Law in India

Post by Ranjita Talukdar:-

In India , legal education has been traditionally offered as a three years graduate degree conferring the title of LL.B. (Bachelor of Laws) or B.L. (Bachelor of Law).

However the legal education system was revised by the Bar council of India, the governing body of legal education, in 1984.Various autonomous law schools were established which administer five years undergraduate degree programme and confer an integrated honours degree, such as "B.A.,LL.B. (Honours)", "B.B.A, LL.B. (Honours)", "B.Sc., LL.B. (Honours)", etc.

Both the types of degrees (i.e. three years and five years integrated honours) are recognized and are also qualifying degrees for practice of legal profession in India . The eligibility qualification for the three year law degree is that the applicant must already be a holder of a Bachelor's degree, for being eligible for the five years integrated law degree, the applicant must have successfully completed Class XII.

The National Law School of India University(popularly 'NLS'),in Bangalore was the first to give the five years course.These law universities were meant to offer a multi-disciplinary and integrated approach to legal education. It was therefore for the first time that a law degree other than LL.B. or B.L. was granted in India . NLS offered a five years law course upon the successful completion of which an integrated degree with the title of "B.A.,LL.B. (Honours)" would be granted.

Thereafter other law universities were set up, all offering five years integrated law degree with different nomenclature. For example the National Law University, Jodhpur offered for the first time in 2001 the integrated law degree of "B.B.A, LL.B. (Honours)" which was preceded by the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences offering the "B.Sc., LL.B. (Honours)" degree. We have our own law university in Gandhinagar too.

However despite these specialized law universities, the traditional three year degree continues to be offered in India by other institutions and is equally recognized as eligible qualifications for practicing law in India . Another essential difference that remains is that while the eligibility qualification for the three year law degree is that the applicant must already be a holder of a Bachelors degree, for being eligible for the five years integrated law degree, the applicant must have successfully completed Class XII.

The holders of the three year degree and of the five year integrated degree are eligible for enrollment with the Bar council of India upon the fulfillment of eligibility conditions and upon enrollment, may appear before any court in India .

Entrance exam

Earlier each institute conducted its own entrance exam. It is from 2008 that the Common Law Admission Test has been introduced. The Application Form is available from 12th January, 2009. The last date for submission of duly filled-in Application Form is 10th April, 2009. www.clat.ac.in

Apart from taking coaching, you can prepare for the exam on your own. If you seriously want to pursue the course, start preparing after 10th itself. Base your preparation on the previous papers of the institutes of NLS, Bangalore www.nls.ac.in and NALSAR, Hydrebad www.nalsar.ac.in, as they have been conducting their individual exams from quite some years. You will have to order them by post. The placements are good including foreign ones, especially of the top law schools like NLS, NALSAR.

My cousin(Upamanyu Talukdar) who is in the final year of the 3yrs L.L.B course,Law Faculty of Delhi University can be contacted at upamanyu.talukdar@gmail.com. This is something that I asked him to write,hoping it might help:-

"there is nothing like getting in2 1 of the top notch law schools rght after ur 12th.......these law schools include NLS banglore -NUJS kolkata -NALSAR hyd - NLU jodhpur -ILS pune and 1 or 2 more........placements r like rocking......u gt 2 wrk in foreign law firms.....interestingly a few years bk the entire batch of nls banglore opted 4 foreign placement....isnt it gr8?

but the catch is that u ve 2 crack CLAT 2 b in 1 of these premier LAW SCHOOLS.... wat i'll suggest is read frontline magazine regularly and religiously.....becos clat is a test designed by nls faculty and they r a l'il biased 2wards south india and south indian events.....frontline covers south indian news......besides be good at writing short notes....and mind the word limit.....maths is very preliminary so not 2 wrry much....a lil practice wld do good.....reasoning is very trickey as far as i remember....so try 2 go thru RS aggarwal's logical reasoning......

besides law people can also opt 4 courses in designing 4m NIFT it's 2 good but i dnt knw much about it's entrance....so u nd 2 find it out.....

ok that is all i can say .....if u want 2 knw something mre lemme knw...

ban2."

