TakeruK wrote:kaustuv1993 wrote:blighter wrote:Why don't you transfer into a physics programme? Wouldn't that be better than going through three more years of engineering curriculum?
Actually,
blighter, things don't work that way in India, it would have been a very complicated procedure... I would have had to drop a year, and get into a new college for that as well - and it would've been difficult to get into any decent place after dropping a year. :/ Plus, my institute is a engineering college, it doesn't have a Physics Bachelor's program.

It sounds like it will cost you as many years anyways to transfer. That is, if you do a Physics MS first (2 years) then do a Physics PhD, the PhD school may not count your time in the MS and you will "miss out" on 2 years. But I guess if you miss out on 2 years, it's better to have a Engineering degree and Physics MS instead of just a Physics Bachelor if you want to be prepared for other careers?
I have a question too -- you sound like you've just finished your first year and you already know you want to do Physics. I've seen a lot of posts from other students who want to transfer from engineering into Physics and it sounds like they kind of knew this from the start. So why didn't you start at a college that lets you do a Physics Bachelor program in the first place? Why did you go to your current college? Are Physics programs really rare in India? I don't mean to be nosy (maybe you have personal reasons), but I'm just curious why so many people try to go from engineering to Physics instead of just starting out in Physics!
By the way, you can also consider Canadian universities. In Canada, the MS is indeed a stepping stone to a PhD because direct entry PhD admissions happen only in exceptional cases (or certain programs wanting to model the US system). Usually it's a 2 year MSc followed by a 3-4 year PhD, which is the same total time as a US PhD (5-6 years) but divided up differently.
TakeruK, thank you for your advice regarding Canada. I will definitely consider applying to certain places there.
Now, coming to your question, yes I have just finished my first year and I did know from the start that I wanted to do Physics, after High School. The thing is entrance to colleges/Universities in India don't work in the way they do in the US. There are the following ways to study Science/Technology in India:
1. As per 2012 regulations, which is when I gave my entrance exams(the rules have changed a bit since then, but are roughly the same), to get into Engineering institutes, such as the IIT's (Indian Institute of Technology) or Delhi Tech. University, or the NIT's, etc.... You'd have to give the IITJEE(Indian Institute of Technology Joint Entrance Examination for the IIT's) or the AIEEE(All India Engineering Entrance Examination for most other engineering institutes) and there are more state level examinations(eg: WBJEE) or examinations conducted by the Institutes themselves(eg: BITSAT) for entrance. This is all very confusing, to a non-Indian, I guess. The point is, to get into any really good engineering college you'd have to sit for extremely competitive exams and have to a) prepare just for them, very rigorously, to get into the best places; or b) be a genius; and
c) you have to have a really good exam, you get a shot at it only once in a year. Then, based on your ranks in the exams you go through the online procedures to get into the institutes.
2.Now, coming to the Physics applications. To study Physics at any top place in the country, IIT's or IISc or IISERs you'd have to give the aforementioned exams, and not just do well... you'd have to get extremely good ranks to get the opportunity to study Physics. There are also separate colleges where you can study Physics, there are, again, a few places known for their academic excellence in science, but entrance to them totally depends on your performance in PCM(Physics, Chem and Math) in your High School Board examinations. The best of these places have no research work going on, or facilities for research work. Entrance to them is dependent upon you crossing their PCM or overall board mark cutoffs.
Thus, as you can see, there is no specific umbrella under which we can clump entrances to colleges/technical institutes/research institutes for undergrad in India, and I've tried to simplify the system for you( there are several other examinations to get into places, but it's difficult to explain ALL of them!). Unlike the US, there is very little, if any, assessment of the individual who applies for a seat at an institute in India, all that would matter are the ranks or marks. I do not attempt to judge the system, it's simply the way things work here!
In my case, I was hell-bent on going to the US for my undergrad, and I was unwilling to enter the rat-race of giving up 2 years of my high-school life, my passion for debating, quizzing and music, to crack the IIT entrances. My board marks in Chemistry were anomalously low, compared to my marks in other subjects... so it wasn't possible for me to get into the best of the liberal arts colleges here for Physics(my Chem marks did rise after I sent my papers for revaluation, but revaluation results come out quite a few months after applications are over), and I was not willing to study Physics at a place that wasn't to my liking. What with my US applications letting me down, and my board marks not warranting a place at a good college, I chose the best college at which I was getting access to an Electronics course, with my (above?)average ranks in the Engineering entrance exams. So, there's the story. Call it my failure, stubbornness at not going to a mediocre college for Physics or what you will, I'm studying Electronics and Communications Engineering at a college of my choice. It has the added benefits of being in my hometown, and the presence of top-notch Government science research facilities within the city. So, from a very personal angle, my choices help me study without distractions and also give me a shot at getting good research experience in Physics.
Frankly, I'm not alone. There are thousands of other Indian kids out there who'd rather have pursued pure science as opposed to engineering, in my college itself there are so many talented guys who'd rather have gone for Law or Economics, but circumstances have forced them to pursue engineering. In most cases such as mine, reasons for not pursuing a degree of one's choice are very personal... but, at times, our system of education does have a role to play in making us choose paths we'd rather not take.
I apologise for this long and digressive reply, but I hope to have answered
TakeruK's questions satisfactorily. Once, again thank you everyone for your advice... I look forward to hearing more about how to prepare for the PGRE from all of you.