BITS Pilani- Indulge in it's Magic!

While preparing for JEE itself, we're told about the perks of joining BITS Pilani, incase we don't make it through JEE advanced nicely. The college is well respected among the community and in the industry as well, the huge campus is equipped with almost everything that a. Indian engineering college could have including swimming pools, AC lecture halls, sports ground(gym), equipped labs. The placement statistics proved to be the most deciding factor of all factors which were far better than most of the colleges. Although the fee structure is a bit too high, as it is a private college, yet education loans can be availed very easily. BITSAT form is available from the month of January, after filling up the firm in the month of April you've to choose your preferred date and slot via the online portal and then give BITSAT in May. The results are displayed on the spot and the counseling form is filled in the month of June. There is a Facebook group called BITSAT Queries which helped me a lot in decisions.

The main reasons behind choosing the Civil department were my lack of interest in the dual degree as it's a 5year program and my BITSAT marks, so can be said to be a result of the process of elimination. In branch specific courses the student to faculty ratio is not very high and can be approximated around 1:45 whereas in the common courses this ratio in lecture classes (mostly in First years) can be really high. The faculty is very well versed in their department and most of them PhDs in their fields. They know about courses more than required and some of them are also active in research. The teaching methodology is great and consists of lecture classes, tutorial classes where one can get personal attention, and labs. The exam schedule is given at the start of the year itself and is not shifted at all. The exams are difficult especially the end semester exam(called as comprehensive exams), are often open-book exam which makes scoring in them tough, but not if you are regular to classes.

The institute offers two internships. One at the end of the second year, for a period of 2 months called PS1, and the other at the end of 3year for 5.5 months called PS2. Also, companies come for interns at the end of 3rd year and offer various roles and also give PPO to some students before they sit for placements. All the major MNCs come for these internships

The campus placement for single degree students begins from the 7th semester and one can choose to sit in the 7th or 8th semester. Although for internships companies do visit in the 3rd year itself. A huge number of companies visit the campus including the top MNCs as Amazon, Google, Flipkart, Goodman Sachs, Oracle, Bloomberg, and other thriving startups like Ola, Udaan, Cred, etc. The highest package cracked was 98lpa and the average across all branches would come around 10-12lpa. The various profiles offered included Analyst, consultants, Software developer, product Manager, core engineer, business development, etc. Around 85-90% of students get placed and the rest choose to go up for higher studies or prepare for other competitive exams. My plan is to take up a job from campus placement.

For the year 2019, the basic tuition fee was 178000 and the hostel fee was 39000, each per semester. The fee hike in 2020 made the tuition fees 194000 per semester. There is also a yearly fee hike of up to 15% and a fee estimate is given on their website for the next 5years. An approximation of a 4year degree can be made to nearly 20Lakh as per the 2019 fee structure. There is a Merit-cum-need scholarship available and is easy to get if your income is less than 10lakh/annum. The scholarship depends upon your performance and the minimum barrier is 6cgpa. Also in you can become TA(teaching assistant) in a course under a professor and get paid some amount.

BITS Pilani hosts three annual fests every year namely BOSM(Bits Open Sports Meet) the annual sports fest which is held in the month of September, OASIS the annual cultural fest which is held in the month of October and is one of the biggest in the country, and then APOGEE the annual Techfest which is in the month of March and is the oldest Techfest of the country. The library is a separate building and has all the newly published research papers and journals some of them are also made available online. There are sports facilities available for all sports in GymG and Sac also QT is there in every hostel for playing in hostels too. There are a huge number of clubs and departments run by students from coding to arts to debate and entrepreneurship all sorts of co-curricular activities are highly encouraged in the campus

Every room has a bed, bookshelves, table-chair, and cupboard. In the first year, you have a double sharing room while from the second year onwards you have a choice of a single room or double room. The mess food is average and can be monotonous at times, the menu keeps changing though and is not static although Sunday lunch is definitely good. The registration process for a hostel is very very easy all you need to do is get a slip during registration and report to your hostel where you'll be allotted to the room no. written on the slip.