Life in NUS

There has already been a post about education in Singapore and I hope not to repeat what has already written but rather show you another aspect of life and education in Singapore.

An ex-SNKian from the class of 2007 I came here after my 10th grade on the SIA Youth scholarship. After giving my A’levels in December ’07, I am currently studying Computer Engineering from the National University of Singapore (NUS).

I am going to go through the following aspects:

1. Social life
2. Diversity in education
3. Exchange programs
4. CCAs

A crucial aspect of University life that most of us fail to think about when choosing a college is the social one. We all want the best education and ofcourse it is the most important criterion. And yet the social atmosphere of the place where you are going to spend 4 years of your life is important too. NUS is a place where you can choose your Uni lifestyle. If you are the party-going type, it has a great night-life. If you are the geeky one, you will find your likes. The point being that the rich diversity of students from all over the world gives Singapore an edge. The numerous halls provide a rich ‘social life’ and yet if you value your personal space there is a range of residences to choose from. With more and more exchange students coming every year and hundreds of international students NUS is a truly global place and could give you the opportunity to connect with people from across the world. Valuable experience.

Unlike most Indian colleges NUS also offers the option (it is compulsory here. almost) of studying cross-faculty modules as breadths. This is important as never again in your life will you get a chance to say study photography, theatre, literature, music, French, German and journalism, to name a handful, in just a couple of years. You have the chance to explore your hobbies and interests in depth. This diversity which is also characteristic of many US colleges truly makes the Uni life fuller.

Not only does NUS offer a rich diversity in its student population but it also offers you the chance to go overseas through many programs like the Student Exchange Program and NUS Overseas College. NUS has liaison with various reputed Universities in China, Australia, Japan, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, UK, USA, etc (more than 25 nations). In addition NUS also has liaison with Universities like Stanford, University of Pennsylvania and Fudan University where you can study and intern with a start-up at the same time. This is a just a glimpse of the opportunities that you can grab. There are numerous other programs as well which might cater to you better and give you a global experience.

And lastly, NUS offers you numerous Co-curricular activities that you can take part in. Ranging from cultural, sports to entrepreneurial clubs which will give you the chance to learn something new and explore your talents fully. It is indeed an enriching experience as you get various opportunities to lead clubs and organise numerous events according to your interests. And ofcourse all this adds up to an impressive resume.

Hope you find this informative and ofcourse questions are welcome. Best luck!

Engineering @ Purdue (US University)

I hear this many times that apart from MIT, Stanford and Berkley, getting into a decent engineering college in US is not difficult. I agree to that notion but the reality is surviving the engineering courses at those schools.

I think doing an undergrad engineering degree at Purdue, Georgia Tech, UIUC, UT Austin, Texas A & M, UMICH, Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, Virginia Tech is more or less the same. The curriculum of these colleges overlaps as much as 75%. So if you get an admission into any of these (or equivalent colleges) and are going to be 100% dedicated thereafter, only then it's worth spending $35k per annum. Also not to forget the drop out rate of engineering students in public schools like these are the highest in the nation. Hence this proves that just getting in is not important, surviving the classes is more important.

Unlike IIT wherin they expect every student to have mastered all the concepts of Physics, Chemistry & Calculus before entering the colleges, in US remember that if you like a program they will start basically from scratch and grow on that. (Though i am not saying that IIT are not good, they are good in there own sense). It's like looking at a pyramid from the top. Your course in Calculus may start with limits and 1st order differential equation but by the end of 16 week semester they would have covered vector calculus, partial differentiation and multiple integrals too. The same thing is applicable for the rest of the engineering courses in a decent University.

