation Council of India, (RCI), New Delhi
13	Aerospace and Aircraft related courses	BE/ BTech. (Aerospace), BE/ BTech. (Aeronautical), Aircraft maintenance engineering, flying related course	AICTE and DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation

Please note: If you are planning to opt for any course which is job oriented such as BAMS, BHMS, MBBS, BNYS, you need not pay too much attention to an institute’s ranking. Here ranking is only important to understand the quality of education provided there. However, you should pay serious attention to the necessary approvals of degrees offered at these institutes.

Final step:

Once you complete all these steps, you need to shortlist the top three courses. For that, first of all you need to go through the syllabus of the courses which you have shortlisted and see if you are really interested in the subject. This will help you select the final three subjects which attract you the most and opt for the top institutes offering these courses based on your percentage (see the college’s last year cut off) and of course, you can apply to all three courses in the same or different institutes.

Course selection based on your passion is never wrong but yes, decision taken based on money can go wrong as the money aspect depends on various factors such as market condition, new technology and innovation, government regulations, etc. For example, recently , Union Government amended Companies Act which increased job prospects for CAs and ICWA but it hampered career prospects for CS (Company Secretaries) as it was said that is not mandatory for private companies to appoint a company secretary (earlier, the companies with Rs 5 crore and above turnover, it was mandatory). After much protest, on June 12, 2014, the government issued a fresh circular making it mandatory again for Pvt. Ltd. companies to have a CS. Similarly, once Nokia was the market leader in mobiles so Symbian OS was in demand, now Android has dominated the market impacting the jobs of software engineers with Symbian OS experience. So, follow your passion – money, success and fame will follow you.

All the best!

About the author:

Govind Sharma is a HR professional with over 10 years of experience in career planning, guidance and management.He is a leading Shiksha Counsellor.