Students’ Speak: There is nothing wrong in changing your path

By: Manish Motwani

It's a very tough situation for students who worked hard for long but couldn't get into their desired college. In such a case, a student is bombarded with self-doubts, lower confidence and dilemma about what next to be done or what's going to happen.

But, there is nothing to be worried about. One can still tackle the challenges and by solving the problems, we can handle the toughest of situations.

There may be two cases, the first is you got good marks and you have plenty of options still available, but not the one which you want. Assume you have given JEE Advanced and you got All India Rank of 800.  In that case, you should be proud of yourself and celebrate your success as you are still ahead of the lakhs of students who couldn't make it. Now, in that case, three options are open. You want Computer Science in IIT-Bombay. With this rank, you can go for IIT-Bombay and choose other branches such as mechanical or aeronautical or other. If you are passionate about CSE, you can change your college and apply for IIT-Roorkee, Hyderabad, etc. Or else, at last, you can go for one year drop, if you feel that you can make it in the next attempt.

In another scenario, if one is unable to make it through the entrance, there are unfortunate students that students may go into depression and self-doubt. There are many cases of even suicides every year in our country. But one should accept the fact that an entrance doesn't make you inferior or less worthy than anyone. We have many examples of successful people in the world who dropped out of universities to become successful. We should stop comparing ourselves with other people such as our friends, siblings and cousins.

After you feel your result is bad, I would suggest you spend some time with your family to remove all the dark thoughts. Then one should analyse what went wrong. There are two simple decisions you can make. First, you can plan to take a drop year. Drop is an easy way that helps you take again a fresh start. If you feel the same way, you must go for it. Else, go for other colleges and universities. It's okay to go to another college. In graduation, you will be very busy studying and various colleges in India have now almost similar facilities to elite colleges. There is nothing wrong with just changing your path.

In our country, every year more than 10 lakh students appear for JEE, more than 8 lakh for Medical entrances and more than 2 lakh for UPSC or civil services preparation. The selection percentage for these exams is less than 1 percentage. So, all do not get their dream college, but everyone who gets their dream college does not get their dream life as well. In my opinion, one should always work hard for a dream life. College is just a small part of the big journey.

About the Author:

Manish Motwani is a third-year Computer Science student from Lovely Professional University. He is passionate about writing content to help students in solving their career-related queries and providing guidance in their journey. He is also a tech enthusiast and travel freak.