The Admission Dilemma

Another season of adrenaline rush and dwindling emotions has culminated leaving behind scores satisfied and a greater number on the contrary.

The admission season is over and the tradition of advice and guidance coupled with self-styled career counselors has not left any untouched. The counseling phase is the most nerve wrecking chapter of student life yet. Fresh out of matriculation, young minds are blitzed with options and opinions that seem to shape their career paths.

The neighboring aunt, the relatives, the media houses or rather any individual who walks in the house attains astuteness. In depth analysis of conditions prevailing within the coming 5 years is bailed out on these fledgling minds within minutes.

For a majority of the students, confusion mars these months; the respite of surpassing the board exams vaporizes the moment results are declared. Anxious parents are seen rushing from pillar to post hoping to capitalize on the best course, the best college, the best package, the best city, the best accommodation or rather the best of the best. What results post this mad rush for excellence are middling achievements despite innumerable potential in most of these sectors.

After a simple majority where any two members of a household achieve a consensus on the course to pursue, the real hunt for the most suitable college initiates.

Paradigms for this decision are the most ranged, for the homely families, a college in the vicinity of their residence is the superior choice.

For those who rank lower in the homely scale, colleges in cities resided by a relative are a priority. Completely irrelevant are occasions when communication may have occurred with those relatives but their availability is of precedence; the sense of security that prevails heralds all other requirements.

Another favorite parameter is the presence of relatives or family friends in the college administration. The Indian tendency to secure and analyze almost all future outcomes is the most dominant trait while this decision is made but standards pertaining to the quality of education imparted in the institute take a back seat when these prerequisites are considered.

What is customarily overlooked is the will of the student who is poised to pursue the career path that others are more than happy to carve. Those ranking high in the merit lists are in the dilemma of obtaining the top colleges; those ranking lowly are in the hurry to join any college. The ones in the worst quandary are with mediocre scores.

They desire the stars but are trapped at the moon. The seemingly better colleges refuse to accept students at their score and colleges which do admit such marks are heavily criticized as being substandard institutes.

Tormented by the pressure of competing with the neighborhood nerd or settling with the bullying of the locality muscle man, the mediocre is longing for any signs of relief.

Such is the counseling phase for a majority of our country. The elite, be it economically or intellectually are on the fore, inferiors are the content and the middling comprise the furrowed faces of the troop.

What most of the matric pass students realize once college life initiates is what shapes their future is not what the self-styled education gurus preached, it is rather how one utilizes college life to develop the path to a brighter prospects.

College life is fuel to the future.