DCE/ NSIT Counselling for BE 1st Semester Students, 2008

Delhi General Category
Day 1
21 July 2008 was the first day of counselling for candidates belonging to Delhi General Category. The first four hundred rank-holders were called for counselling at the convocation hall in the civil engineering department building.
A tentative list of allotted branches for the prospective students was put up on a notice board outside the venue. Although the time of commencement of counselling was given as 10:30 am in the prospectus, it actually started at 10:00 am. However, the college held counselling for those people who were late to the venue later too.

The counselling was done in a brisk and transparent way, which was nevertheless a long wait for people whose ranks were closer to 400. Verifying officers sat in a single row on desks arranged on the dais in the convocation hall. Candidates were called according to their ranks and went along the row, submitting the necessary documents and collecting the admission slip and receipt along the way. There was a help desk and a hostel counter in addition to this. This hostel counter was only for those seeking admission in DCE as future NSIT students have to contact the college separately.

Most of the people there were torn between DCE/NSIT and other engineering colleges, particularly the IITs. For most of the top rankers, IIT probably won out as very few took admission in DCE/NSIT, especially for people in the top 100. Nearly everyone present there had a rank in the IIT-JEE 2008 regular merit list although many were not getting the stream of their choice. Others had their names in the JEE extended merit list. Most of the people were ranked less than 4000 in AIEEE (according to the AIR), i.e., they had ranks like 2000-3000 or even lesser. Many people I chatted with had gotten through at their first attempt.

Most of the people I talked with preferred NSIT over DCE, especially for Computer Engineering and Electronics and Communication Engineering. Many couldn’t explain why they wanted to so. A few chose DCE because it was situated near their houses. I would be grateful to anyone who can enlighten me about the right choice between DCE and NSIT and the reason or logic behind it.

It seems for quite a few people IIT was still on their mind. There were Brilliant Tutorial posters and pamphlets on the campus, sporting the blurb, “Do you want to be in IIT in 2009?” or some such thing. I have heard that quite a few people join DCE and then prepare for IIT JEE alongside, leaving it when their ultimate goal, i.e., admission to IIT is attained.
(DCE/NSIT is rather cumbersome to type all the time, so henceforth in this blog post DCE will stand for both unless stated otherwise.)

I don’t know what is right thing to do; prepare for IIT or focus on studies at DCE. I, personally, am confused. I don’t know what to do now.

I guess what it will do now I focus on DCE, try to excel at it; try to be the best in the whole world. I may give IITJEE just for the sake of redeeming my hurt pride, but I may also just forget about the whole IIT prep thing.
I guess instead of spending another year at IIT, it is better to get a post graduation degree in MIT/ Cal tech or any other globally renowned institute. One academic year would be half the duration of the MS/ M.Tech/ ME/ MBA/ any other degree programme. And many people from DCE do get great job offers and admissions in great institutes… it really depends on the persons and how well they want to perform at DCE.

That was the day one. Prospective students called on subsequent or previous days for counselling are requested to contribute to this bog post through their comments to make it a more comprehensive report as well as a useful guide on the admission process. Any useful tip, report or any other thing will be appreciated.
Anyone who has knowledge about the admission procedure and the method for allotment of hostels rooms at DCE is requested to contribute.
The views and topics taken up over here are open for discussion. So feel free to dissect, analyse, contradict, oppose or add to them in any other way through thoughtful comments.