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Is an Engineering degree worth a million rupees?
Oct 18, 2008: Now, IITians get regret letters from top IT firms
For the first time in the history of IIT-Kharagpur - the country's oldest IIT - 15 of its students have got regret letters from three top US IT firms. During campus placements in January this year, US tech firms Montolova, Magma Design Automation and Paradigm had picked the 12 students and given them offer letters. The students gave their "notes of acceptance" and all that remained was for the joining letters to arrive. After months of waiting, all they got were regret letters in September, saying they "cannot be taken because of internal re-organising".
July 2008: Sharp fall in campus recruitments
There is a 15-20 per cent drop in campus recruitment from second tier engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu this year...Also seen is a drop in the number of companies visiting the campus this year. In June only six companies visited the college compared to 30 last year. Out of the 1,800 students, only half of them were placed this year during the first month of recruitment compared with 1,200 last year. Tata Consultancy Services took 441 students compared with 538 last year, he said.
Infosys did not go to SRM this year. A few companies, including Keane, postponed their visits. Crescent Engineering College saw a 15 per cent drop in placements...
May 16, 2008: In the past few months, i'm seeing more and more top IT Companies are looking for B.Sc/BCA and other Arts/Science gradutes. And they specifically mention Non BE/MCA. Here are two examples:
http://kayalpatnam.com/expandboard.asp?pid=379&mid=0
Please bear in mind that a B.Sc is neither superior nor inferior to a BE. From a hiring company's perspective, they look for 'Employability Factors' - Communication and Soft skills, committment etc.
Out of the 4 lakh engineering graduates produced every year, only 2.5% draw upwards of Rs7 lakh per annum (26 Jun 2007)
Most engineering graduates get peanuts (Economictimes Article)
A batch of engineering graduates recruited by a prestigious IT company..scoring above 85 per cent from Class X onwards and later graduated without arrears in any semester. Two weeks into training, they were rejected. (Aug 5, 2007)
http://www.hindu.com/op/2007/08/05/stories/2007080550021400.htm
There's no denying the fact that Engineering is a good and viable option for those who scored good and can get into top colleges thru merit. But, we see +2 pass outs, with less than 800 marks, paying huge sums (some lakhs / lacs) as "donation" and 60,000 to 100,000 as Tuition fees per year to join Engineering.
I really don’t understand the logic here. Most of these people, most likely, aren’t going to get high paying jobs immediately after their graduation. Even at top private colleges, the placement percentage is around 75%. Think of it, you spent 10 lacs (Rs. 1 Million) for a degree and still without a job afterwards. Even if you manage to get one after some months, it'd be less than what people from top government colleges (IIT, MIT, Anna, NIT/REC) get.
Let's look at Payback period (PBP), considering only the tuition fees for sake of simplicity. Last year (2006) Kayal top scorer Jabir who's studying at MIT pays Rs. 19,000 as the fee. So, his total fees for 4 years would be about Rs. 80,000. And, he's most likely to get a job worth over Rs. 30,000 even before he graduates. In other words, his 3 months’ salary is more than his total fee.
Now think about the people who “buy” seats for 4 lacs and pay 75,000 each for 4 years, for a total of 7 lacs. Remeber, thousands of B.E. guys dont get jobs even after one year. Let’s take an average of Rs. 8,000 for the first few years. It’ll take 87 Months’ salary to recover their donation + fees. Who’s wiser?
“Alright, I understand. But my son wants to do engineering, and he just passed 10th”.
Get him enrolled in a school that produces toppers for his +2 (like those Namakkal, Salem or some Chennai schools).
“But they are expensive, costing 50,000 or above”.
No. That’s cheaper than the fees at reputed private Engineering colleges. Or, give him good resources and guidance; he’ll get good marks even in Kayal Patnam. Besides, who said Engineering is the only field where you can get tons of money.
"Is there any place for engineering which is more prestigious than Anna University? I'd like to enroll my son there".
Good thinking. We have IITs that are world famous. But that requires preparation right from 9th standard onwards. Help available from http://www.fiitjee.com/cimpdates.htm , http://www.brilliant-tutorials.com/courses/iit/iit.shtml , http://www.time4education.com/branchoffice1.asp?id=4 and many others.
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There are options beyond Engineering and MBBS/BDS etc. In addition to the 'Accounting jobs' available at the shops and small factories, there are high paying managerial-level accounting jobs, with obscene pay packages. Recently, some Charted Accountants were hired for Rs. 300,000 per month. There's absolutely no harm in choosing B.E. if you decide that that's where your interests are. But, is it a wise decision when you want to choose B.E. because everybody else is choosing it or there's a good amount of pay in IT.
I know of a family who aren’t financially good, and I was suggesting CA as an option. CA costs less than 10% of BE. More info at http://www.icai.org/. The next time when people are requesting you to pay the Rs. 60,000 fee for the Engineering first year of a guy from a poor family, ask yourself - Is it worth it. Many BE / B.Tech graduates don’t even get a job soon after graduation. They spend extra on diplomas or get 'Rs. 3000' jobs after 10 months of search.
In CA (unlike BE or other degrees) you can work even after finishing the inter. If you complete the final, you can get salaries (or make money by independent practice) that are comparable to IT or better than that.
After explaining all these, they commented like ‘So many people choose only Engineering’, Implying 'we don’t have a brain of our own’.
Now about CA, please don’t complain "It's tough". I won’t say it's easy, but there are training available for you to prepare. There is one institute Renaissance which is in Tuticorin, Chennai and other places. I don’t know anything about quality or fees of this, but my point is 'Help is available to complete CA' when you care to look around.
I'm not an expert on accounting field - but I strongly feel there's value for money there - shorter period, less costly, and still better pay. Also, please checkout http://www.houseofaccountants.com/