The great mad rush for engg/med..

A week back I found a family at my village in allepy going to the near town changanassery to enrol for medical entrance coaching. The head of the family is a soldier and for sure is striving hard to make a living. The fees at the entrance coaching centres will surely be high enough for that man. But medicine is still a job that many parents like to gamble for. For a student from a general category to have an admission in a medical college, he has to secure a rank within 500 to have that seat. So you have just 500 from the 77000 who took the exam this time. If he/she is not that brilliant enough will end up doing a nursing or a veterinary which will be something that they’ll have to bear because they dreamt of being a doctor and has nothing else to do now.

During my journey to Hyderabad I met a girl who is the 2^nd among 3 girl children and their father a driver is the sole bread winner of the family. They invested 4 lakhs at Hyderabad again with the so called medicine mania and later the dreams of getting 6 digit salaries at foreign countries. But the truth is majority still remains here itself. Nowadays conducting strikes at almost all hospitals due to the extremely low wages which a student with that much education can’t imagine. The care that they provide is another matter which makes us think whether they are having a fraction of what they deserve.

Medicine is surely a respected profession no doubt unlike engineers who are the ‘chendas’ for all pedestrians to bang. The insult of being an engineer is surely not there for a medicine student. People see engineering as a low class course nowadays. But for being an engineer you can rely on the numerous colleges which give you education with nominal fees which you can repay if you work a bit. But the fee at a private medical college is definitely not the same. It’s still a rich man’s cake.

Trying for a medicine seat from my view is a gamble for only if you are sure and that passionate you should try it. Engineering still is not so because it can give you ‘n’ number of avenues (engg languageJ) to have an opening like that of a software sector. The options in other areas are not at all looked into nowadays.

Repeating for entrance is a waste unless you make it into iits, nits or the best ones in the state. So its an advice to my juniors not to go for repeating unless you are sure to make it into the top brass

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Again education is not just confined to engineering and medicine. People should look beyond it. Btech is a 4 year course which pulls out a lot from your pocket. The degree courses in literature, commerce and all has a 3 year duration and won’t cost you too. All the options like bank, civil services, defence etc are available to a degree holder too. Any degree holder with a grip in computers can opt for a software job. You need not be an engineer for that.

So parents, teachers and gentlemen please turn your eyes to the brighter options in the other areas too. Just don’t ignore engineering but do consider others too.