You still have an option

Updated on: Monday, June 14, 2010

If you find that you have not made the high cut offs, don’t worry. Here are some other options you could try. First try the universities down the line. It does not matter at this stage if you do not get the course of your choice at the varsity of your choice. Very few students are lucky enough to get the right combination. If this is not an option and you have tried your luck (without success) outside your state where the cut offs could be lower, then the next best course would be to get into a “BA programme and opt for the several career options that flow from any undergraduate degree — management, journalism, advertising, public relations, law (if done at the postgraduate level), etc.

The undergraduate degree then serves as a ‘base degree’, necessary to proceed onto a variety of postgraduate programmes,” says Amrit Sujan, Director and Career Counsellor at Career Smart.

If this does not suit you or for some reason you do not get the subject of your choice the next best course left open to you would be to opt for a vocational course.

Delhi University (DU) for example offers vocational courses that are a big draw. Some colleges offer vocational courses with the BA Programme option. Instances include Bhim Rao Ambedkar College, which offers a BA Programme with the options Industrial Relations and Personnel Management, Office Management and Secretarial Practice and Business Data Processing.

Madras University has a whole range of vocational course that include Rainwater Harvesting, Cell Biology, Herbal Biotechnology and Functional Music. Similarly, Bangalore University has given students a blend of pure and applied subject streams with hands-on training in industry. Likewise St. Joseph’s College, Bengaluru offers Honours/Diploma courses in a whole host of different streams. The courses are aimed at providing trained manpower to various emerging service sectors in India. So, if you don’t make the final cut-offs or you want to be in a career stream immediately — here’s your opportunity!

Besides the BA programme route, some colleges offer conventional vocational courses as full time subjects. For instance, the College of Vocational Studies, DU offers the BA (Vocational Studies) course with Tourism, Office Administration and Secretarial Practice, Management and Marketing of Insurance, etc.

Yet another option is to go the language way. Fantastic job options await students who are linguistically diverse. Or try the NIIT route — that is if you have taken computers at school. And last but not least, you could always go the distance learning mode. The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has a whole load of courses/programmes on offer as does the School of Open Learning, DU; IIT Kharagpur; Dr B R Ambedkar Open University, Hyderabad; Annamalai University, Tamil Nadu; Karnataka State Open University, Karnataka to name but a few.

You still have an option

More Education news