The last few years have seen a huge change in the admission process in India. Many Indian universities have started implementing modern admission techniques to shortlist those few students from a huge pool of applicants.
Earlier the admission process in India was quite straightforward. The students used to fill up an application form and give an entrance test. Some colleges did not even take an entrance test! Post the test the college used to release a merit list and gave admissions to the students.
Some top colleges still follow the same admission process.
Many modern-age universities realized that with this process they were only able to target the students who were good with their academics but these students needed to have that out-of-the-box personality. Seeing this these universities started adopting the modern-age admissions process.
Now, these modern-age universities are looking at a wide range of things before giving admission letters to students. These parameters include
- SOP: The colleges tell the students to write a Statement of Purpose through which they understand the career paths, ambitions, aspirations, interests, and personality of the student.
- LOR: The colleges ask the students to get a Letter of Recommendation from someone who can vouch for their educational or professional background.
- Profile: The colleges look at the profile of the student before giving them an offer. They want someone who has done a lot of extracurricular activities, and research papers, someone who has contributed to society and has something different from the other students.
- Aptitude Test: An aptitude test usually includes the following sections
- Quantitative aptitude
- Verbal Ability
- Logical Reasoning
- General Knowledge
- Critical Analysis
- Personal Interview: The students are usually grilled on their profile, the course they have opted for, and current affairs.
Some names in the new age universities are
- Ashoka
- Krea
- Flames
- Shiv Nadar
- O P Jindal
- Plaksha
- Vijaybhoomi
- PDPU
- Azim Premji
- Ahmedabad University.
There is a wide range of documents that a student needs to keep ready while applying to these universities. These documents include
- 10th Class Marksheet
- 11th Class Marksheet
- 12th Class predicted scores
- Statement Of Purpose
- Letter of Recommendation
- Certificates for Extracurriculars
These universities have different timelines for their admission process. They usually have four cycles for the admission process. The students can apply through any of these cycles.
Although it might be a little challenging to get through these universities, these are our future!
How Do You Prepare For The New Way Of Admissions?
With the New Way of Admissions moving away from the academic selection process, you need to focus on other aspects of yourself to be able to establish why a college should choose you.
What makes you DIFFERENT from thousands of other applicants should be extremely clear. You can follow the below steps to ace the new admissions process:
- Get Clarity on what your goal is early on and decide which career you want to pursue.
- Understand the requirement of the college you want to apply to and prepare accordingly. Most students ignore this and work on qualities that are not aligned with their dream college.
- Make a plan of action and invest in activities that will take you closer to your dream college.
- Balance between academics and non-academics is key to achieving the best possible result. A roadmap should be made to help you achieve that balance.
A well rounded personality is what colleges are looking for in an applying candidate. This is possible with the right guidance, exposure, and roadmap.
Above and beyond grades and entrance test stores, colleges look for the qualities in an applicant:
- A Passion For The Chosen Course Subject
How do you prove that you are passionate about the course you applied for? The internships you have done, the summer programs you went to, the online courses you did, all will come to your rescue to demonstrate interest in your chosen course.
- Leadership Skills
Students should be admitted to college on the basis of their potential for future leadership and active citizenship. – Robert Sternberg
How do you showcase leadership skills? Have you headed a project in school, led a community project or started a music band on your own? The field could be anything of your interest, but you must showcase leadership skills.
- Commitment
Commitment is a hard virtue to find. You can demonstrate commitment by working on a skill of your choice for a long period of time. Commitment is also demonstrated by learning from both successes and failures & not giving up on the skill you are determined to learn.
- Communication Skills
Good communication skills are a foundation for everything. To be employable after college, communication skills are extremely important.
You can showcase your communication skills in your statement of purpose, the finesse and confidence with which you give your personal interview.
- Intellectual Curiosity
In a fast-moving world, colleges are looking for students who are curious and are always pushing to learn something new every day. This quality can be showcased through research papers, interesting hobbies, etc.
Rethink, Reboot, Succeed
The college admissions preparation that worked a decade ago is NOT GOING to work today. You need to find the perfect balance between academics and non-academic profile to distinguish yourself from the thousands of others who are scoring the same marks as you.
Written by Mr. Vikram Soni – Jitin Chawla Team
