Looking for college admission guidance in India, but feeling overwhelmed and confused? Know how to use the college search portals and college/university rankings (MHRD, QS, THE) effectively for college admissions in India.
As the Board exams are over now, the students (and parents) will be now more anxious with another critical aspect – college admissions. Students have been already feeling too much pressure to do well in the class XII board exams for ages. There have been many incidents in the past where students have committed suicide during exams and on the result day.
The performance of a student’s 12th grade determines the choice of college or university he/she will get admission in. Students from science stream go into further stress by giving entrance exams for different universities and colleges. And the competition is fierce!!
Amidst all these, students and parents also face too much confusion when it comes to college selection. In this post, we will discuss some of the best resources available on the internet that can help students and parents to find the best possible colleges after 12th.
College and University Rankings in India
NIRF College Rankings by MHRD
For foreign universities, we have QS Top Universities, Time Higher Education, AWRU etc. that help students and parents to find, compare and research hundreds of colleges and universities. In India, we didn’t have any such ranking in place for a long time. After all, it’s a pretty hard job to rank colleges in India. Still, the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India, has done a considerable job. The MHRD has been publishing the list of top colleges in India for four years under the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF).
You can look at the Overall University/College Rankings. Additionally, the site also lists colleges for specific domains like Engineering, Management, Medical, Pharmacy, Architecture, and Law. There is also a separate list of top colleges. Check out the 2019 College Rankings in India and Ranking Report including ranking methodology.
You can also refer to the Top Colleges/Universities in India lists by QS, India Today, and Times Higher Education.
MHRD Rankings are Not Enough in a Country like India
India has more than 800 recognized universities, 40,000+ colleges, and 12,000+ institutions (source: YourStory). Everyone is not going to make it to the top colleges listed in the NIRF-MHRD rankings.
So, a list of top 100 or 200 colleges (by QS, THE or MHRD) is not going to help everyone when there are more than millions of students looking for college admissions in India.
Then it is also possible that many good institutes might have missed out from being featured from that list.
In India, the job market for freshers is not very promising right now. Then getting the first job after college depends a lot on the brand name of the college. Lastly, there have been cases of fake colleges and sub-standard institutes producing unemployable graduates. Hence, finding the right college is very crucial.
After appearing in various examinations, more than 75% of students search online to evaluate various colleges/ universities. Google gives the details of the colleges individually. It does not show which colleges is the best unless we do research about it.
College Search Portals can Help with College Admissions in India
Here is where college search portals can help you. The college search portals list thousands of colleges and courses and are extremely useful to the students who are looking forward to their higher education in India. These portals provide the complete information regarding the college like comparisons between colleges, top colleges in the world/India, Specialisations, College’s state/nation/world rank and many more. Some site even provides crucial information like financial assistance and many more.
Of course, these sites do list featured institutes as well. That means few institutes pay these portals to get their names up in the list. But, if you compare the institutes among all these portals, you are more likely to get a clearer picture. Things might not too accurate. But, comparing all these portals will help you. Besides, you can always compare how the top institutes stack up in these portals and on the NIRF-MHRD rankings.
So, which are the top college search portals to refer in India? In this post, we discuss the top 8 college search portals in India.
Top 8 College Search Portals in India
Co-authored by Parinita Gupta
CollegeDunia
Collegedunia.com is a search portal which has the information of more than 20,000 colleges in India. It is one of the largest search portals where the students can search the information on various courses, colleges, entrance exams of all the streams which are available in India. This portal also gives a chance to browse top courses and entrance exams in India which help many students to decide which course will be a better option for their future.
Careers360
Career360.com is a venture largest venture started by the most popular magazine Career360. This is one of the most compactable websites which provides detailed information regarding various courses, admissions, scholarships and many more. This website guides the students regarding the jobs, careers, college searches, examination. It acts as a complete guide more than a website which helps the students in deciding the right career path.
Careers360 lists more than 24,000 colleges in India. Additionally, it also provides insights and tools like Prepmeter, Result Predictor, College Predictor, Best Fit College and so on.
Shiksha
Shiksha.com is one of the most trusted college search portals in India. It is a project started by Naukri.com which is a one-stop solution to get various details regarding the course and colleges. It has information on more than 16,000 institutions with 40,000+ courses and 135,000+ college reviews.
