As GATE exam is approaching, many are busy with the exam preparation. We always feel that once GATE exam is over, we are done for the whole admission process.
Please wait! Hold on for a second!
You are assuming it wrong. Actually, GATE exam is the first step of the admission process. It does not only depend on how much you score but also on how you create an opportunity for yourself and convert the same opportunity into admission (even with the low GATE score/AIR) in IIT. To get into IIT, you need to prove yourself again and again, not only at one IIT rather multiple IITs for multiple times.
As per my knowledge & experience, to get into direct admission at IIT for M.Tech course with GATE AE score, one needs to be under AIR 50. The number of applicants expected for 2019 GATE AE is approximate 4000. So what if your rank between 50 & 250.
Does that mean that you will be not able to make into IIT for the Post-Graduate Studies???
The answer is NO, You can still Make it!!
The answer is NO, You can still Make it!!
But How???
There are multiple ways to get into IIT. The simplest way is through the direct admission. The second way is by cracking written test and/or interviews at multiple departments of all the applicable IITs. By the end of the 4-year engineering course, we make up our mind for a particular career path and want to pursue PG studies in that particular field only at the pre-decided department of any particular IIT.
Such types of rigid conditions might bring some difficulty in getting admission in one go. For example, someone from North-India might be interested to pursue M.Tech in Aerodynamics from Aerospace Department @IIT-Kanpur only. There might be various reasons (near to his home-town, particular professor, particular research area etc.) for this particular choice but in doing so, he/she has stiffened his admission to some extent.
The same specialization Aerodynamics can also be pursed at Ocean Engineering Depart at IIT-Madras or at Department of Applied Mechanics at IIT-Madras/IIT-Delhi or Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT - Gandhinagar/ IIT- Tirupati / IIT-Guwahati etc. The only change one can find is from the application point of view only. The fundamental understanding of the subjects remains the same across any department or institute. The approach towards any engineering problem might be different but the procedure remains the same. The main aim of pursuing PG should be on improving and developing the problem-solving skills & abilities.
Having this kind of attitude & flexibility can help you to get into any IIT. The course structure of any program at IITs is so flexible that you can credit as well audit any subject even from the other departments. So, in my opinion, and experience, I feel that one should be open to the subject or area of interest more rather than to any particular branch/department/ IIT. It is also not necessary that you would be working in the same domain as you did your post-graduation. I did my B.Tech in Aerospace Engineering, MS in Fluid Mechanics, working in the structural & design department. Most of the companies visiting the campus for the placement looks for the flexibility in the candidate and the urge to learn anything, anytime from anywhere.
So, what could be the right or correct approach after GATE exam? To be honest, answer to this question varies from person to person. Something might seems to be correct for me while the same approach for the other person might not be. Here, in this post, I would like to share the approach used by me in 2013 and have tried to keep it updated along the time with my personal experience. There can be infinite solutions to the same problem and we are not here to check or decide which is perfect and which is not! I am just trying to share my own perspective which might help someone in some or other way in their career as well as in life.
Important Suggestion: Please treat all IITs equal. First preference can be given to the old IITs, but this doesn't mean that new IITs are not that great. In fact, I personally feel that the new IITs can provide more opportunities in terms of academics to grow as the professors as well as departments wants to achieve great heights within a short period. In terms of placements, most of the companies prefer old IITs.
Please visit my previous article on Should I change Branch or Department for Post-Graduation?
In my opinion, one of the approaches that can be used to optimize & utilize the time after the exam and before the results efficiently is to gather the following information
Check with all the IITs & IISc website for the admission procedure for M.Tech/MS/D.PhD.
To understand the basic differences between them, please check out my previous on
Should I go for M.Tech or MS/M.Tech (by research) or direct Ph.D just after GATE?
Should I go for M.Tech or MS/M.Tech (by research) or direct Ph.D just after GATE?
Next step is to get more information on the following:
Eligible departments with GATE AE score.
Eligible branches with GATE AE score.
& Eligible Course program with GATE AE score.
The next step is to check out with the deadlines and the last date of submission of all the application forms. Some IITs needs application hard copy to be sent while some IITs is completely online.
For MS and D.PhD @IITs & IISc, check out the details of the professor's from their own personal website, departmental website and many more on Google.
Get the updated information on the research topics and research area of the individual professors. I am sure, you will come across much new research frontiers which you might have not even never heard or thought off. You might also get a new perspective towards the same issue or problem which can be approached in a totally new way. Try to evaluate your area of interest and also find the professor (who can be your research/thesis guide in the near future) whose area of interest matches with you.
For eg: If you are interested in "high-speed combustion in rocket engines", then you can check out with the professor whose area of interests are high speed flows, computational of gas dynamics, experimental shockwave dynamics, supersonic combustion, high energy flows, solid/liquid combustion, computation of combustion, experimental combustion, atomisation of sprays etc.
To understand "high-speed combustion", you should know fluid mechanics, subsonic aerodynamics, super-sonic aerodynamics, gas dynamics, shock wave theory, heat transfer, combustion, transport process in reacting flows, liquid atomization, computational techniques, programming, experimental techniques etc.
So in order to learn "high-speed combustion", it is required to go through the above subjects and the courses are being offered at IITs across the department. Care is being taken within IIT & IISc that no department offers the same course in the same semester. So you need to take the course across the departments.
Start preparing yourself with basics and the fundamentals of the subjects. These topics might have not been covered in GATE as well as in your engineering.
You can use these free online platforms
Along with these courses, try to get started with the programming language such as FORTRAN, C++, Python, MATLAB etc. Many online free courses are available on the above platforms. This will help you to save much amount of time and energy during your PG studies as you will be definitely using any of the above languages for the assignments, projects, research for your final thesis.
You can follow the whole admission process at Gateing Aerospace.
Kindly share this post on your social accounts so that many can get benefited.
I hope this will help you to organize and prepare yourself before entering into the IIT.
I wish you all the very best.
Feel free to comment below.
