Bony M Jose's Review On Amal Jyothi College Of Engineering - [AJCE], Kanjirappally

College provides many good facilities and infrastructure. It funds all good ideas and projects. It supports strong academic innovations. But where it lacks is that it fails to understand the heart of its students. With all the unnecessary and stupid rules that irritate and suffocate you at the same time, even the most brilliant of the students will be pulled back and are forced to become the rebels. Ideas come only from calm environment and thinking. U cannot produce golden egg if you kill the goose. College is not meant to be a golden cage where you tongues, hands and legs are tied but its a serene environment which controls the emotional, physical, academical, non academical and overall growth of a person. Its a place to fly free and spread your wings. Only then, you will be productive to the world.

I took state Engineering entrance examination which is called KEAM (Kerala engineering and Medical Entrance exam) in 2011. I got my rank around 15000. I have heard about this college through newspaper and TV that it ranks among one of the best Self-financing colleges in the state. I applied with my rank and score card in this college. They prepared a list on merit from the people who applied to their college. I was called for interview. And I chose this branch because of recommendation from my relatives. I loved computers. Initially I was prepared to take computer science engineering, but based on their personal recommendation who were themselves electronics engineers now working in IT field in Bangalore, I chose Electronics and communications as my career option. During the interview, they didnt ask anything much. They just enquired my basic details and confirmed my branch choice. Obviously they might have gone through my marks and stuff before preparing the rank list. And thats how i got admitted into this college.

Course and curriculum follows the material and structure as laid down by M.G. University ( a state run university in kottayam, kerala). Course structure is a bit tough to be frank especially the electronics option. Semester 5 is the toughest to crack with 4 core subjects. But im sorry to say that the course doesnt focus anything on research and stuff even though therse is one mini project in sixth sem and one main project in 8th sem. The hands-on experience gained during the duration of the course is very poor unless you are doing something extra on your own. When coming to the faculty side, i must say most of them are qualified and has indepth knowledge of subject. Most teachers can clear you 99% doubts on their respective subjects. And their interest to teach is also appreciable. Even then, there is a small minority, who are not student friendly and can causes you unnecessary trouble when approached. Overall faculty quality is above average.

I didnt get any internship experience because no company will come to this college and take you for internship. If we need any internship experience, we personally have to apply for the same during our semester breaks or so. But unfortunately due to some tight schedule even during semester breaks (blame the college managment for cutting down our semester breaks) i didnt get time to do any internships. I could only go for a training in BSNL for two weeks that too applied personally by me and my friends.

I must say Placements and job opportunities from this college is definitely good. TCS is the major company that comes here for placements. They took about 40 people from our batch. Followed by TCS are the companies like Mphasis ( I myself got placed here), Suntek, UST global, etc. Smaller companies like Promasoft also came to the campus to take students. Overall about 200 students got placed in various companies. The highest package was offered by TCS and it was about 3.25 lakhs per annum.Unfortunately no core company came here for placements.

College festival is called AZURE. It is a techno-cultural-managerial national level festival running for three days every year. It is definitely big for a private college in the state. But not so big as the top level college festivals. It boasts a participation of about 1000 students from various colleges. This festival consists of competitions like General Quiz, Software Debugging, Network Games, Project Contest, PC Hardware Contest, Paper presentations, Mr and Mrs Azure etc. Adding to that various departments also add many more competitions and workshops to the list.Another major competition in the college is ARENA. An annual national level 3-day basketball competition for Amal jyothi trophy. These are the only major festivals which can relax the students apart from the dull curriculum work.

Scholarships are available from college itself for top rankers in entrance exams. If you are below 1000 in ranks full tuition fee is waived. Then there is a scholarship called MOMA which is run by government for minority students with poor financial backgrounds.Loans are available from federal bank easily.

Campus life is not so enjoyable from a student's viewpoint. With all those academic and assignment works, lab works, records, exams and above all stupid and strict rules from college management, life is not at all exciting here. All student/dorm parties are prohibited here and if done attracts a heavy fine and scoldings for sure. Workshops are conducted by departments for making students sharp and competitive. IEEE membership is provided to all students. There is a good amount of gender ratio with female almost equal to male students. Being a christian minority institution, most of the students who apply and study here are christians as well. And I must say there is considerable religious tolerance respecting all other religions as well. Students mostly malayalees from all through out the country and even abroad come and study here creating a wide cultural diversity. Politics is something thats banned on this campus. No politics or strikes are allowed here. Any violations will be handled by ex-military securities posted on campus. Commenting on the economic status, most of the students comes from fairly middle class background and there are no problems tolerating people from upper or lower classes as well.Coming to the extracurricular stuff. College dont encourage anything seriously outside the academic circle. Sports and competitions are not given any focus except for basketball. And to be fair, College supports the startup and research facilities. It gives immense support to students who comes with novel ideas. College runs a competition which finds good ideas and helps them to develop into successful projects. There are separate research and incubator wings for that in college as well. It gives support on robotics as well. And to be fair again, the infrastructure, labs and canteen provided by the college are good.

There is one separate hostel for boys and girls. As myself a hosteller, I must say life at hostell is very strict and dull. Run by 4 catholic priests, hostel sometimes make you suffocate to say the least with all the rules and regulations. Most of the rooms are on 3-bed sharing basis although double and single rooms are available in small numbers. Hostels are very neat and clean and well maintained. Rooms are cleaned occasionally. Bathrooms cleaned everyday. There is also a laundry facility which is somewhat expensive. Mess food are strictly pretty much average. Quality of food for the amount we pay is not so good. Most of the kitchen is mechanised. With all the expensive machineries, hostel can boast to to be of top notch. But the machine produced meals lack any taste. The same food is being served in girls hostel as well.Hostel seats in boys hostels are pretty much enough, but the girls hostels have limited seats available.Outside PG's are not so many in this area. Even if its there, it lacks the facilities of college hostels. Average rentals in that case is pretty much low. Many students prefer to be in PG considering the rules in hostels.

Alumni network is running sufficiently with the alumni meetings are held every year in december. All students are given a membership in alumni and an alumni card is issued to them as well. Senior students are pretty much helpful in every aspect, whether its academic or non academic. They sometimes comes to college and takes orientation classes as well on taking decisions for your future. They share their experiences and stuff after college and it makes you prepare for whats waiting for you outside. Sometimes they even come to recruit people to the companies they have created.