According to shiksha.com officials, it has the database of more than 3.5 million students who had visited the portal to know the information of various UG and PG courses. It is one of the most personalized search portals where the user can filter the settings according to his/her interests. It is not just a portal, it also allows the students to interact with the experts, alumina groups, currents students etc.
CollegeDekho
CollegeDekho.com is also a college/university search portal which gives detailed information related to various courses and colleges in India. In this website, students can explore many factors which are related to the student’s further education or career like highest ranking, courses, specializations, facilities, locations etc. which helps the student to decide which college is best over other.
GetMyUni
GetMyUni.com is a global student community which works on reviewing various colleges and provide valuable information on the search portal. It is an advanced search engine where the student will have a chance to search various colleges of a different stream, discipline, degrees, Scholarships, entrance exams etc. It also has a social networking platform where the students can meet the alumina of the college and gather additional information (including personal experience) from present students and alumni.
IndiaEducation
IndiaEducation.net is spearheading the largest virtual network of 45 educational portals in India covered by more than 450 domain names. The primary objective of the network is to provide instant access to the latest information and resources on every facet of education in India.
The biggest and largest network of its kind is designed with a vision to cover the entire country with dedicated portals for 28 states, 6 union territories, 4 metros and 4 major cities of the country, supported by the main portals – www.IndiaEducation.net and www.ExamResults.net.
CollegeSearch (IndiaCollegeSearch)
CollegeSearch.com is one of the largest database portals in India which provides complete details regarding various colleges, courses, ranking etc. It attracts good readerships as it serves as a complete guide to the students. It has the presence of more than 13000 relevant information about different courses and colleges in India. This search engine helps the students to get information about various universities, college news, entrance exams, events and many more things which are exclusively related to colleges and universities. It also helps the students to compare the colleges and write/read reviews of various colleges. It has updated information about more than 10,000 colleges with more than 4 lakhs active searches. It also allows the students to filter the options and search based on preferred criteria’s.
Few other Useful Portals – CollegeBol and BestCollegeHunt
CollegeBol is a platform which is made for the students and by the students. It is a student’s platform where the students can see the reviews, experience of the other students and know the practicality of the course who are willing to acquire or make the career in it. It is a complete website which gives a lot of information related to the higher education courses and colleges within India. This site helps a lot of students to understand the course or the college well as the reviews and experiences are completely shared by the students who are currently studying over there and experiencing it. This site provides the most accurate information regarding the course and the college.
BestCollegeHunt is an online portal which guides the students to understand which college is better for their career path. This portal has complete information regarding the best colleges of many courses along with admission criteria, ranks, scholarships, entrance exams and many more related to the admission processes. This portal is one of the best search engines which gives complete information regarding the college/university along with its student’s reviews and experience /testimonials.
How to use the college search portals effectively?
College portals have a lot of information. You should be careful, while you take in the details mentioned in these portals. There are a few steps to understand and to use the College portals effectively. You need to understand which college will be beneficial to you, and which course can make your career and many more.
Here are a few quick tips for college search in India:
- You should keep on searching/surfing for as many colleges and universities as you can. As these search portals give the comparisons between one college to the other, which will give a lot of information about the college and courses, time duration, fee and many more. Use this feature effectively. These comparisons will definitely help you to choose the best college among the lot.
- Use the location and ranking’s algorithm which is exclusively available in these search portals. Surfing the website through this feature will help you in understanding the college better and can bring you to one conclusion.
- Go through the reviews, and the alumina messages/suggestions mentioned in the site. These reviews play an important role before taking admissions. Try to ask the alumina a few questions related to the college. The suggestions of the alumina are important. They offer you a genuine report about the college and its benefits.
- Few search portals offer the details of the professor’s teachers and other admin panels. Go through them and pursue their LinkedIn profiles. This will help you to choose which topic will be better for you for your final year project.
Every portal has its own feature. Don’t compare one site with another. Try to gather the information mentioned, which will help you in determining your career path.
If you feel that you are getting confused or overwhelmed with so many options available, feel free to try out our Free Career Test and/or avail our On-Demand 1:1 Counselling Sessions.
Good luck with your college admissions.
Author Bio:Â Parinita Gupta is a full-time banking professional. Additionally, she is also a passionate blogger and digital marketer.
She mostly writes about the Banking & Finance, Technology, and FinTech sector. But, she also enjoys writing on other topics as well.  You can follow her on Twitter.
Featured Image Source: Hindustan Times