All of 22

As someone born in 1986, most of my family / society values were put in place by the time I was 10. (While these values will always be in a state of theoretical flux,) the concrete had set before waves of multi-cultural learnings lapped the Indian shores.

As a result on a host of issues, I find my innate values and new age wisdom to be clashing with one another. Do I believe in the virtues of liberal, rational and (seemingly) Utopian rule set that may fail in the future? Or do I persist with (possibly?) archaic, conservative values that will keep me safe in the past?

A boy has his first quarter-life crisis!

Branching Out!

Below is a mail my brother wrote out to a freshie-to-be. I found it extremely well balanced and (5 yrs after counseling) made me realize that this is what the profs. were trying to tell me back then.
[Produced verbatim, without his permission :P]
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Some ground rules that one should know before you make this decision:

- JEE AIR is just a number. It just says how better you are over someone else to solve some types of problems that appear in the JEE exam. Many people in IIT have that intellect. Many. And that is irrespective of what their JEE ranks are. There are some (many) utterly dumb people crowding the double-digit ranks.. and there are some brilliant people inter spread in the lower ranks.. even 1000+
- The "stardom" that you get with your JEE rank either single digit or double digit will last you well till the end of the first semester and will vanish completely by the end of the first year. A completely new magic number called "CPI" takes over and it decides the amount of respect (a.k.a. 'bhaav') you will receive amongst your IIT peers. At that point, AIR and department become inconsequential.
- The intelligence required to succeed in IIT (and beyond) in the true way is much different than that is required to succeed as a student. (more on this later)

Conclusion: Try not to confuse your AIR with department just because everyone else is doing so.


Q1: What IIT Engineering Branch to select?

1) Follow your gut approach:

All wise people say this. And in many ways I can see how they are right. All engineering fields and sciences are quite similar at the core. Either people invent or they discover. But "the process" and "the media" is what makes some people click in some field over other. To truly succeed in any field (be in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical, Mechanical, Chemical, Aerospace, Civil or Metallurgy) one requires the same qualities - hard work, understanding of the fundamentals, patience and passion to pursuit challenging problems.

Everyone has some ideas in mind about what one wants to do in life. A good strategy is to look at all these departments w/o bias and select one that will get the best in you. (By bias, I mean "what fields others are chosing","Where is the latest trend?", "What is most paying" etc). I will explain all the departments in short and explain with examples how some people have made the best of the opportunities in their specific fields and how so many others have "wasted" their chances.

Moral of the story: If you chose something that you like, you will likely innovate and thus excel and shine irrespective of what the rest 50 in your class are doing. If you are passionate enough, there is a treasure everywhere in IIT. 95% of your batch mates will not mine it. But you can - if you want to!

Metallurgy: For some reasons, this department closes the last. 95% of the people are disenchanted and are more eager to get out of IIT even before they get in. However, there are exceptions. Every year about 5-6 of these Metallurgy students do stellar work. In Materials, Plastics, Silicons, and in so many technological items of day to day use. I have some friends who are in Stanford and are working on SUPER-EXCITING problems. Their work also affects Genetics - a field that might be the next HOT thing. So essentially, people who have made the best of the opportunities are doing exceedingly well. People who did not study at all in 4-5 years have left Metallurgy. Unfortunately 95% of the batch is such. The reason is that there are no "regular" jobs in this field. Either there are 5-6 PhD positions in top US universities or nothing! So the reason why this department lags in "AIR ranking" is because of lack of regular "MUNDANE DAY-to-DAY jobs". Ironically, most of the people from this department are pursuing "MUCH MORE BORING" and "MUNDANE" jobs in Software and IT.

Civil: You know what Civil engineers do. A couple of my colleagues have started construction contracts. May be earning in crores. Some of them have joined large construction firms and are managing huge business. Again almost 90% of IIT students who didn't chose to make the best of this opportunity are either doing mundane but well paying jobs in IT, Software or Finance.

Aerospace: This department has let down many of my friends though. Despite lack of jobs in this department, many students join this with high ranks too, because of the glamour of airspace. Again, lack of regular stock jobs. Hence almost 80% people are dis-interested from day 1. Some people have got disappointed with DRDO and ISRO in the past. Haven't heard many people doing PhDs, probably that is because US doesn't encourage Indians in this field (?)

Mechanical: Many mechanical people remain in Mechanical Engineering. There are many jobs in India too. This field is of course pretty exciting too. Involves a lot of physical hard-work as most of the people work in Car Manufacturing units and other factories.
Characteristics:
- Huge opportunities for people who want to make it. Esp. in the field of Robotics, Autos and even Aerospace.
- Starting salaries are low (but there is a huge potential if you prove yourself)
- As a mechanical engineer (even from IIT) you are likely to join at the bottom of the pyramid. This is because most of the companies in this field are old and orthrodox. (This is different to what happens in IT, CS, Finance or business). However, a good candidate is likely to grow very fast and manage HUGE responsibilities at a young age. Something that his/her colleagues in CS, Finance can't even imagine. A friend of mine who did his MS from UT Austin is managing a complete product end-to-end of his company (something related to robotics).
- Another friend did a PhD from Stanford and works on a close start-up in Bangalore. Very intelligent fellow. Says the work is pretty exciting. I can get you in touch with him.
- Another friend has started his own robotics company and is helping set up some Birla plant. (I am unsure of the details).

