What to do if I couldn't get desired B.Des seat ?

Hello brothers and sisters out there,

          Hope everything is fine from your side and you are doing well in choosing your career - best fit for you. It's been a while since I posted for UCEED, as the exams were over. I could have better made this post earlier. From the past few weeks, I've been getting the following queries, very frequently, from many of you, 

• What to do if I didn't get IIT's/NID ?
• Shall I go for Private Institute ?
• Is that a good idea to drop a year and appear for exams next year ?
• I want to get into IIT/NID only but I got some other institute offers, shall I drop the offers?

And much more similar queries. I guess many will have the same kind of doubts and so I decided to make a post to share with you the possible options that one can think of. Let me discuss that in terms of several situations. 

Situation 1:

When your parents or current situations forces you to take B.Tech or any other uninterested field and you couldn't able to clear any design related exams.

This is one of the most happening situations that I heard about. Because of some restrictions, you might be forced to take some out-of-interest bachelors like BTech, BArch or even BFtech. Or might be like you will consider choosing them as you might be left with no option. The question is is that fine to go with that?

And the answer is yes! my dear friend, let me tell you that even if you choose some field which is not interested to you, you still have very good opportunity of taking design during your masters through MDes, PGDPD or any other design PG courses. Remember, B.Des is just a general design exam but M.Des is more specific. So, you will have greater exposure (and also hands on) which will interest you more than B.Des. To be frank, most of the students (according to the survey that I took) taking CEED (for MDes) exam are from BTech background only (consisted 80%) and they do perform well in design. Also, having engineering background will be an added advantage, especially fields like mechanical. It will help in imagination, math apti etc. CS is ok, but some people doesn't like computer science. 

Myself, being from Mechanical Engineering, never regretted taking mech coz it is flexible and allows to go into any field. I don't want to boost about engineering or any specific design stream here, but the truth is I wanted to make you aware that even in BTech we can enjoy if we really wish to! It's all our mindset. Some people or ourselves try to regret not choosing our so called BEST FIELD (that's how we anticipate at the moment) but sometimes it turns out that after trying something else, we will realise that we have greater potential or skills to become something else, like a business leader or whatever. Unless we try our hands on others we won't be knowing. 

I will also tell you that from our early age, many will make the habit of scribbling/drawing/painting, but that doesn't mean that we can do only that. That might be a hobby but might not be our full skill, we might envoke some other talents with time. So, try to be flexible. Try to convince yourself and make sure that you feel like you don't lack in something or you cannot perform well in something. If you put your full efforts and if you seriously DESIRE to excel, then you can show to the world that you WILL make a difference. So, it's ultimately our commitment that plays a role in our studies. That reminds us again that we need to fix our mindset in any case. 

So, whether your parents force you to take or you yourself are helpless but has to accept something which is not interested to you, then never regret, you can mould yourself and make yourself adaptable to several talents. That will add weight to your profile and career. After all, like I said, you always have the option of going to PG/mdes through CEED/NID etc. So, just be happy :)

Situation 2: 

when you dream of getting into NID/IIT's but you couldn't get rank this time. Your parents gave you freedom to spend one more year for preparation and you likely want to drop a year and prepare for the exams

Well, I feel dropping a year doesn't seem a good idea. I shouldn't tell it here but let me tell you this - Although IIT's and NID's are there, their selection process really sucks! Sometimes, real talent is not getting inspected. Take the example of UCEED/NID paper, I see some random (unnecessary) questions which are not at all worth for evaluating design aptitude of a student. Or, it might be like - to handle huge competitions, they are making it more difficult by asking questions from different fields, whether related to design or not. But ultimately, because of which, many times, some real talents are falling behind, unable to get a good score or sometimes not getting a score at all making them feel depressed. So, consider the exam pattern as improper tool to judge your talent. 

Even if you couldn't get, it might be because, your luck didn't play, coz the questions were unexpected and not from the syllabus or because of some other situations. So, what I wish to say here is, even if you drop a year to prepare year long, we cannot guarantee that we may get a proper score. Let us assume the worst case - what if we couldn't get rank next year too ? and what if you didn't have any backup? That will be more trouble, right ? Instead, we could have chosen to take something at least, which might have helped us as a backup. So, for this scenario, the best thing one can do is just like I discuss in the next situation (situation 3)  

Situation 3: 

When you dream of getting into NID/IIT's but you couldn't get proper rank in the exams. Rather, you got a seat in some private design (or design related) institutes including NATA/NIFT etc

This is another situation that many students face. What to do? 

Note: this situation is also applicable to situation 2.

Instead of having thoughts of dropping a year or dropping the current offer and preparing for the next year exams, it's better to accept the current opportunity at hand (or if you didn't get any admission into design institutes including privates, then probably it's time to think of alternatives like BTech, BArch, bftech etc), Do join them without any regrets, but plan to give next year exams too (design exams or whatever you are interested), by sparing few months for the exams preparation. If your luck turns positive and you were able to clear exams which would fetch you seats in your desired institutes or any other institute much better than your ongoing course institute, then you may consider dropping the ongoing course and join afresh into the reputed institute. 

