Jadavpur taught me more than Engineering

The college management is not very approachable and cooperative, especially middle management. As such, students face great difficulty in getting documents verified or issued by the administration.

The curriculum is a bit old-fashioned with more stress on theoretical aspects of the course. Very little stress is laid on teaching soft-computing strategies to students. However, the manufacturing sector industry continues to adore the course as it suits their needs.

The placement scenario has not been satisfactory in the past few years, primarily due to the nationwide recession. Although most leading companies have visited the campus - such as PwC, Tata Power, Tata Metallics, Haldia Power, ABB, GE, Shell, HPCL, IOCL, BPCL etc., the number of students hired by each company was very low and Indian firms provided offers to the majority in core streams like Mechanical Engineering.

The campus remains vibrant with a lot of departmental fests, faculty-wise fests and other events. Sanskriti is the annual cultural event, held in the end of spring, on different dates for the three faculties -- Arts, Science and Engineering, organised by the respective Students Unions.

The programme fee for four years adds up to roughly Rs.10,000 including examination fees. Thus JU is probably the most affordable place for studying engineering in India. The fee structure is transparent and clearly mentioned in the challans generated during payment (which can be done by cash or debit card at the examination counter, called the KMR cell).

I did not avail of any scholarship though there are provisions for the merit-cum-means scholarship, either from State Government schemes or from social foundations linked with the University.

The campus remains vibrant throughout the day and even at night, with students playing around in the field when they find a gap between two classes. Some students enjoy chatting in the canteens over a cup of coffee, or in front of the Union Room, or maybe in the green-zone or Arts More.

The alumni base of the University (commonly referred to as "Jodubongsho" in the industry fraternity) has a very strong grasp over the industry and helps to bridge connections between students and the hiring managers. They also help bring in projects for the University.

I competed for WBJEE 2014 while studying in Class-12 and secured an All India Rank of 425 in General category. I thereafter participated in the online Centralised Counselling conducted by WBJEEB, with my first choice being Mechanical Engineering at Jadavpur University. In the very first round of counselling itself, I was allotted the course.

The faculty members were very competent and highly qualified, with many of them having spent some part of their career in the industry before entering their current roles. As such, we as students were fortuitous to learn about real-life engineering challenges and problem-solving strategies from our teachers. However, some professors were a bit casual in their approach and often cancelled classes or came late.