People use the following criteria to select a course or college. But each one may give different weight to different criteria. Perceived Potential future Job Opportunity for a particular course Current Hype about a technology Giving more importance to College ( based on reputation) than for the course. Proximity ( Some like it near their home and some want to go far away) Dream about studying in certain campus. Liking for a subject. Cost of the Course and Campus, often based on the City the campus is located in. Knowledge about the course or Ignorance and influence by others. Of course the student's cut-off marks. Availability of seats. Many apply these criteria, if not in the same order, but in different order to decide. Some of the course such as Material Science is not popular. People do not choose a course it is interesting or they like it. They tend to imitate other success. Media also plays a role and the sheer volume of opportunities in other fields over shadows. But apply these criteria, often wrongly and end-up in courses that would not fit them well. Also some courses by nature do not offer great job opportunities at UG level. Some of them require Ph D level to get jobs. Some have constraint in studying for many more years. Also, Normally we do not see many Material Science grads to even know about the course or understand it. Human beings tend to copy success from others. But, in real world, contrarians have better chance in succeeding. Material Science may have huge potential in Research level in the coming years. But at UG level, it may not provide big job opportunity.Passionate Material Scientist may have great career.

One of my close friends was from the Material Sciences course. We have discussed many a time about the same question. There are a variety of reasons. 1. Material Sciences and Engineering is a course that is offered by very few colleges in India. According to my friend, only 2-3 other colleges offered the same course at the undergraduate level. The more popular brothers are metallurgy and mining. 2. The course itself was introduced in the year 2006 only. Hence, only 5 batches have graduated so far. 3. Even among the companies that visit for campus placements, not all are not aware of the course. However, this is not to say that no company invites Material Science students for placements. L&T for example, does. I think you get the gist of it. It's not very popular because new and slightly unorthodox. I'm sure that down the line this will change.

I am a Materials Science and Engineering Undergrad from CEG First of all there is no separate department for Materials Science, they are always in the shadow of the Mechanical Department. Secondly, The course content is not entirely "Materials Sciecne" as I was never taught Ceramics, Polymers separately as special subject. Thirdly, It was more Metallurgy than Materials Science. Fourthly, It' a research oriented rather than job oriented subject. This year I cleared GATE and will be joining either IIT M/B/Kgp/Roorkee as my passion is to pursue research in Materials Science. As the job prospects are weak as compared to ECE/Mech/EEE and no core company comes to our campus, I was preparing for UPSC and bank exams. I succeeded in the later though. But as of 2014 I decided to pursue research.