Should I go for job or give ONE more try to GATE again?

As admission 2017 is its final stage, there is always a big question in mind for those who were unable to secure admission in IIT's. The big question is what should I do now? Should I settle with the Non-IIT's college or should I give one more try for IIT's or should I go for Job now and try GATE in near future.

To answer the above question, let's break down this big question in a step-by-step approach.
The admission to the post-graduate program can be of 3 types.

1. Course based Program
2. College based Program
3. Mixed based Program

Course based admission means you are sure that in which department, engineering stream/field you want to pursue. This means you are ready to study what actually you wanted to study without considering any other factors such as placement, faculty, facilities etc.

The second admission is college based type in which your preference is the college and you are ready to study any course in any department.

The third admission type is a combination of the first and the second type. In this type, optimum combination is selected. Most of the students try to get admission of type 3.

In my opinion, one should try for IIT's first. They can study anything in IIT's because education system of IIT is designed in such a way that any student can enroll themselves for any course across the departments (elective courses). This is a big advantage if you want to study any subjects from others department. After IIT, the second most preferred college can be NIT's. In NIT's a little care should be taken while selecting the stream. If you are interested in that stream then only go for it.
If you can get admission in NIT's than there are chances that you might also get admission in MS at IIT's.

If you go for the job directly now, in long run it will be difficult to grow in any organization without post graduation. Once you start working, it might also be little difficult to get back to studies.

I feel that its worth of investing 1 more year for GATE 2018 to get into IIT's rather than struggling after post graduation. The experience of studying in IIT's will help you to grow at a faster rate in your future career. This will give you an additional edge over others. If you see the gap, it is actually just 6 months only. This is because direct Ph.D. and MS interviews are scheduled for November end and early December.

So basically, you have got only 4 months to complete the whole GATE syllabus. In reality, these 4 months duration is really a tight situation to prepare for GATE 2018. During this period you can prepare from the basics to make your fundamentals clear as this will also help you for Nov/Dec Ph.D. & MS interviews.

Now you have enough experience of GATE preparations, real GATE exam and post-GATE exam admission process. So based on your experience, you can prepare for GATE 2018 accordingly. You can improve your strengths where you were lacking this time. For example, you got confused in the formula, which led to the wrong answer (this wrong answer was one of the options). So you have time to improve your strategy during these 4-6 months.

I wish you all the best for the preparation.

Should I go for M.Tech or MS/M.Tech (by research) or direct Ph.D just after GATE?

After GATE exam, one can take admission to M.Tech/ME programmes offered by IITs, IISc, and government/centralized/deemed Universities. But these days, many programmes such as MS [Masters of Science in Engineering – by research], M.Tech [Master of Technology – by research], D.PhD [Direct Ph.D.] are offered by many IITs and IISc apart from their regular M.Tech programmes. The structure, criteria, and eligibility of these programmes are slightly different from a regular M.Tech programme. In this post, I would like to make it clear regarding the admission process, differences, pros, and cons between these programmes in brief.

Regular M.Tech Programme:

The most common program which is offered after GATE is M.Tech/ME in Engineering. This programme is well structured, organized and definite timed base course. Student has to complete the minimum requirement of core courses offered by the department and the elective courses (can be from the same department or other department also) with minimum grade requirement.

This programme is a 2 year course and under some adverse condition it can be extended for another 6 months (who fails to fulfill the minimum requirements for completing ME/M.Tech).

Mostly, the first year consists of coursework and second year is for the project and thesis. By the end of the fourth semester, the student has to submit a project report and/or thesis as per the department/institute stated guidelines.

Admission process:

The admission process is very straight forward. It is solely based on the GATE score only. There are many departments which allow for cross GATE score (for eg: a student with GATE Mechanical Engineering (ME) can apply to Aerospace department for their M.Tech Aerospace Engineering programmes). 

Some IITs may ask for additional suitability test and/or interview for cross GATE scores. There are some M.Tech programmes which might require additional requirements of written test and/or interview.

Master of Science (in Engineering – by research) / M.Tech (by research)

MS in Engineering - by research is offered by IITM, IITK, IITKGP, IITD and M.Tech - by research is offered by IITB and IISc. The concept and the structure of both the courses are almost similar. These programmes are like a mini - Ph.D programme where a student is focused on a particular area of research of his/her own interest and completes the programme accordingly.

The structure of these programme follows the below pattern.

• You will be provided a guide/research advisor (who will play a critical role during the whole program) as per your research interest and the requirement of the lab. The important point to remember is that the research interest of student as well as advisor should match so that at any point of time advisor can provide the guidance.
• After selecting the advisor, student undergoes general courses which are in consistent with the research theme of the lab and student interest. The course work (minimum 5 courses with a CGPA of 7.5 and above is required for MS at IITM), literature review and problem definition is completed mostly within 2-3 semester. 
• The completion of research for the defined MS research problem may take around 1.5 - 2 years after completing the coursework. The minimum criteria such as publication in peer review journals, national/international conferences as per advisor and IIT should be fulfilled for the successful completion of MS/M.Tech program by research.

Advantages: 

• This will help in developing problem solving capability on the cutting edge technologies.
• You would be working on the real time problem/project or futuristic problem/project. 
• This will help you to develop the skills required for research-oriented jobs in labs and industries. You will be directly part of a scientific community where there will be a contribution from your end for the benefit of the society directly or indirectly in some way. 
• The best advantage of these programmes is that even with a lower GATE score, one can expect a call from IITs for admission.
• This will give you an essence/taste of a research programme (such as Ph.D) at very early stage of your life which can help you to mould your career either in research field, academia or into industrial/service jobs accordingly. 
• You can convert your MS program into Direct Ph.D programmes at any time during the course upon fulfilling the minimum criteria required to do so.  This may help you in saving time if you intend to pursue Ph.D after MS/M.Tech.
• You also get a chance for attending a fully funded national and international conference once during your stay at the institute.