If luck didn't turn and you were not able to attain proper ranks, then continue what you were studying and try to do well in the remaining years giving your full efforts because your degree score also matters in your career. Don't be careless just because you didn't get what you wished at that moment. Like I said in situation 1, you always have the option of taking MDes after you bachelor's and, on top of that, it's all our mindset. If we see positively, we can digest and perform well in anything. If you keep yourself influenced by bunch of other friends or seniors who try to demotivate, then chances of not performing well in your exams will be more. So, think about the above points if that appear to be more practical to you! In any case, think thrice, 10 times, 20 times ....... before you decide to drop a year just for preparation. If you're also giving JEE and are confident of getting, then maybe you can drop, else, it's better to think and consult your family, friends etc.

But whether you will crack next year exams or not, you should be careful enough to plan properly your first year of the ongoing course. Because you decide to prepare parallel to the design exams, you need to strategize and cover your ongoing course, such that they will not get clashed during your design exams. So, you better make sure that - while taking the first year, you study the first year course in advance such that you leave some room (time) for your design exams preparation. Best thing is work hard for the ongoing course until say October (considering design exams in Jan) and then plan the rest months such that you do parallel studies. Remember when I said if you couldn't get rank next year right? then your good performance in the ongoing course work will help you keep positive as well as maintain interest for the next three years. So, ponder on what I said above!

Situation 4: 

You decided to take any course during bachelors and do Design masters (PG after bachelors) later, but, you're not confident whether you will get masters at that time or not 

This situation is rare, but still I thought I will cover this coz this will give you one more alternative on top of motivating you to keep yourself positive. If you doubt like you have a chance of missing mdes, then still you have no worries. CEED can be given any number of time and there is no age limit (if i'm not wrong). Also, you can plan for abroad institutes for design too! There are some good universities out of India, which also provides good course and hands on work on design. The exposure that you get there is different. You will also get good experience. And, some (or many? I'm not sure) institutes offers scholarships too. So, there you are, with hands full of choices and opportunities :)

Note: People complain that they are not satisfied with say engg course or bla bla, is that right? total crap...... come on...... we are humans, we can do different things and we are flexible. I was good at sketching and painting when I was kid and I took part in many competitions, I never even thought that there is something like design or art course and with time I realised that I'm doing well in maths. With time we explore new interest and we need to adjust as well as satisfy with things otherwise things won't move.

Wrapping:

Finally, I wish to repeat some lines again below just to show you the importance to make you feel happy with what you choose. Just take 4 minutes to read again the below paras :)

Whether you join bdes, Btech, BArch, B.Fashion or whatever, you always have the option of going for MDes. BDes is just a generalised course, MDes is design stream specific.  so whatever you are doing, even is it's not satisfactory, complete it putting your full efforts - not regretting that. We say we are good in this, bad in that, blah blah ......... but I say it's just mind set, why don't you want to be flexible? According to me, it's not difficult to do anything until we have the interest and faith that we are flexible and can do things, which others are already doing. It's definitely possible, just modify our mindsets. That way, our real talents will be revealed or invoked. 

Life has given you a chance, utilize it properly. You have good resource, many out there are dying to get resources. So, satisfy yourself with the opportunities and choose the best in which u can perform well not that which people suggest you because of tags or remuneration or just because someone adviced you. Simple example, if you go to a shop (and there are no shops around) for taking food and if he says he has only say poha and dosa, then you don't have choice other than choosing either of them, but if u go to a center where there are say some 15 shops with different varieties, then it will take at least 30-60 mins for you to roam around, understand what is present and what you want to take. Even then, you will be confused to know which shop you want to enter and which food to take. Understood r8? such a time waste and on top of that ur hungry will double up :) Lol good example

Same with your career, If you consider many institutes or choices, then you will be left in a dilemma of choosing the best, instead fix ur mind, consider say 4-5 institutes only in your prefernce list (which has good reviews and most importantly the COURSE OF WHICH IS INETERSTING to you (regardless of IIT or whatever) and choose the best among them. Otherwise youur hunger search for finding the best will mount and bounce. 

Take the case of real design students, do you think that 100% of them are satisfied being in their design jobs? If you know some seniors or if you have contacts with other bloggers whom are into design career, ask them how much satisfied they are, you will get to know the real truth. The ground realty is: not all jobs are satisfactory even if you are into your well-chosen career.  At some point this situation might arise and so it's ultimately our mindset that changes us. Take things positively and accept with smile whatever you get. Later you will realise that whatever you got is THE BEST for u.

Hope you got some points from this posts. Feel free to drop comment or contact for any counselling related queries. 

All the best for your selection :)