The first year has got some FYE course to be finished. These are the basic tools for succeeding in the professional engineering school. Only after finishing these courses one can be admitted to the desired engineering school. The courses are Calculus I, II, III, Physics I, II, Chemistry I, II, CAD modeling/GDT, Seminar Engineering series, English Language (writing), Communication (writtent and verbal), Computer engineering problem solving tools. Even though some of the first year classes may have class strength of 250-300 students, but these are just the lectures in which the instructor is one of the best in his/her field and would be actively involved in some ground breaking research; but along with these are recitation/labs consisting of 25-30 students taught by graduate/Phd student. This is just to give you a feel of what engineering classes in first year really are. From second year onwards the class strength reduces.

In a good engineering school, there will be a dozen specialisation like aeronautics, mechanical, electrical, civil, chemical, biomedical, construction, industrial, material, agriculture, and etc. Not to forget along with this, a student can also pursue his/her area of a secondary course like management, entrepreneurship, economics, foreign language, mucis/performing arts, humanities & social science courses. Basically one can get a second degree or a minor degree in almost any field.

One of the greatest advantages offered by some good American Engineering Universities is the Co-Op and internship program. In a traditional Co-Op program (Cooperative education program) a student is hired by a company and is offered 3-5 internship alternating with the academic semester. This is a typically 4.5-5 year program but the extra year is worth the time. Apart from getting $2-3k per month a student gets valuable work experience on his/her resume realting to his academic major. This not only makes you more marketaeble after you graduate but also give you an exposure of the real engineering projects, functioning of a global company. I personally had a good experince working with Robert Bosch LLC. I was in the Engineering Developement of the Gasoline Systems Fuel Injection for the North America. Our plant was the biggest in North America. Even though it was my first internship, i got an opportunity to be a part of tele-conference with other engineers from Germany, Michigan. It was the real engineering work because whatever work i did, meant something to our department. I got to do some design and validation testing on developing products not yet launched in the market amd write some developement reports. This is a rare opportunity which is available in US. These are the programs that give you an edge in the early phase of your career. In India, average work experince of a high school graduate is nearly zero, so something like this is very helpful to us.

Also there are many engineering clubs in which you can join. Something like SAE would build a car and race with other clubs from various colleges across US. Such things give you a real feel of working in team with a diverse group of students. That is the case in real life, as thomas friedman says, "The world is really Flat", because in the life after college you would be working in an American company, with Asian engineers, product being desgined in Germany, parts imported from Mexico or Brazil and manufacturing happening in Australia. As the globalisation has become a crucial movement in the last decade having a good internation exposure is essential for all the students.

Apart from the undergraduate degree, US colleges are known world wide for their Graduate programs and Phd research programs. They have got all the world class facility with million dollar funding. Some colleges like Purdue, even have their own particle accelerator. Even for the undergraduate students there are research opportunities available rigth after the frehman year.
The research would be actually be done in some research park with some professor. Hence this is definitely something big for a student at such a young age.

Good Luck to all for your professional career. If you need any further guidance, i can be reached at patel57-at-purdue-dot-edu(Hope that screws up lots of web crawlers!).

999

(Note: Although I have shared my experiances at Purdue University, I am presuming that any other equivalent University would offer similar exposure to the students)

Singapore - The Lion City

Up until we have had a variety of posts ranging from education and applying to US universities to education in India.

Let me give the blog readers a new perspective on education opportunities after 12th. Consider Singapore and its two reputed universities – National University of Singapore (NUS) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU).

I plan to cover the following aspects of Singapore education in this post – Applications to NUS, Courses available, Financial aspect of the education, Singapore as a city/state/country and Potential difficulties that a student may face.

On a side note, let me introduce myself. I am Deepen Doshi, (supposedly batch of 2007), but I left SNK after completing 10th ICSE boards in March 2005, for pursuing my high school education at Victoria Junior College in Singapore under the Singapore Airlines Youth Scholarship. I complete GCE A levels in Dec 2007 and joined NUS in July 2008. I am currently pursuing a Bachelors of Computing (Computer Engineering) degree in the School of Computing.

