Student Support

Experience of a parent, who accompanied his successful son to NID for studio test, interview & admission in April & June, 2009.
-----------------------------------------

Reaching NID (4km.from railway station, situated on the left of the road immediately after the bridge across river Sabarmati) at dawn and a day in advance, my son was accommodated in a two-seated third floor boys' hostel and I could easily get a single room in a nearby economy class hotel. In Ahmedabad, by 11 am, it was quite hot and the temperature went upto 40 degree Celcius by noon, but, inside NID campus it was quite cool.

NID campus is on the bank of Sabarmati and is quite beautiful. It is an almost square plot of around 10 acres, with full of trees, creepers and a rare eco-friendly habitat of animal kingdom - peacocks, monkeys, thousands of birds, squirrels, etc - all fed by NID with sacks of wheat (and water-filled earthern bowls) littered on the terrace of boys' hostel.

Next day around 9 am the students (around 300) were gathered in the lawn, adjacent to remnants of a historic mughal tomb and centre-wise groups were taken to the studio test hall. Each student was asked to do: 4 doodles, to prepare a half-cut apple with sponge, to prepare a movable, sound-producing (while moving) vehicle, using potatoes as wheels, feel an object (my son found out that it was a small plastic yellow fish) kept inside a black socks for 30 seconds and prepare it using the given materials. The doodles and apple were easily done, but the vehicle and fish made the students sweat. Time given for all these was 3 hours and majority of the students did the studio test comparatively well.

The toughest part of the selection process was the portfolio presentation and interview, held on the next day, grouping the students to batches of 8-9 and each batch was interviewed by a board, giving each student about 10 to 45 minutes. My son was given 45 minutes, but even then he was in the middle of his presentation and the board members said it was "enough" - giving a clear clue that his result might be positive. Since the interview was being held in glass-panelled chambers, we could watch the performance of 4-5 students of earlier batches, which gave my son an opportunity
to learn from the mistakes of earlier batch candidates.

Some of the students were over-dressed, extremely cautious and nervous. But we noticed that energetic, but physically not so good looking students, were doing their fire-works. What-ever you carry, you must know how to present them well. The board (consisting of 4-5 members, 2-faculty, 2 outside experts and a co-ordinator) was looking for real creativity and originality and if one carries someone else's work, he is sure to be caught red-handed. Those who are talented only in painting and drawing were directed by the board to seek admission in an art school, since NID is looking for students with creative talents.

What we noticed there - was the simplicity of dress and manners with the successful candidates. Some of the girls were over-dressed and acted like models, leading them to be extremely nervous. They were sitting like statues and many promptings from the board members to make them move could not make them stand up or move a little here or there. Definitely, those students who had in-built confidence and had full realisation about their strengh, did extremely well. Standing outside the board rooms, we could quite easily predict the result of each student coming out of the interview room.

If your portfolio is large, it is absolutely necessary to prepare a priority list, as there is a time-limit. It will also be advantageous to arrange the materials (drawings, paintings and other creativity articles) either chronologically or in specific groups -say 'Early child-hood drawings', 'Paintings in my room', etc.

CATCH THEM YOUNG: I have a small advice to the parents aspiring that one of their children should reach NID. Once you notice that your child has a talent,it is then absolutely necessary
to nurture that talent continously. It should start blooming around 10th standard. There-after, for the next 2-3 years there must be real concentrated preparation, parallel to the normal class-studies
of 10th, 11th and 12th. It appears that - out of those who got into NID this year, about 70% had spent earlier one year either in NIFT, B.Arch., or in other similar design schools. Possibly only against the reserved seats students were taken immediately after +2. About 75% had some sort of organised traning through one of the coaching centres. This is only an outsider's assessment (after meeting several students/ parents,who came to NID this year ) and not the official figures.

For taking admission, my son was asked to reach NID 4 days prior to starting of classes) as there was an orientation programme for 2 days. He was accommodated in the third floor of boys' hostel and each room had 3 in-mates, allotted by the institute by mixing the students from different states. Each student has been provided with a cot, table, chair and a cup-board / small steel almerah. Probably these rooms were meant for two, but later on converted for allotting to three. Girls were accommodated in the adjacent girls hostel, located at the fag-end of the campus.

-- o 0 o --