Design Entrance Exam

Hi Priya!
NIFT entrance is a national level entrance examination conducted for admissions into graduate and post graduate courses of design and is specifically designed to select candidates for various design subjects. You can refer to the below links to know how to prepare for NIFT:
https://www.shiksha.com/design/fashion-design/articles/prep-tips-for-nift-entrance-exam-2016-blogId-11660
https://www.shiksha.com/design/fashion-design/articles/nift-entrance-exam-2015-tips-to-prepare-for-creative-ability-test-blogId-9813
You can also refer to Arihant exam preparation guide that provides the best study material but for design, practice is the key.

Hi Riya!
It is definitely possible but each fashion institute has its own eligibility criteria. Some may allow admission to a candidate hailing from any educational background while others would prefer a candidate who has done graduation in design field itself. You will have to check the criteria of all the colleges that you are interested in. For example: Pearl Academy will not consider your application for the Masters programme but NID and NIFT would accept the application as the admission criteria is solely dependent on how you perform in the entrance exam. You can find a rank wise list of top design colleges in India by clicking on this link https://www.shiksha.com/design/fashion-design/ranking/top-fashion-design-colleges-in-india/94-2-0-0-0

Sometimes you can apply late to school with a small fine. Check if there is anything else you can do. If NID is the only school you want to get in to you're only option is taking a gap year.
Don't allow yourself to think that its a waste of your time. Instead, try to think of this as an opportunity to prepare for the exam and work on your portfolio and your skills.
Schools like NID look for students who are ambitious and have leadership skills. Students who care deeply about a cause and go out of their way to make a change are some of the things these colleges appreciate.
Take up some internship in the field you're truly interested in. You can commit to it for a whole year. In a field like design, field work is important and make a huge difference on your application. Its also a plus if it pays.
You can also take up a few courses online or look for other college that are still accepting applications.

Hi,
I am listing down the NIFT centres according to their overall ranks:
1-New Delhi
2-Mumbai
3-Bangalore
4-Gandhinagar
5-Chennai
6-Hyderabad
7-Kolkata
8-Patna
9-Kangra
10-Bhopal
11-Kannur
12-Shillong
13-Jodhpur
14-Raebareli
15-Srinagar
You can't really judge the NIFT centres because all the centres follow the same syllabus and system. All of their faculty members and the staff is highly qualified. Yes, the infrastructure of centres like New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore is much better than the centres like Raebareli, Srinagar and Jodhpur. Also, all the resources and exposure one gets at NIFT-Delhi is much more than what you get at those small centres, but not because those small centers don't provide their students anything, but it's because Delhi is a metropolitan city and there are fabric and material markets like Nehru Place, Lajpat Nagar, Chandni Chowk, Palam, etc., and one can easily go out for market research and sourcing and also there is Amazon Fashion Week, Indian Couture Week, where students can go and look for the latest designers collection.
The complete education doesn't depend on all these things, it's just a part of design education and it all depends on the student that how much they are keen about learning things because of many a times students from the small centres for the better placements than the Delhi or Mumbai centre students, but on an average, more people of NIFT-Delhi, Bangalore or Mumbai get better placement offers than the other centers, not because they are more talented, but because the industry has the wrong thinking about the NIFT centers.
Anyways, it's better if you get a seat at NIFT-Delhi centre.
I hope this list will help you out.
All the best.