Most of my entries would be pertaining to NUS, but NTU also follows almost the same system of application.

Applications to NUS

Application to NUS can be made under various categories. International (Non-Singaporean) students with International qualifications qualify for the category D. The applications for category D can be made from around first week of October until the end of March. The minimum eligibility to apply for study at NUS is just ‘A good pass in any 5 subjects at ISC level’.

For students who do not have the actual results by the time they apply, (which is highly likely the case for all students taking the ISC exams, as results come out only after May and the application is to be submitted by March), the courses of Medicine, Dentistry, Law, Architecture, Nursing and Industrial Design are not open for application. For all those courses, you need to have the actual result with you while applying

Application goes somewhat like this

1) Complete the online application form.

2) Get your supporting documents ready and mail them to the university at a given address.

Supporting documents consist of photocopies of:

a) High School Examination Results Slip
b) Secondary School Examination Results Slip
c) Additional Results slips like SAT I, SAT II, TOEFL, IETLS (If appeared for)
d) Birth Certificate or Passport

3) Pay the application fee of SGD 20.

4) You are done. Keep your fingers crossed. You shall listen from the university somewhere around late June.

Courses available

All courses in Engineering, Computing, Science, Business, Arts, Law, Social Sciences and Architecture are available. Courses in Computing and Engineering at NUS are reputed courses world-wide.

Financial aspect of the education

Detailed information about the finances can be found here, but the gist is somewhat like this.

(All Annual Approximate figures)
Total Tuition Fees : SGD 32,000
Total Hostel Fees: SGD 3,000
Total Living Costs: SGD 10,000

Total Costs: SGD 45,000

Every student (irrespective of nationality) is eligible for a tuition grant from the Ministry of Education, Government of Singapore of SGD 26,000. You just need to indicate on the online application form whether you want to grant or not. It’s a grant that the government gives to any student studying in university. It doesn’t have to be repaid. But upon acceptance of the grant, you sign a 3 year bond stating that you will work in Singapore for at least 3 years after your graduation. Not a bad deal considering that they will almost spend SGD 100,000 on your education during the 4 years. While serving the bond for 3 years, there are no restrictions. You can earn as much as you can, work wherever you want and do whatever you like.

This leaves a deficit of SGD 20,000 which needs to be filled up by some other sources of your own. This can include

1) FM(Father-Mother) Scholarship: Pay on your own

2) Get some other scholarships like the Singapore Airlines Undergraduate Scholarship, or Dr Goh Keng Swee Scholarship (the one I am under right now), or similar scholarships from other statutory boards like MAS, GIC, etc.

3) Take loans from Singapore banks. I am not sure of the exact amount, but they cover up half the remaining costs after the tuition grant. Its is interest free until you graduate and repayable after you start earning within a period of 20 years after your graduate.

4) Some minimal awards given by the faculty you are studying in the university. May range from SGD 1000 to SGD 5000 annually, depending on what you get and how much you get.

1SGD = 32.80 INR (at the time of writing this entry)

Singapore as a city/state/country

Whatever you consider it, a city, a state, a country; it is what it is – Singapore. Smaller than Mumbai in size and population, its less then 1000 sq. km. in area and houses about 4 million people.

Most of the people are Chinese (70%), some Malays (20%) and some Indians (8%). Rest is made up by Americans, Europeans, etc.

It’s a fantastic place to be in. Probably one of the most happening cities in the world, always has some or the other world-scale-event going on, developing new attractions for tourists and a hub in the south east Asian region.

Potential difficulties

1) Indian Vegetarian Food: Rare to find and expensive. But not a considerable problem, I have been managing since 3 years and have still held up my vegetarian status proudly.

2) None. Trust me, food is the one and only problem here.

Positives

1) Political very stable country. No communal riots since independence.

2) Low crime rate. Very safe for guys and girls alike.

