How to Choose What to Study in College (India)

Create a list of colleges based on the overall experience. Colleges differ in the way they nurture their students. They are all unique to their mission, faculty, and approach. You can search online to understand the way the staff and the university/ college treat and talk about their college and alumni (students that have passed college and are now a part of the institute or college). Some colleges give ample creative and methodical freedom to their students for their holistic growth. While some colleges carve out a plan and a framework of set values under which they seek to nurture their students.

• You can read some points on their official website under their About, Mission, and Awards section. Other areas like testimonials, social media pages, placement, and alumni pages also help a great deal in seeing if you want to go to that particular college based on their policies.
• Looking for a government-recognized college or institute is a must. For example, you can find on the first page of Sophia College that they are NAAC accredited which stands for National Assessment and Accreditation Council and that they are affiliated to the University of Mumbai. Such institutes only provide certificates that are considered valid. You must look for all these factors on their prospectus, brochure, and website.

Choose a college based on internships and placement drives. You can check the 'Placement' section on the website of a college to see how the college encourages leadership, and entrepreneurship and builds important skill sets in their students by perusing the details under the placement column. Most colleges offer summer internships that help the students learn how to handle work and apply the theory that they learned in college. Some prestigious colleges offer internship opportunities that pay the students about INR 60,000 as well, while others offer internships purely for unpaid on-the-job training. Where you intern as a student of a college impacts greatly on your first job, professionally. Besides summer internships that may or may not be a part of the curriculum, there are placement drives that institutes conduct for a student's future. You can choose a college that offers both or either in national and multinational companies, Public Sector Units (PSU), etc. It might be difficult to have a good pay package to start with if you never participated in summer internships or placement drives. On-campus, most eligible students get enviable jobs and pay packages between INR 2 lakhs per annum to 1 crore per annum. Without this help, you might be left on your own to apply for jobs through job portals like LinkedIn, Naukri, Glassdoor, etc. and making the most of it with top-notch answers to group discussions, tests, a personal round of interviews and other steps followed by the company during their hiring process.

• If you cannot find the placement page on the website easily, you can also type the name of the college with the word placement on Google or any other search engine and find the official website's link to their placement page, other websites like Shiksha, College Dekho, College Dunia, etc., that are about colleges in India, advertisements about colleges that usually show on top of all the links below and so on.

Create a list of colleges. This can be based on a few key points. The bigger the college name, the more prominent the impression the student makes when they apply for jobs or start their career. However, if you come from a less renowned college as well you can make a strong impression with your confidence, command over your language, subject knowledge, presentability, aptitude, and skill set. Colleges offer a combination of subjects as per their board, specialization, college infrastructure, and vision. You can choose the one that offers the subjects you need, has a fee structure that you can pay, alumni network or notable alumni from the college or institute, and whether you need a college that is close to home or not. You will all this information online on their official website. Or you can make a call or ask the same via email to the administrator of the college. Some college websites also offer an online chat option that is open 24/7.

• If you type NIIT, Lovely Professional University, Amity University, etc., on Google search, you will find the link to their official website and some other links that may be websites that are talking about NIIT or the one that you might have typed. Going to the official website is always beneficial to seek credible information.
• If a college or institute has many buildings that have different names like in the case of Mumbai University, you can go on their official website here to look for all their affiliated colleges, online learning initiatives like Swayam, other buildings for different courses in their campus and so on.
  • Their website also has a link to getting career counseling here.
• Some colleges have more than one branch and they have branches in different cities for instance NIT which has many branches for professional courses in various states of India, you can search for your specific city's NIT by typing, 'NIT Warangal' if you live in Warangal or any other with the name of your city or state like Tamil Nadu.

Get guidance from education counselors. There are career counselors that help guide students if they find it difficult to do so on their own. Schools also have guidance counselors who help with all their questions. If you need to know if your school offers this service, you can ask your teachers or check under the menus on your school's official website. Such guidance is also offered to students professionally which may be paid for. You can ask your elders or teachers to guide you in finding credible education counselors that detail the students about various courses, colleges, career options, and so on. These are available free of cost as well online, however, be careful to do a background check so you don't fall prey to online scams that offer no service but fraudulently extract money. Shiksha is an online website that offers details about hundreds of colleges all over India with details like placements, the credibility of the college, internships, the highest pay package of the placed students, alumni network, recruiters of their students, courses offered, and so on.

• Many videos on YouTube also offer information about various courses, fields, and where they can lead you. You can type specific subjects on YouTube for videos in your native language as well. For instance, if you type on YouTube: Scope of studying Arts, Scope of choosing BBA, Scope of doing a vocational course after class 12, you will get plenty of information on the same and many more related topics that may answer very important questions, however, you didn't know about them.

