Talk about hardsell! In the field of education, does the sales pitch really get as high as this? Samples:  ‘Developing a complete professional’, ‘The future is here’, ‘We create quality professionals’, ‘Vision of future’....
   With these punch-lines, pamphlets of various engineering colleges now rain like confetti on engineering aspirants at the CET-Cell, Bangalore.
   Make no mistake, with the admission season on, the State’s engineering colleges are pulling out all the stops to woo the CET pass-outs.
   As you enter the CET-Cell, agents of private colleges, standing in a row, not only palm their pamphlets off on you but also tell you -- in detail -- what their colleges offer students.
   One was overheard saying: “Sir, our college is the best not just in Bangalore but in Karnataka. We’ve the most brilliant faculty, the best infrastructure, swimming pools, a vast playground, gym and personality development programmes.”
Pleasure trips
   Many of these agents are even taking students from the CET-Cell all the way to their institutions on a ‘pleasure trip’, where at the end of a tiresome day, students and their parents are treated to ‘nice’ meals.
   Admits Shanthapriya, principal of Mangalore-based Srinivas Institute of Technology: “The cut-throat competition among the colleges has crossed all limits. Many old colleges indulge in spreading rumours about recognition to new engineering colleges not being permanent.
‘Rumour war’
   “Fact is every year every professional college has to seek All-India Council for Technical Education recognition. And there are several old colleges which were derecognised this year for want of infrastructure and teaching faculties,” he adds.
   Besides, these colleges “spread rumours about placement problems associated with new colleges” whereas “every company is in such need of professionals that placement is not a problem these days”.
   Revana Siddeshwara Institute of Technology principal T Basavaraju is even more bitter about the “rumour war being waged by some major players” as the admission process starts gathering pace. “Our institution is second to none but we suffer because of the rumours floated by some major institutions,” says Dr Basavaraju.
   However, Santosh, the Chief Manager (Operations) of the Jain Group of Institutions, smirks away all such ‘threats’. “If an institution is focused on providing the best to students, it won’t face any challenge. We have all the  batches full and students with first division are rushing to us for admission,” he says.