A Turning Point - My Experience with College Admissions

Back in 2021, after finishing my intermediate studies at Narayana Junior College in Tirupati, India, I had to make one of the biggest decisions of my life: where to go for college. It was right after a severe lockdown due to COVID, and things were far from normal. My final intermediate results weren’t based on an actual public exam but instead were averaged from my 10th-grade marks and my first-year intermediate scores. Thanks to that, I ended up with an 85% score.

Like many others, I tried my luck with JEE Mains. I paid for all four attempts but only ended up taking three. My first attempt got me 48 percentile, which wasn’t great, but I figured I could do better. The second attempt, though, was even worse—I scored just 19 percentile. At that point, I was completely disinterested. The whole system, the reservations, and the way education worked in India just frustrated me. It felt like no matter how hard I tried, getting into an IIT or NIT was nearly impossible. So, I kind of lost hope.

After a long break, I decided to give it one more shot and took the third attempt. This time, I really tried my best and ended up with 85 percentile. It was better, but still not enough for a general category student like me. To qualify for JEE Advanced, I needed at least 88 percentile. That was the moment I realized it wasn’t worth trying again for the fourth attempt. I started looking at other college options, ones that most of my classmates and friends were considering—Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, VIT Vellore, LPU, and a few others. I took entrance exams for Amrita (AEEE) and VIT (VITEEE), just in case.

At the same time, I had a backup plan in mind. If none of these worked out, I could always go for engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu, like RMK, RMKCET, RMD, Panimalar, or Savitha.

Then something surprising happened—I actually got into both Amrita and VIT. That’s when the reality of the engineering admission process hit me. After doing some research, I realized that these entrance exams were basically pointless. Even if I hadn’t taken them, I could have still secured a seat through direct admission. And the fees were exactly the same whether I got in through an entrance exam or just applied directly. That made me question: why were these exams even necessary? It felt like a scam.

While I was caught up in all this, my college had applied for APEAMCET on my behalf, so I took that exam too, just for formality. Around the same time, one of my childhood friends, H (not going to mention his full name), suggested that I join SRMIST in Chennai with him. At first, I was excited about the idea, but later, I realized it wasn’t the best move. There was a solid reason why staying with him wasn’t ideal, but that’s a whole different story (maybe I’ll share that another time). Still, just to keep him happy, I went ahead and took the SRM entrance exam.

Then, the APEAMCET results came in. I scored 60 marks and got a rank of 25,363. Not a great rank, but decent enough to secure a spot in local colleges. Now came the real dilemma: where should I go?

I had a few important factors in mind. First, I had always been a day scholar, and the thought of living in a hostel, away from my parents, was honestly scary. Second, I knew I wanted to pursue a master’s degree after my B.Tech, so spending a huge amount on a second-tier college didn’t make sense. I just couldn’t justify wasting that much money on a degree that was mostly about getting a job rather than actual learning.

So, I decided to apply to colleges near Tirupati. There were about six to seven engineering colleges in my city: Sri Venkateswara University (SVU), SVNE, SVCE, SVEC, SIST, Sree Rama College, and a few others. Among them, SVNE seemed like a great option because both my brother and sister had studied there. I figured it would be a safe choice. But my rank wasn’t quite enough to get into CS at SVNE. Instead, I could only get into other branches there. So, I applied for every CS-related course across multiple nearby colleges, hoping for the best.

Then came the big day—seat allotment. I ended up getting CS at SVEC (Sri Venkateswara Engineering College, Tirupati). I wasn’t thrilled, though. What made it worse was seeing some of my friends, with ranks way lower than mine (like over 100,000), getting into SVNE. That left me feeling really disappointed. But, considering my choices and the costs of private colleges, I accepted my fate.

I had one last discussion with my friend H about everything—the options, the reasoning behind my decisions, and what I planned to do next. He agreed with my choice, and that gave me a little peace of mind. With that, I finalized my admission to SVEC.

All my documents were submitted, fees were paid, and there was no turning back. Now, all that was left was to see where this journey would take me.