43.Admission to CRECs in the 80s and Our daughter

 Right from the inception of the  college, admission  to   half the seats in Regional Engineering Colleges were  for students  from the  state in which it is  located and the  other  half for students  from outside the state. Seats  reserved for other states were  further divided into a quota for each state and union territories based on the population of each unit. In Kerala, admission to engineering course was based on the marks obtained in the Pre-degree  examination for the subjects Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry. But in the late 80s, a large-scale manipulation of marks awarded to Pre-degree students was unearthed and many students with very few marks were found to have got admission for engineering and medicine. Correcting mark-lists went to the extent of 0+0+0 = 448. Then mode  of admission to professional colleges in the state based on marks was replaced by the rank in the entrance examination conducted by the Commissioner for Entrance Examinations. However, admission to the state’s quota in Calicut REC continued to be based on marks for a few more years.  It was observed that there was significant unevenness in the marks awarded for Pre-degree among the three universities in Kerala. The youngest university, MG University, particularly was very generous in the award of marks. This   resulted in a large number of students, especially girl students, being admitted to REC from this university. Generally, the number of girls admitted to engineering compared to boys were very less until then. But now there were occasions in which the number of girls outnumbered boys admitted in CREC and  hostel  facilities were  becoming inadequate.

 This was the background when our daughter was in the second year of the pre-degree  of Calicut university. Even though we had  some interest   in sending her to medicine, she was a little adamant that she will learn engineering only. She was seeking admission for the academic session starting in 1988. As she was generally getting very good marks in the subjects, we were almost sure of her getting admission to REC. Therefore, she did   not go for any coaching for Kerala Entrance examinations from the beginning of even second year. She started preparing for I.I.T. Entrance exam. However, preparation for IIT admission was totally different from that for Kerala entrance. In Dec 1987, REC Board of Governors decided to use the rank in the Kerala Engineering entrance examination as the basis for admission to REC also. Those who wanted to get admission in Calicut REC had to apply for REC admission and take the Kerala entrance examination.  We were a little upset at this change of policy as she had not been sent for any entrance coaching. She was relaxed as usual, but we forced her to go for  entrance coaching in the weekend to Universal Entrance Coaching Centre from  Dec 1987. She was even reluctant to go for tuition itself but went for the coaching half-heartedly. Anyway, she completed three months of entrance coaching.

 When the pre-degree results were announced, she had got 448/450 as expected for the  subjects  Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics, but her rank in the Kerala entrance examination was around 600. She could not get into the rank list of I.I.T and so she had to seek admission in any of the engineering colleges in Kerala or CREC. The most preferred branch at that time was Electronics and Communication Engg (ECE). She managed to get Electrical Engineering in Govt. Engineering College Thrissur, but got Civil Engineering in REC Calicut. Civil Engg was the least preferred branch at that time. There was a possibility that she may be able to move to Electrical branch in REC, but she was particular that she will not study in her father’s department.  Probably she could have got ECE in the second allotment at  Thrissur, but being a girl, we preferred to get her admitted in REC itself for Civil branch.  So, she became a student of REC Calicut.

 She stayed with us for three years in the quarters and continued to study engineering enjoying her mummy’s  food and occasionally jumping on to the back of my scooter for going to the college at 8AM. Later, when we moved to Calicut city in our own house, she was admitted to the REC hostel and had a taste of the hostel life in REC too while she was in the final year of BTech course. She passed out BTech  Civil Engg with reasonably good  marks. However, she could not get campus placement as very few companies visited the campus looking for Civil engineers.

 She was very particular that at least for MTech she should study  in I.I.T. With this in mind, she wrote the Graduate Aptitude Test  in Engineering(GATE) examination and once again failed in her I.I.T. attempt. However, she could get admission in Karnataka REC for MTech (Marine Structures) and started  doing that. She completed almost 2 semesters there and without our knowledge, she wrote the GATE examination once again and she was third time lucky and secured a percentile score of 98.4. Now, she wanted to join I.I.T. for MTech discontinuing from KREC. Again, we were in a dilemma as she will be losing one year this way. Anyway, as a compromise, we promised we will admit her in I.I.T Bombay if she gets her first choice, Structural Engg. I.I.T. Bombay  was using the GATE score  only for screening and the   candidates seeking admission had to take a written test and appear for an interview for selection. But she was successful in both and was selected for MTech (Structural Engg) in I.I.T. Bombay. We had to keep our promise and she completed her MTech and in the final year got placed in Tata Consultancy Services(TCS) as a Software engineer.