Malvika's Ramblings

NIFT Counselling: Design course and centre selection

View complete NIFT info at  http://blog.malvikajain.com/nift-admission/

Design course and centre selection at NIFT

The next meet after the situation test is for course selection. Everyone sits in a hall and is called one by one to an adjacent room to get his/her papers verified. This is where you also specify what stream and NIFT centre that you want.The candidates are summoned to this room in order of all India rank in the entrance exam. The first ranker goes first.

In the large hall itself, there is a screen on which the availability of seats in various courses is displayed. This gives all those people sitting an opportunity to make up their mind while they are waiting to be called. So if you dont have a good rank, have your second and third options ready. Having said that, if you perform very well in your first year at NIFT you can change your stream second year onwards. You just might be able to change your centre at the end of the first or second year. We have had one or two transferred students. All this depends on availability of seats and on your marks, so the possibility cannot be predicted. You’ve just got to try.

The first year at NIFT is a common foundation programme in which the stream chosen is unimportant. Fashion Communication and Fashion Design seats get filled up first. These are the most coveted courses. The competition gets even tougher for Fashion Communication as it is offered only at Delhi and Mumbai NIFT centres (as of 2008).

At the orientation programme they also ask you if you would like to avail of hostel facility. I have written about hostel, room or apartment near NIFT Delhi in the blog-post House Hunt.

Just in case the prospectus didnt give you a clear idea about what each course is, here is a run through that lets you choose what you really want to do.

FC Fashion communication

FD Fashion design

LD Leather design

KDT Knitwear Design

TD Textile design

AD Accessory Design

FC :

graphics, journalism, photography, visual merchandising (which includes creating the look of a brand’s stationary, carry bags, store, facia etc), advertising, brand development - all dealt with keeping fashion and lifestyle in mind. For more on FC click here.

FD :

primarily about designing collections - thinking it out and actually stitching it. Two main subjects are pattern making and garment construction. For more on FD click here. To look at a few 2008 FD design collections clickhere.

LD :

same as FD with focus on leather. so this may lead you to make bags as well

KDT :

same as FD but they focus on knit fabrics such as that which makes T shirts and stockings, not just sweaters. So the students create fabric as well as apparel

TD :

the creation of different textiles and making designs on these textiles through print or weaving. you study fibre, yarn and fabric and the innovations beng done. At the end of 4 years you prepare a collection of home linen or apparel

AD :

lots of material exploration and how to fix things together. thinking out products in 3 D to make useful gadgets or just aesthetic stuff like vases. You can make stuff like chairs, mountaineering harness, table-lamps, ergonomic hammers, wine racks, mountaineering gear, candle stands, toys at the end of this course. For more detail on AD click here.

Advice:

First choose course and then centre unless you are getting a pathetic centre.
Reason: Your course decides your career. You can always do a particular course in chennai instead of Delhi, and then at the end of four years, get a job in Delhi or Mumbai.
If you don’t get your course in the top 5-6 centres and if you are not passionate about a particular course, then go for another course. Try not to go for a really tiny centre because after all, mainstream fashion is big city glam. Personally, I feel that industry experts will not visit small centres as faculty as their work and life is in big cities. I don’t know if the libraries will be terrific in small centres.

Which 5-6 centres should you try for? Just see which are the bigger cities - say delhi, mumbai, bangalore, hyd, chennai, kolkota, and also gandhinagar maybe.

FD, KDT, LD are roughly similar.
TD teaches you FD stuff + stuff about textiles (weaving, dyeing, printing etc)
AD is disctinctly different because you don’t focus on clothes and fabric. Read more in AD details blog-post
FC is distinctly different, teaching you abt branding etc. But you can still go for another course and pick FC skills on the way.

Kriti wrote:

Thanks for every thing Malvika. My counseling was today 23th july 2009. Here are all the details so that you can help others the way you helped me.
NIFT counseling this year started on the 12th of July. The total no. of seats is 1290 out of which 631 are reserved.
PHP=3% RESERVATION, selected=24, NO waitlisted.
ST=7.5%, selected=97,waitlisted=78
SC=15%,SELECTED=193,waitlisted=120
OBC=25%,selected=317,waitlisted=183

All the above info is from NIFT site. Hope it’s helpful for you. IN FD and FC no seats were left. By the time my counseling was over, only a few seats in the new centers were left.

And hey, one more thing - In every stream i.e. FD TD KD and so o,n 15 are for general and the other 15 are for reserved category.

General selected=645, waitlisted=355.

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