Got the college of your dreams but not the branch, well don’t lose hope yet as one of my favorite quotes is about to become your knight in shining armor.
“There’s always a light at the end of the tunnel”
In this case, the tunnel being your journey through 1st year and the light being *drumroll* the much-hyped Branch Change.
Well for a throwback, when I first joined NITK as a fresher in 2019, I distinctly remember going to a meet in Pavilion and seeing a host of people buzzing around @Vishwa Mohan like bees around a flower. Catching up to the action, that was when I was first introduced to the concept of Branch Change and how it functions.
Personally I never really planned on actually going through with it, but it was like one of those things that just happened, you know right…..
So what exactly is this Branch Change,
It is a “phenomenon” wherein you get your branch changed from the one allocated to you presently to a new one, we’ll get to the specifics later, and thus from 2nd year onwards that new branch becomes your parent branch and your affiliation with the previously allotted branch automatically gets canceled.
Now coming to the “specifics” part:
The prerequisites and criterion-related to this are many, I’ll pen them down in the easiest way possible,
PS: It works something like this that, list of eligible students is formed and arranged in order of CGPA after 1st year. It goes from top to bottom, prioritizing CGPA so the higher the CGPA the better are your chances.
The understandable way:
1)Do not have a backlog in any subject 🙂
2)A CGPA of >9.00 is preferable by the end of 1st year
3)Branch Change is an “IRREVERSIBLE” process.
4)Order of merit is followed(CGPA) and in case of a tie, your JEE(Main) rank/SAT score is used.
5)There must be a vacancy of seats in the branch you wish to change to.
6)Imagine this case wherein you remove yourself from your branch, do the remaining of your batch-mates make up 75% of the total seats in your branch?
If yes, then you’re eligible for a Branch Change,
If not, then no matter how high your CGPA is, you are not eligible for a branch change.
And for the cherry on top of your dessert,
In case a student X is deemed not eligible because of clause 6, then student X as well as all those with a CGPA less than that of X are also considered not eligible for branch change.
Now, this clause is one of those for which no matter how many hours of mental debates I host, a clear victor is far far away from sight. This might become a good topic for Change My Mind huh 🙂
We all have our kryptonites right, consider the fear of failure as mine, and given the success rates of previous branch changes, I sure did had my share of doubts. I know it seems daunting and tiring at first, at least it did to me, because of the so long perception that you’ll have to put in hours after hours and miss out on events that define your college life, but does it really have to be that demanding? As long as you’re enjoying the process and there’s not a part of you that says I couldn’t have done any better, you’ve already tasted the victory that many people still thrive for. Believe me when I say this,
“If you really want something, and you go for it without limiting yourself, with disbelief, Miracles happen”.
One important thing I want all of you to focus on, and I cannot stress on it enough, is that branch change is not all “gold & glitters”. Yes, it does feel amazing, yes it is worth all the effort you put in. But the scar it leaves on you if in case you don’t get through it is something that cannot be underestimated. It leaves you feeling hollow and empty inside. So do what you do best, but don’t just entirely rely on this hyped “phenomenon”. Make your peace with it because no branch in my opinion is one above the other. Imagine it like this, the branches are all the closely circuited gears that as a whole operate the mechanics of “society”. One cannot function without the other.
