(I) ICAD: 'ICAD Admission Assist' - Placing ICADians to its final destination with college and branch Selection assistance

Few years back, I just called residential students in different parts of Vidarbha after they went back after completing the JEE program in ICAD. When asked their parents about the whereabouts of their wards, their answer is - Sir, he seems to be so confused. He and his friends are trying to find out proper colleges based on their scores.

I was literally shaken up. It is a little bit easy for we people in the city to explore colleges and branches through our contacts. But, what about these students? Also, most of the students don't have a clue about the branches and promising colleges. For the majority, it is a guess work. If at this stage, students don't receive proper advice, there is a possibility that he/she will land up in an inappropriate college or improper branch.

In another incident, I called one of our top rankers who secured admission in NIT in Mechanical Branch. I told him he will easily get admit from higher NIT with the topmost branch. Then he conveyed, he has not put the FLOAT option. So what option he has is just to get a top branch in an existing NIT and not another top NIT. This guy missed the Guidance session at ICAD.

Most of the students don't even know that there is tremendous scope for Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Big Data, etc. The fields like Information Technology and Biotechnology are going to rule the world for the next 25 years. But as students are committed themselves to studies, they don't give time to explore the career options.

Most of the students prefer IITs and then repent with the branch they are least interested in. Their institution wants them in IITs. They get into IITs, and then realize that they are least interested in branches they got in and there is no further scope for these branches. Then, the only option left is to shift to the IT or management side.

With such disturbing instances, ICAD decided to offer Admission Counseling free of charge to its students. Now, ICAD prepared specialized software to guide ICADians for admissions. There is already specialized advice from JOSSA (Joint Seat Allocation Authority) based on JEE (Main). ICAD prepared software for MHT-CET. Now just enter your score, city and branch you are interested in, you will get a list of colleges you can get admit from based on previous year admission records.

ICAD Team contacts each of the ICADians, maintains touch with him, guides him for admission procedure, college and branch selection. This is a huge task indeed that has to be completed in a month, and keep ICADians moral high.

In NEET domain too, ICAD is guiding the students not only for Medical but also about the other promising branches in biological sciences. ICAD started conducting admission counseling sessions wherein ICAD alumni, subject experts, and admission authorities are called on one platform to enlighten ICADians about colleges, branch scopes and admission procedures. Lots of things to be done in this section. We are happy that we at least started.

Regards,
Sarang Upganlawar
Director, ICAD