How to Make the Right Choice of Institute

What to study, where to study and how to study is always a challenging question.
Education industry is growing by leaps and bounds bringing multitudes of options to us.
This is a boon to the students of today as it offers a choice and option for the best. However the competition among the Educational institutes means huge amount of marketing activity. The target of this marketing activity is us, the students and parents of these students.

Unfortunately the scope of the marketing stretches to glamorizing the individual products that are sold. These products are the courses that are offered by these institutes. Since the options for the students are vast, the individual institutes have to go out of their way to impress about what they have to offer. In the process, lots of facts are covered up by layers of glamour. For example- Many institutes resort to highlighting their air-conditioned study halls and provision of laptops to their students. Factors like these hold tremendous attraction for students at that tender age.

In my counseling centre parents approach me with a stubborn child who insists on joining a particular institute for reasons of glamour. Often when I ask these students about what is so good about this institute, they are not able to quote anything more than the glamorous ads they had read. To my surprise when I talk about the courses offered, these students are naively ignorant and yet not interested in the details of the course curriculum.

To my dismay many institutes that boast of state of the art infrastructure do not believe in investing in human resources and severely lack trained and experienced staff. I would like the leave the institutes to their fate as they are mostly in the fray of the business. However that leaves a tremendous responsibility on the students and the parents to choose an institute that caters to their requirement of learning and developing a satisfactory career for themselves and their children.

How to choose the correct institute:

To shortlist the suitability of the institute for your-self, ask the following questions:

1. Are the combinations of subjects offered right for you?
2. What type of degree is it?
3. Does it improve your chances of following your chosen career?
4. Will it be recognized by employers or educational organizations in the country
where you plan to take employment or higher education?
5. What are the options within the subject? 
6. What are the teaching methods? Will it solve your purpose?
7. What kind of teaching staff does the institute have at the time of your admission?
8. Are the classes conducted regularly with regular assessments?
9. How is the degree program assessed? Who is the assessing /verifying body?
10. Does the institute offer any scholarship?
11. Do they have hostel/ boarding facilities?
12. What is the placement strategy?

To get the current and authentic answers to your questions the following steps can be most helpful:

1. Refer to at least 3-4 authentic sources that compare college and institutes on the basis of various factors. There are many website on the internet. One has to remember that there is always a personal bias and many a times these comparisons are not complete.  

2. Talk to the current students of the concerned institutes- None but the students who are currently studying in the institute can give you the correct information about the quality of faculty and efficacy of education in that institute. Past students may give some details but remember that education is a dynamic phenomenon and faculty and administrators keep changing which may change the key essentials.

3. Study the prospectus of each institute in your list in depth. There are many important points about placement and scholarships etc that are mentioned in fine print and need to be questioned in time.

Most of all try to remove all influence from friends and marketing agencies to work on the selection process with as minimal bias as possible. All said and done you cannot be over careful about this selection process. Howsoever time consuming and tedious this may sound remember that this is going to ensure that the place you take your education is worth your time, money and investment of dreams.

Enrich Yourself by Understanding the Deeper Meaning of Career

As language evolves, many words come to take the more popular meaning or rather the meaning of convenience. However over the period the words may lose their depth and come to mean very little to us. The origin of words usually has much deeper meaning and knowing it can enrich us in so many ways.

‘Career’ is one such word that has lost its real value in the transition. For most of us a career means a profession or line of study or work. Nothing is wrong in this meaning but it is incomplete in many ways.

Career is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as a person’s course or progress through life. It can also pertain to an occupation or a profession that usually involves special training or formal education and is considered to be a person’s lifework 

Even the origin of the word ‘career’ is traced back to Latin ‘carrus’  meaning ‘wheeled vehicle’ that basically symbolizes journey and progress.

Thus career is all about the progress in life. When we take into consideration only the study and profession aspect of career, we develop a warped view towards it. Our focus stills on the options presented to us by the society and our decisions based on the acquiring of degrees and bagging a source of earning.

In reality, choosing a university course only is one step towards the journey of life, which is vast. Most people choose a university degree that seems to be giving them a much accepted professional status and guaranteed income. While zeroing on the course we tend to neglect the most important aspect of choosing the career, the very question: Why do I want to take up a career? While the apparent answer may seem to be about earning a livelihood, if we take a few minutes and ask ourselves another Why? The answer could be easily traced to: I want to be happy! Where does happiness come from? It comes from inner satisfaction, a sense of contentment. We very well know that money alone cannot guarantee that contentment. So isn’t it worth the while to consider this inner satisfaction while choosing our career?

Now our satisfaction is based on many parameters like where we work, where we live, who do we associate with, what is the nature of our work, what are our work hours, what challenges the work has for us, do we enjoy our work, does it align with our life goal, does it give us the opportunities to travel, to grow, to be creative, to invent, to serve, to solve, to change and so many other needs that we have apart from making money?

Choosing a career thus is not just about knowing the employability of that study course. It is about knowing who you are, what you want and what can it give you what you live for. It is a process of exploration. You need to explore yourself and explore the range of career options and then match the career to your needs.

Believe in Your Dreams and Desires As You Plan Your Career

Dreaming is beautiful for it takes us into the world of possibilities. That is the world where everything seems to be possible and that is where all the new inventions are born first. And yet we are not encouraged much to dream. Rather we are discouraged from entering that world lest we would be lost to this world of reality.

As children, we have dreams that are called as fantasies. In those dreams we aim high. We look up to ourselves. When we come across some new things it brings a spark to our eyes. Some people we meet or read about make a deep impression upon us and we dream to become like them. Elders around us find it quite amusing and take pride in sharing it with others.

But as we grow up suddenly hundreds of hands reach out to pull us out of our dreams and to bring us back to the reality. Everyone is worried that the dreamer would never be able to do anything practical and would waste away his/her life dreaming.

In a way they are right because only dreaming does not take us much ahead on the road of life. But that does not make dreaming a crime or a time waster. Every big thing takes shape in the dreams of someone. All the beautiful architecture of the world has its roots in the dreams of their conceivers. Agreed, only dreaming does not do the magic of creation but without dreaming nothing new or big can be achieved. Many a big things do not happen in the world because many dreamers give up on the dreams. They believe on their distracters more than in their dreams.

Action is needed and dreams are needed too. Rather than throwing away your dreams cherish them. If you wish to build castles in the air, build them but then go ahead and put foundations under them with your hard work, perseverance, planning and determination. Set long term SMART goals by visualizing your dream come true. Work on short term goal plan to chalk out a route to the goal and then readjust your immediate goals like planning education and choice of study to start you on the path to achieving your dream goals.

While planning your career do not neglect any dreams or desires you have had about your future. Take these also into consideration and try to blend it with your aptitude, interests and value. It is possible to convert any dream into a reality by working on it realistically. Take help of people who are related to your dream career, ask for help, take guidance. Don’t forget to discuss your dreams seriously with your counselors.

Believe in your dreams and remember not to share your dreams lightly to non-believers. People who do not believe in dreaming big and accomplishing them often laugh on your dreams and belittle your faith in your dreams. This kind of people are all around us.

Beware of them. Remember you are different. You are not your friend, not your parents, not your sweetheart either. You are a unique creation and your dreams and desires would be unique. Do not lose faith in your dreams only because someone who loves you does not believe in your dream.

Talk of your dreams to only those who are action people and who aim high themselves. Work on all aspects of the dreams. Weigh the pros and cons and the risks and benefits equally. Help is available in the world in every form. If you have faith in your dreams and if you do your homework well, there would always be people willing to lend you a supporting hand.

So when you plan your career, keep a place in it for your dreams.