Keep your alternatives open

Study in India

Dear Sir,

I have completed my Class X and I wish to pursue my education in computer science stream. I aspire to get admission in one of the IITs after my PUC, so can you please suggest some good PU colleges in Bengaluru with a reasonable fee structure?

Srijan

Dear Srijan,

There are many PU Colleges in Bengaluru. You need to select a college based on its reputation, closeness to your house and feedback from existing students. You should check the fee structure individually from them. While it is good that you are ambitious and want to get into IIT, do keep in mind that tens of lakhs of students aspire for a few thousand IIT seats.

Try and set your long-term career goals based not only on your interest but also your capabilities and aptitude. If you are convinced that engineering is the right option for you, then try for the best colleges from IITs downward and keep alternatives open in case you do not get into your first choice.

Dear Sir,

I have completed my Class 12 (CBSE) in Humanities. I am keen on pursuing Liberal Arts. Could you please suggest some good colleges that offer this course.

Nitya Devayya

Dear Nitya,

Liberal Arts education covers a wide range of subjects under humanities, business, arts, vocational, management, development etc, enabling students to slowly start narrowing down to their final career goals based on the variety of teaching they have received. It is ideal for those who have an exploratory mind, wide range of interests, and are not ready to narrow down to a specific career after Class 12.

Three-and-four year degree courses in Liberal Arts are offered by reputed universities such as Ashoka, Symbiosis, FLAME, Jindal, JNU, Madras Christian College, Azim Premji, SRM, NMIMS etc, and admission is through their own selection tests.

Dear Sir,

I am interested in AI and technology as well as bio-research. I am confused whether to take PCMB or PCMC in Class 11. Please guide

A student

Dear student,

If you are interested in bio-research, then it is certainly advisable to study Biology as your fourth subject instead of Computer Science. You can pick up computer skills and artificial intelligence expertise later on quite easily, in fact, you may learn more updated versions subsequently. But studying biology will keep the doors open for you to work in bio-related fields.

Dear Sir,

I want to do BEd course. My qualification is BE (Chemical) and MBA (from IGNOU). Currently, I am working as a full-time teacher and have a year’s experience. I stay in Bengaluru and want to pursue BEd through distance education. Can I do BEd through distance learning from any other state university? If not BEd, is there any other course that would complement my teaching career?

Tamanna Chauhan

Dear Tamanna,

Indira Gandhi National Open University (www.ignou.ac.in) and a few others do offer distance learning BEd for teachers working in recognised schools. Also, there are many interesting teacher training programmes in Bengaluru, and many of them can be done either part-time or by taking off from work for a few months. Since you are a qualified engineer with an MBA, these would be more challenging and may add value to your career. Some of the reputed ones are:

• Academy for Creative Teaching (www.actedu.in)

• Cambridge International Diploma ([e-mail])

• Teacher Foundation (www.teacherfoundation.org)

• The Learning Curve (BASE) (www.base-edu.in)

• TISB Training Academy (www.tta.net.in)

Dear Sir,

My daughter completed her BE in Electronics & Communication in 2018. She got 70% marks in Engineering. Kindly suggest the best-suited course and the field in which she should she pursue her master’s degree.

Abraham PG

Dear parent,

Best-suited career can only be recommended after assessing her holistically taking into account her multiple intelligences, personality traits, social and commercial skills, attention span and memory retention, motivation levels, ability for sustained hard work, and of course, her interest. It would be nice if she takes up an entry level job in her field to get a deeper idea about what she would like to do in the long run, and then select a suitable Master’s course. Alternatively she may go for an aptitude test and assessment.

Dear Sir,

I completed my II PUC this year. I had taken up science planning to pursue engineering. But, now I feel more inclined towards commerce and management field. I am planning to take up a bachelor’s programme in healthcare and hospitality management and then do an MBA in the same domain. Is this possible? If yes, what are the scopes and career opportunities in this field? Is the job and pay satisfactory compared to engineering jobs?

Prerana

Dear Prerana,

It is certainly possible. Do ensure that you are keen on pursuing either healthcare or hospitality as your long-term career (they are two diverse fields). Then after your bachelor’s degree you may take up an entry level job to get a feel of the working environment and job description. You can then establish yourself in that field and after a few years of work experience you can go for an MBA to rise higher. You cannot compare salaries of two different domains, as each person draws remuneration based on his capabilities, hard work and suitability — but generally the hospitality sector does not pay salaries comparable to IT and similar fields.