Giving your best. Regardless of which college you join or your friends join, it is in your control how far you go in life. You can build a good life for yourself regardless of the status of the college that you go to. If you have to choose a particular stream because of family pressure, then also you have to make the most of your choice. Remember, most great thinkers and celebrities in India have come from humble backgrounds. Our leaders have also become successful political figures despite facing hardships like selling tea as a child^[6] . So, you have every reason not to lose heart if you aren't in the college of your dreams. Besides, you can always change your job later in life by taking an online course at coursera that you couldn't afford after school. You can then add their certificate to your account on your job portal and resume or bio-data for a job in that field. You can start fresh if need be. You will be doing what you enjoy.

• If you miss working in a particular field, you can be connected to that area by volunteering in that office. LinkedIn and other job sites offer ample opportunities to volunteer anywhere between an hour to more hours a week at organizations and companies that you want to work with. United Nations and other such prestigious organizations also take volunteers who are qualified and have a strong desire to participate and help. They offer certificates and references for your future job requirement.

Go for the second best. If none of your decisions or only a few of your choices are met in terms of your chosen college, course, grades, etc. you can still pave your way into feeling victorious for being you and working with what you had. When you have a rock-solid resolve to prove yourself, it won't matter whether you study at an Ivy League Institute or a government college. Remember how Baba Saheb Ambedkar studied, worked with what he had, suffered oppression, and yet became an inspiration for all of India and abroad.

Consider your comfort and convenience. For some students and their concerned parents, how close the college is to their home becomes the prime factor behind choosing a college. If you need to choose the best college keeping in mind its location, mode of transport, safer and crowded routes, the cost incurred while traveling to and from, etc., you can do so as well. Just type 'Colleges in Churchgate', 'Colleges in New Delhi, India' or your city to find a college that has a shorter distance from your home. Then you can visit the official website and read all about all their courses, fee structure, concessions offered, scholarship, and other facilities that you expect from your desired college and finalize one.

• After all the metro trains are made in Mumbai, perhaps traveling to and from Vile Parle might be easier. There are tons of great colleges there like Mithibai^[7] , NMIMS^[8] and others. Bandra has a plethora of colleges like R.D. National College^[9] while Churchgate also boasts of the best colleges like St. Xavier's College^[10] , Jai Hind College^[11] , K.C. College^[12] , Sydenham College^[13] etc.
• St. Xavier's College offers freeship or reservations to some students who belong to Schedule Caste (SC), Schedule Tribe (ST) category, persons with disability, wards of freedom fighters^[14] and some others and has a percentage of seats reserved for Christian students as well. Likewise, Jai Hind has reservations for Sindhi people as it is a Sindhi - linguistic minority college^[15] .
• You can opt for a boys-only college or a women's college like SVT College^[16] . SVT in Santacruz West also has several buildings within their campus that offer a huge number of professional courses like interior designing, fashion designing, textile designing, jewelry designing, and so on. You can have a great time in such a college with a spacious campus with fantastic infrastructure and facilities. They also offer many extra activities from established personalities like dancers, theater artists, singers, etc.

Join the college that your friends are going to. Often while in the last few years of school, say class 8, 9, or 10, students discuss their future college list and who will be going where. Parents also sometimes seek their kids to join a college with a group of friends or a good friend so they are safe while traveling alone, have company in the middle of the new crowd, have a support system, and so on. However, just like you, every other student in your class is dealing with the same. They also will find it new. You all can discover what it feels like together to be in college and how you will gel in the atmosphere. You may join a college with a friend or alone. It need not make joining college daunting because there are others also for whom it will be their first year and you all will get to know each other better by attending college, working on projects, participating in activities and college festivals, enjoying special days of celebration, going for college trips, etc.

Go for distance learning. Distance learning is an option of not going to college daily and you are permitted to stay at home to study. You may visit the college if you need to ask something or submit documents, regular projects, assignments, giving exams, etc. Distance learning is offered by the University of Mumbai often called Mumbai University and their official website has the link of it under Idol. Their fee is more affordable as compared to other institutions, online learning or distance learning colleges and the quality of education is of high quality. They also send the books which is covered in the small fee. Or you can go for MOOC for distance learning. Swayam can also be found on their website which is India's initiative for distance learning. Symbiosis is yet another institute that offers distance learning. Mostly students who may have a learning disability or working professionals who don't have time to go to college, opt for this system. It gives them the time to self-study and the freedom from facing others whom they might not be comfortable to face yet.