3) Law abiding country

4) Near from home. (5 hours flight to Mumbai)

5) International culture and an opportunity to make friends spread around in the world.

This is enough for one post. Its too long and most of you would not even persist to read this line. If you do, and you want more clarifications or guidance, contact me @ deepen23@yahoo.co.in.

Cheers,

Deepen Doshi

Towards Eureka

There are those who love maths and those who hate it. This post is targeted at students in the first category, to present a career option they may not be previously aware of.

When I was in 11th standard at SNK, now and then my thoughts turned to the famous "What after school?" question. I dropped biology after 10th (It's an excellent subject but not for me) and I was not particularly excited by the traditional engineering option, partly because I was too lazy to put in the amount of effort a good rank in IIT-JEE requires. As with all good stories, help came at the right moment, in the form of the training camp for informatics olympiad.

Which reminds me: if you have a strong interest in math or any of the sciences, it is a sin not to appear for the olympiads. Olympiads are international competitions at school level in 6 subjects: Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Astronomy and Informatics. Each of them typically involves a regional stage, a national stage, a training camp at the national level and the showdown i.e. the actual international competition. Another thing you should do is appear for KVPY in 11th.

Moving on, at the aforementioned camp, I came in contact with Professors and students from Chennai Mathematical Institute (henceforth, CMI) and started considering research as a serious career option. I subsequently joined CMI and am now pursuing a PhD in theoretical computer science at NYU.

I would recommend that you check out the Math and CS (Computer Science) program at CMI. Be warned that the "math" at CMI is highly different from school-math and olympiad-style math. I'm not saying it's more difficult (though some of my batchmates may disagree), but it's certainly different. Similarly, the CS courses at CMI will not merely teach you programming languages but ideas and concepts that are at the very centre of our notion of computation. Also, CS at CMI is different from CS taught at IITs, i.e., more of theory (algorithms, complexity) and less or almost nothing of engineering (systems, networks, computer vision, machine learning). One may call this a drawback but this narrow focus is probably a reason why the CMI model has worked well.

Having said this, let me stress that CMI assumes only basic mathematical background and absolutely no CS background on the part of the student. In my opinion, the important qualities of a prospective CMI student are a penchant with puzzles, problem solving skills and the willingness to take up a career which values these traits. In short, do you have it in you.

Now, let's get real. What does a CMI graduate do for a living. Many students who enter CMI do so with the express intention of following a research career and many others get inspired to do research. These typically join a Phd program in India, Europe or USA. Phd programs are almost always funded, and I believe a Phd from a good university is as close to a "safety degree" as you can get. CMI graduates are placed in top-notch institutions around the world. Other options include pursuing fields such as financial mathematics and quantitative economics in India (Applied Statistics and Informatics at IIT, courses at IFMR etc.) and outside (eg. NYU and many other universities), masters program at CMI and other institutions. It is sometimes possible to get funding for Masters programs. Of course, as a graduate you can also appear for CAT and one CMI student *has* ended up in IIM Lucknow, but if your inclinations run that way, in my opinion CMI is not the best choice for you.

Lastly, "college life" considerations: CMI is an extremely small institute. It is growing, but it is still quite small. You can get an idea of the numbers by looking at the alumni page. The upside is that there is no scarcity of resources or facilities. The downsides are a small campus, lack of cultural events (more or less) and a scarcity of pretty faces. A CMI student in the Math and CS program receives Rs. 5000 per month as stipend conditioned on satisfactory academic performance. Also, there are legions of hiking places and holiday spots an overnight train journey away from Chennai.

I have been harping on about CMI because it is my college, but you should also check out the B.Stat program at ISI Calcutta and the B.Math program at ISI Bangalore. The B.Stat program focuses (predictably) on Statistics, and is older and more famous than either CMI or ISI Bangalore. Compared to ISI Bangalore, CMI is more informal and flexible as an institute. It also has a strong presence in theoretical computer science because of its own faculty and institutional ties with IMSc.