My Life at ISM Dhanbad

The days I spent at ISM Dhanbad were the best days of my life. Given a chance to relive my life back at college, I would do so happily. Speaking about the administration/management at college, it is not very friendly and needs an overhaul. However, with the college about to be elevated to an IIT, this problem should also take care of itself in the days ahead.

I gave IIT-JEE in 2011, scored 260 out of 480, got AIR-5401 in general category. With the rank that I had, the best course which I could have opted for was Petroleum Engineering at Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad and hence I opted for this college and course.

Course curriculum is extremely technical with core Petroleum Engineering subjects like Drilling, Reservoir, Production Engineering which will entice interest and excitement in any student who wishes to work hard and make a mark in the this field. The electives like Natural Gas Engineering, Directional Drilling, Gas Hydrates, CBM, as well as the numerous labs in the course work are enough to give a student a good taste about what it is like to work in the Petroleum Industry.

I did my pre-final year internship at Shell India Markets private limited, bangalore where I worked as a reservoir engineering intern for 8 weeks. The work was based on what I had studied at college and I had plenty of opportunity to apply the same. I was satisfied with the quality of work, which was challenging for me, but once I got a fell of what I was supposed to do, I was able to enjoy the work. The internship did benefit me a lot as I got an opportunity to understand the kind of work actual engineers have to do once a student gets out of college.

Companies like Schlumberger, Cairn Energy, ONGC, Shell are regular recruiters from ISM Dhanbad petroleum engineering. The number of students hired varied from 2-3 to 14-15 for a company depending on requirement. Getting a job is easy when the petroleum market is stable and the oil price is on the higher side. But if the market is in trouble, an individual might find it extremely difficult in getting a job as happened witht the Petroleum Engineering batches of 2014-15 and 2015-16. As far as packages as concerned, they are variable with 10-12 lakhs offered for desk work and upwards of 20 lakhs offered for field engineering jobs (tough and harsh working conditions)

There is the tech cum management fest Concetto, cultural fest Srijan, sports fest Parakram. They are big events, with good participation from nearby colleges. Not yet there with Mood-Indigo or fests of other old IITs, the fests of ISM are none-the-less good events where there is ample opportunities to enjoy. The cultural fest regularly sees good artists during the star-nights which are huge attractions for the college-junta and are highly anticipated events.

Fee structure is feasible, as it is a government institute. The tution fee, hostel fee, etc are subsidized by the government. Also, many scholarships are available for students of weak economic background.

Yes, being an engineering college, all the scholarships available at any government engineering college are available for students at ISM. Personally speaking, I availed the Dual degree scholarship which a student pursuing a 5 year dual degree course receives in the fifth year of engineering.

Campus life is good. Life outside of campus in the city of dhanbad, not so good. The college campus is very green and is well maintained. Infrastructure is also appropriate. The labs in petroleum engineering department are state of the art. There is a Research Building which houses the best equipments there are, related to the popular engineering disciplines. Sports are pursued by students, with football, cricket, basketball being the popular ones. There is a student activity center where a student may find opportunities to play all kinds of sports. There is gym facility, swimming pool as well as numerous cafeterias on campus, which is according to me, enough for the holistic development of a student. Robotics, debates are also conducted by various clubs in the college.

Hostels are excellent, well maintained and cleaned regularly. Mess food is like that of any other engineering college, that is not very good. However, a student learns to deal with it with passage of time.

Alumni network of the college is extremely strong and is one of the hallmarks of the college. The alumnus of the college are spread all round the world. Just as an example, during my college days I had an opportunity to visit 4 different countries for attending conferences and once for a research internship, and I never had a problem in those lands with a lot of alumni in each of those countries who were eager to help me in whichever way possible. Senior students during my college days were extremely helpful and were like my elder brothers, always there to fall back on in case of any problem.

The exam structure and labs are not very demanding. The entire schedule is not very hectic. On an average day, any student has about 5-6 hours of time which he can very easily employ for self-grooming or in skill development activities. An average day of a student is chilled out. However, once in the final year, the pressure of placements gets to all students, and the final year hostels are often places where students could be found immersed in books, trying to hone their skills for the upcoming placement session.

The faculty at the college is excellent. Being the oldest department of its kind in India, the department is quite reputed, with some of the best faculty teaching Drilling engineering, Reservoir engineering and formation evaluation courses to the the students. The elite faculty is quite capable of capturing the interest and imagination of the students who wish to strive hard in order to pay attention in the classroom lectures.