Important factors to consider before opting for diploma in engineering

A list of important factors to consider before opting for diploma in engineering:

You Will Perform Poorly in Mathematics

This is the biggest drawback of doing a diploma before a degree in engineering. Because whatever stream you choose, a diploma course has the subject Mathematics only in the first three semesters as M1, M2, and M3. And the pathetic syllabus by the Maharashtra technical board (MSBTE) will have you learning only basic Matrices.

By the time you complete the course, you will forget most of it chiefly due to a lack of practice and implementation. Next, since you will directly enter the second year of engineering degree, a huge part of essential Mathematics (first two semesters; M1 and M2 of degree) will elude you and there is where they teach you why Mathematics is so, so, so important in engineering. Eventually, the chances of you flunking in the third-semester Mathematics is as high as your chances of getting through the college that you want is low. Tutors may help you, but remember, coaching classes are a multi-crore business in India.

Although I somehow passed M3 in my second year, I struggled a lot to get passing marks of 40 out of 100 in M4. Since Mathematics is critical for other subjects like Electrical Networks, I struggled with those subjects as well.

Lack of Friends

You will find out how badly you suck at Mathematics in less than five days of your degree. And there’s this lack of friends-cum-classmates that you cannot even throw the baggage on.

Most of your classmates have all braved the CET and are, in most cases, younger to you by at least a year; they have already formed groups and all the pretty girls are taken, the topper has been throned and is usually not good-looking, teachers have capped their white-lists and created nicknames for you. You will never be called by your first name until the time you almost forget how a Bipolar Junction Transistor (BJT) works. Diploma students are called D2D students, direct second year admissions, failures, scumbags and thankfully, sometimes “scholars.” Too bad, they won’t call you back-benchers because unlike during the school times, here the only vacant benches are the front ones. Somebody might want to edit that Kalam quote!

My time at the student council during diploma days helped me get through the degree

To cut the long story short, if none of your diploma classmates has enrolled with you in your college and if you are an introvert, then you will indefinitely sink into a state of desolation. Paranoia will take time, but history shows that soon you will find solace in other diploma students from different college and/or streams.

The diploma is Not Equal to Degree

The diploma will give you opportunities and plenty of accolades for participating in the ubiquitous technical paper presentation competitions where you take a topic (which is often – “Recent Trends In Engineering”) and plagiarize every other online journal/Wikipedia article/magazine related to that topic without citing. The rookie jury will be astonished to see you present a Prezi slideshow because they are used to the more popular MS PowerPoint presentations. Technobabble will win you that cash-prize.

Some of the honours I received during my diploma days. These only look good in the showcase today

In degree, the story is totally different. You think of changing the monotony by participating in a presentation in the upcoming college-level technical fest. They have challenging competitors, professional jury, brainstorming sessions, and concept-debriefing. You will fail terribly if you follow your diploma protocol and that will further attack your self-confidence.

You should also think over this: diploma is typically a three-year course and degree is a four-year one but you only move forward a single year (direct second-year admission) in degree after you completes the diploma. That answers the question of why the diploma has such low value in career shelves and professional CVs.

The diploma is just a certificate course that was originally developed to help individuals land quick jobs in the technical fields. It cannot be termed a degree (as in academic rank) because earning a diploma neither makes you a graduate nor just a 10th/12 pass out. You hang in the middle and that’s not a great situation to be in.

Parents Will Never Understand the Paradigm Shift

Okay, so you cracked that diploma examination with flying colours and were consistent in your efforts. You get the provisional certificate. Fine. But, since you suck at Mathematics, and because you will invariably find out that the remaining subjects are partially related to it, you will have the luck of flunking in at least one subject. Because what you studied during the diploma will be located on the farthest parts of your brain and Mathematics, along with alphabets now has ambiguous sentences and Greek letters guarding it.

Techmax Publications won’t be sufficient also because they are crammed with errors. Depending on Easy Solutions or the recent fad KT280 Solutions may help, but will you really understand and grasp the engineering concepts? When the time comes for you to perform during the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) or any Public Service Undertaking (PSU) entrance test that you may later take, you will most probably experience a huge failure.

And that failure won’t be like how it seems to be in that famous inspiring quote about the invention of the light bulb by Thomas Edison. It will bring you embarrassment. Teachers of your former polytechnic will understand and react totally opposite to how your parents will. That’ll be a relief, and if your diploma mates are allowed to keep term (ATKT) in the same subject(s), that will be a support against your parents, too. Pressure will falter and you will stop thinking about the future. This moment will be worthy, and I am pretty sure, the next time you sit to study with a credible reference book, it will be with vengeance. Only, here the adversary is no one.

Final Points

So, it is up to you and only you to decide what it will be and how it will be. Engineering is just too overwhelming when it comes to all the knowledge and learning, but make sure the path you choose is trustworthy and unmasked.

DO NOT listen to people who use sentences like “Diploma will give you experience”, “Diploma is better than the pain of CET”, and “Diploma is in parallel with Engineering.” This is all blabber because these people are actually referring to how the mainstream terms it.

DEV BHOOMI GROUP OF INSTITUTIONS

Dev Bhoomi Campus, Chakrata Road Navgaon, Manduwala, Dehradun- 248007, Uttarakhand, INDIA

Phone No: 0135-2694241, 42,43,44,45

Toll-Free: 1800 103 4049