Disadvantages:

• These research programmes are independent of time. On an average, it takes around 3 years.
• You will be master of a particular subject or research area while a regular M.Tech guys have a broad and a generalized view about many areas as they undergo many graduate level courses in short period of time (2 years).

Admission process:

• The admission process to this research-based Master programmes is different from the regular M.Tech admission process.
• The candidates are shortlisted for a written test and/or interview on the basis of GATE score with additional requirements such as BE/B.Tech score, projects, professional skills like programming, industrial software tools, projects done during BE/B.Tech etc.
• The general rule is 70:30 weightage for interview and GATE score respectively.

Direct Ph.D. Programmes:

The program is almost similar to the MS program with additional requirements such as 2-3 peer review publications with additional participation in national/international conferences (these requirements vary from advisor to advisor and institutes).

Admission process is also similar to the MS program. On an average duration of direct PhD program is about 5-6 years.

In a nutshell, if you are looking for a job after your post graduation than M.Tech will be a good choice.
If you are looking for a career in research than MS will give you a solid foundation. After MS from IITs, one can get fully funded Ph.D in many foreign universities. 
As I preferred top institute over programme, I went with the MS journey at IIT Madras. This gave me a chance to stay for a longer period at IIT Madras (heaven for me while for some it was hell). Take your own decision and don't think what people will say if you are not successful. You will be happy that you tried something out of the box and what you liked to do. Wishing you all a great luck with the admission. 
I hope this helped you to understand the difference between M.Tech and MS programme and its structure. If you have doubts or information is unclear please feel free to drop a comment. I will be happy to get back to help you.

Why Not You ?

I am Darshak, did my B.Tech in Aerospace Engineering from a private college, MS (by research) in Fluid Mechanics from IIT Madras and now working at Ebara Corporation, Japan.

I am an average student with the positive attitude towards the life. I strongly believe that if one wants to achieve something in life, they can achieve it (it may take some time) but they will succeed at the end. You get only one life to achieve so if you are not able to do it till now then “Make it Possible Now”.

This blog is dedicated to the students who want to pursue higher studies through GATE. Basically, it will be through GATE Aerospace paper so I would speak my views and opinion regarding GATE exam and Post Graduation at IIT's/NIT's and the Central University of India. 

The motivation behind doing GATE and studying for it:

When I was in the 3rd year of engineering (2011), I found that just by doing engineering I will be not able to get good opportunities as far as a job is concerned in private organization. Even if I get into some good organization I will take time to grow. At some stage down the line, the growth will be stagnant and the reason for it would be the educational qualification. So I understood that doing M.Tech/MS (If you want to be in the technical field for minimum 5 years) would be a good option for a long run.

The next question was from where I should do my Masters, USA or Europe or India? After some initial research, I came to the conclusion that IIT would be a great choice. And we all know that IIT’s are the best place in India for technical education. Based on my initial research regarding the colleges, IIT’s are the best followed by NIT’s and Deemed Universities.

Colleges for Post Graduation in the order of preference after GATE AE:

With Aerospace background, I have to clear GATE Aerospace Engineering (AE) paper. Based on GATE AE score, I can apply for all major old IIT’s (IIT-B, IIT-K, IIT-KGP, IIT-M) and IISc. There are few good government organizations such as DIAT (Defence Institute of Advanced Technology – Pune) and IIST (Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology – Trivandrum) where M.Tech in Aerospace Engineering can be pursued based on GATE AE score. In 2012, I came to the conclusion that with a Gate score more than 450 (around 45 marks out of 100), one can get a written and/or interview call from IIT’s and IISc (MSc [now M.Tech] in Engineering by research ).

With this initial information, I started preparing for GATE AE. From various forums and experts, the best advice I found that is to solve as many as numerical problems and previous years GATE question papers. Once you understand the pattern of the GATE question paper, your preparation will be automatically in that direction. For GATE preparation, the most important point to remember is that to read as many topics as you can and should try to cover the complete syllabus. I would recommend that nothing should be kept in the option.

Life Changing experience at IIT:

The life at IIT is totally new, exciting and very good experience. You will have each and every count of the day which you will spend inside the campus. You will be living a dream life of many students across the country. I promise you that it will enhance your personality with the exposure you get inside the campus academically as well as extra circular activities. If someone asked me the best part of my life which I would love to live it again, the answer would be very simple. The life at IIT is like a life in heaven and you will miss it after you are graduated. The point I want to convey here is very simple, before you, many have gone through the same stage and got into IIT, with your batch also many will take admission in IIT’s and in future also many will be taking admission for sure. So “WHY NOT YOU?”. If you feel it as difficult, impossible task (indeed it is), then “MAKE IT POSSIBLE NOW”, you can do it. Actually, anyone can do it if they really want too. 

Success is when an opportunity meets preparations. So it is better to be prepared for any situation rather than preparing at that moment when opportunity knocks at your door. For GATE exam and preparation, stay calm and focused. Practice as much as you can, read as much as you can. Don’t leave anything for the last moment. Try to cover each and every aspect of GATE pattern and syllabus thoroughly. These preparation days for GATE exam are most important and these can change everything for the rest of your life. Everything will fall into the correct places at the right place and at the right time if you have given your all sincere efforts. Hard work always gets paid off at the end.