Nagpur News: At least four engineering students in the city have scored a percentile of 99% and above in the Common Admission Test for admission to India’s prestigious IIMs (Indian Institute of Management).
Mattupalli Ravi Teja (99.73 percentile), Nihar Pachpande (99.67 percentile), Nihit Agrawal (99.58 percentile) and Nachiketa Waychal (99.24 percentile) are all currently studying in Nagpur’s Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, better known as VNIT. A total number of 1, 91, 642 students from across the country had given the exam in October- November 2012.
Nihar Panchpande attributes his brilliant score to early planning and constant preparation. “I had joined T.I.M.E coaching classes a year ago”, he says, “and I attended all their classes and gave all the tests regularly”. When asked how an MBA fits into his career plans as a student of Engineering, the Mechanical Engineering student says, “I have no concrete plans as yet. For now, I just want to get into a good B- school and the rest I’ll see”.
Nihit Agrawal, on the other hand, says that he hadn’t been fully prepared for the test at all. “My plan was to sit for CAT next, and I gave the test this time just for practice- to see what it’s like”, says the Computer Science student, for whom an MBA after B. Tech makes perfect sense, “It’s a very good combination for your career, and more Engineering students are inclined towards it because they already have a strong base in Maths”. While Nihit claims to have “no real plans as such” for his career, he hopes to be an entrepreneur and start his own company some day.
With more and more engineering students opting for an MBA, Nagpur Today wondered if this indicates a shift in career, or is a calculated step towards success in the same line. “The new trend of Engineering students opting for Management courses is highly desirable,” a Dean of Students in one of the city’s top Engineering colleges told Nagpur Today, “In the end, an engineer joins the service sector, and there is a necessity for professionally trained personnel to also undertand the knitty- gritties o the industry they are joining. Most businesses in India are family- run, and this trend is needed in the country.”
– Meghna Majumdar
