AN OPEN LETTER TO ALL ENGINEERING GRADS TRYING TO

PURSUE PHYSICS

Hello JAM Physics aspirants,

I hope your preparation is going on well. It is difficult to
seriously prepare for an exam where your selection criteria is not well defined. Being a
candidate with a B.Tech degree, who is trying to secure an M.Sc Physics seat in IITs
through IIT JAM, is not easy.

An engineering grad is eligible to write IIT JAM, but at the time of admission, his
application can be rejected by an IIT he applied to. The reason for such rejection is the
criteria set by IITs for M.Sc Physics admission i.e. candidate must have studied Physics
in, at least, 4 semesters. Deciding which subject is Physics is ambiguous in itself & most
of the engineering grads never fulfill this criteria.

IIT Bombay & IIT Kanpur are said to accept engineering grads, as they give relaxation
on the above mentioned criteria. But for that to happen, one has to be in Top 50 rank.
This can lead to a contradicting situation. Let me explain with the help of an example.

X has a B.Tech degree while Y has a B.Sc (Physics) degree. Both appear on JAM
Physics. X gets 60th rank whereas Y gets 90th rank. X cannot get admission in IITB &
IITK, as he is not in Top 50 & is rejected by other IITs as well, since he does not fulfill
the criteria. Meanwhile, Y gets admission in IIT Delhi, because he meets the criteria. In
simple words, X could not secure any admission because he did not have a piece of paper
stating that he had studied Physics in 4 semesters.

Candidates often mail to the IITs they have applied to, regarding their eligibility & are
always ignored by them. Maybe, individual mails never attract their attention to the
number of engineering grads aspiring to pursue Physics. If we can make our presence felt
to them, we can initiate a change.

So, I want you to fill your name, email id, university name, engineering branch &
graduation year in an excel sheet provided by me. It is an online editable excel sheet &
you will be required to install Google Sheets on your smartphones to edit it. The link has
been provided below.
I will attach this excel sheet to an email & send it to all IITs before admission procedure
begins. The message, to be written in the email, will be concerned with the criteria & our
eligibility. But before that, the sheet has to be filled by as many as individuals possible.
So, share this to all engineering grads trying to pursue Physics as well as Physics students
who were from engineering background.

I cannot guarantee you success in this campaign, but we will not know the result if we
don’t try. In order to make it a successful campaign, I need your support. Remember, IITs
are depriving engineering grads of great opportunities by not considering them eligible
for admission in M.Sc Physics.

At last, who am I? I am a member of a Whatsapp group called Physics After Engineering.

This group helps to connect all engineering grads who want to pursue Physics, including
individuals like me. You can join this group for your queries. For information & success
stories, you can follow the blog by the group founder. The links have been provided
below as well.

Thank you.

Yours sincerely,
An Engineering Grad

LINKS
Excel sheet: (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/17hUZHbBpBdkr5jj-
WM0B7N9Xod0OTNlJBVz38JBHP90/edit?usp=drivesdk)
Whatsapp group: (https://chat.whatsapp.com/IeTDcTTwHNZCFfxtKQCA5w)
Blog: (https://physicsafterengineering.blogspot.com/2018/03/physics-after-
engineering.html)