No! JEE isn't the only way to get into premier institutes

[xpost, from Reddit posted originally by me here]

Hi everyone,

I am new here and hope this post will add value to this sub.

To start off, let me share a bit about myself. I was one of JEE 2012 aspirants who failed to get into IIT (like lakhs every year) and joined tier-X college. Later, thanks to the awesome set of seniors who guided me. Then, I gave and failed JEE 2013. Finally, took the last shot by giving Lateral Entry exam of IIIT-Hyderabad, which ultimately turned things upside down.

Coming to the actual topic, I feel many such opportunities aren’t well publicised and known to students. Although I tried to share a bit via Quora answers and Facebook post. But the reach was still limited to 1-2 colleges I was part of. By this Reddit post, I hope to reach a wider audience, probably aspirants, their parents or seniors. This post contains few opportunities which I am aware of. If you know more, please contribute by adding a comment.

Current Engineering Students - Lateral Entry (2nd Year)

Coming from the first-hand experience all I know is, Life is tough when your aptitude is higher than whatever your university provides. Not only personal skills, but proper guidance, career options availability and other factors matter too, which are unfortunately not available in the majority of Indian colleges (I might be wrong, but at least I think this way).

If you have complete passion on CS/EC and really wish to work hard, lateral entry is the exam for you. You can read more about it from official IIIT website and/or Quora link I shared above. There are some other colleges like DTU, NSIT, etc too which have lateral entry admissions. You can check them on Google.

If you have any doubts regarding the same and/or wish to read past questions, you can join this Facebook Group named “Lateral Entry @IIIT-H Helpdesk”. It consists of all present and past lateral entry students who get benefited and eager to help others who can utilise this opportunity too.

References:

[1]: https://www.iiit.ac.in/admissions/undergraduate/lateral-entry/

12th Students

Undergraduate Engineering Entrance Examination (UGEE)

This is kinda new admission mode starting this year for IIIT Hyderabad dual degrees and was recently shared by Dheeraj Sanghi (IIT Kanpur) in his blog too. What makes it unique is, this contains subject proficiency and research aptitude test (on critical and creative thinking).

References:

[1]: http://dsanghi.blogspot.in/2018/02/changes-in-iiit-hyderabad-admission.html

[2]: https://www.iiit.ac.in/admissions/undergraduate/ugee-mode/

[3]: https://www.iiit.ac.in/admissions/undergraduate/SpecialChannelofAdmission/

IOI/IMO and other Olympiads

I think many of us would have heard news about “Mumbai teen makes it to MIT without attending high school”. It is undoubtedly immense success BUT along with it, there are many Indian institutes who take admission through it as well.

Chennai Mathematical Institute offers direct admission to students selected for IOITC in Class 12. IIIT Delhi offers bonus marks to students selected for INOI and IOITC IIIT Hyderabad offers admission via the Olympiad category to students selected for IOITC References:

[2]: https://www.iiit.ac.in/admissions/undergraduate/olympiad-mode/

Note:

For obvious reasons I know more about IIIT then what is provided in other colleges. I am hoping for constructive comments which can share many similar opportunities in other top Indian universities, and hoping this post to be good wiki/collection of the same.