Moral of the story: Difficult for all the class to succeed, but some dedicated folks have done much better than even most of the CS batchmates

Electrical Engineering: Much more jobs, huge opportunities everywhere. Communications technology is still booming and will continue to do so for a while, I guess. Microelectronics will never exhaust. The machine is getting faster and faster and smaller and smaller. Many people remain Electrical Engineers. Good jobs and exciting start-up and research opportunities.

Computer Hardware Engineering: Strong Industry. Many jobs.
Computer Software Engineering: Strong industry and likely to remain so. Abundant jobs. And the Boom is still continuing. Look at Facebook, Twitter. and I am sure there will be something else.
Computer Science: Computer Science is the mathematics/science behind computers. When I took up CS, I was only partially aware of how exciting this was. Very theoretical and conceptual. Less practical and difficult to see the immediate impact of these theories. I was lucky to be in this department and I loved it.

So on one hand, you have so many people who have done brilliant things in all fields and on the other hand there are many people who have not made use of their Computer Science & Engineering education too (although it is supposedly so sought-after).

So PLEASE think what you would LIKE to do.... more than what opportunities are available.

2) Follow the people approach: For many people and most of the times, this approach makes sense. People know what thing is good on an average and they are good at predicting it. There is absolutely no doubt that the % jobs are in exact order of the AIR based rankings that departments get. Eg. There are abundant Computer Engineering jobs, there are many Electrical Engg. Jobs. There are fairly large Mechanical engg. Jobs and there are dwindling Civil, Chemical, Metallurgy jobs.

This is the reason why most of the people from Civil, Meta, Chemical want their IIT degree as a stamp and then get out into consulting or management or finance. For most of them, their IIT education is a waste.

Due to this, one merit in following the AIR based department choice is that if you chose a department what is well sought after, you are likely to be surrounded by more number of sincere and motivated people. Eg. Whereas almost 20-25 people in my Computer Science class were really good, only about 3-5 people in Civil, Meta, Chemical will be really interested in their fields of engineering.

But trust me: Everyone who was motivated enough, is doing very well.

Q2: IIT education: A General Bachelor of Business Administration OR an Engineering Degree

Today most of the IITans, are not doing engineering at all. They are either into consulting or finance or other forms of general management. They either go straight to IIMs or spend couple of years and do an MBA either IIM or International.

The best and the brightest of the lot who pursue this option also have excellent academic record and either a PhD offer from US univ or a good Job in their respective fields (Civil, Meta, etc). However, you will find that this route is occasionally followed by everyone to 'wipe out' the years spent away at IIT.

Anyways, for this reason it is good that you are chosing IIT Bombay. IITB and IITD give more wholesome education than any other IITs.

Q3: 4 yrs B.Tech or 5 years Dual Degree
Some facts to dispel certain Dual Degree conceptions:
1) Will I not be an IIT B.Tech?
- Of Course. You have 2 separate degrees. B.Tech and M.Tech. The B.Tech degree is "the same" in all forms and features to the B.Tech degree that a 4-yr student gets
2) Are Dual Degree students treated differently at the campus?
- This might have been a valid question 10 years ago. Today, with 60% of the students as Dual Degree students, the question is moot. The Dual Degree students are only clubbed together with Roll-Number. Rest everything is same at least for the first 3 years. Same courses, same instructors, same grading scale. Occasionally these days, it is the Dual Degree student who is the class topper despite his/her "low AIR rank"

Con: The only negative of the Dual degree is that you will graduate 1 year later than everyone else. So suppose, you plan to do IIM straight out of IIT or you want to do anything other than engineering straight out of IIT, then you are better off doing 4 yrs. instead of 5 yrs.

Pros:
- You get to spend one more year at IIT and make use of the Dual Degree program to learn more about your specific field of interest.
- Much more course flexibility offered. You can tailor your degree to your requirements. Eg. I specialized in Computer Science Theory. A Electrical Engineering friend of mine was interested in Physics. He used his last 2 years to do dedicated research in Physics despite being from EE. Now he is doing his PhD from Berkeley in Physics!
- 2 year Dual Degree project instead of a rushed 8 month B.Tech Project. B.Tech project gives you 8 months to work on something. Dual degree project however, is designed so that the student can explore, research and innovate in 2 years with complete attention of the faculty.
- I am not trying to market this program :D but during my Dual Degree Project, I have seen my guide move aside other students waiting in queue to meet him, so that I could meet him! Most Dual Degree students enjoyed this privilege.

If one is not in a hurry to graduate (or pay off loans or start earning) AND one wants to really give justice to the science/engineering aspect of the IIT education, I would strongly recommend the Dual Degree program.