Aditya Singh's Review On Delhi Technological University - [DTU], New Delhi

Mostly, students praise their college. I won't. The fees is high, but the campus and sports complex haven't been maintained properly. Faculty isn't as good as IIITs. Placement is at par with top IITs, but since the crowd is so large, not all are placed. Gender ratio is terrible which is a nightmare for many guys. But i have seen students excelling in all fields at DTU, and that is what we expect from the students studying in one of the top 10 engineering colleges of india. Ex-students from DTU have transformed to successful entrepreneurs (like paytm founder and dhodu founder) , successful actors (sushant singh rajput), top level debaters, news anchors, excellent coders, and mba graduates. I never regretted coming to this college, although i complain.

I took JEE mains and JEE advanced. Scored 164 in the former and rank in 9000s in the latter. I opted for this college because of its location (i.e. in the capital) and because of its reputation of good senior junior interaction.

ECE branch has seen many changes in its syllabus since last year and the years before. Since percentage system changed to grading system last year, the result was change in syllabus and continuous evaluation. The course as of now has subjects of electronics and computer science combined. Being a sophomore, i am not well acquainted with focus on research, but as far as i know, it depends on individual interests. I had a friend who even got his name published in a research paper in first year itself. Taking into account the syllabus of third and fourth year, they are more research and development based than second year's syllabus. The electives are to enhance practical knowledge, and unless we apply it practically, they won't be easy to ace. Internet of things, digital image processing, cloud computing, antenna designs are some of the elective courses. The electives, unlike last year and before, now offer choices. Electives are offered to students in third and fourth year. There would be 8 electives in all, 2 each from 5th semester to 8th semester.

Yes, college provide internships at the end of second and third year and in the vacations in the above mentioned years. The stipend vary vastly because of the levels of companies coming for providing internships. Airtel, TI, Samsung, sandisk and flipkart were some of the companies that provided internship to the creamy layer, stipend from 10k to 25k per month.

The crowd at dtu is large, so inspite of many good companies visiting for placement, selection percentage is very less. To select the best of the lot, minimum percentage/cgpa is set high (as high as 75% or 8.1 cgpa). Of the 1400 people currently in 4th year, around 100 have already been placed and there are still 2 semesters till they pass out. Last year, of 1300 btech students, 400 were reportedly placed. Companies like samsung offered 15lakhs pa package to people with good coding skills and grades. Texas instrumentation kept the percentage bar low but selected very smart ones, from 5lakh pa to 15lakh pa. Airtel recruited only 3 students, highest package being in 20 lakhs. Mckinsey, grophers and ZS associates came for both tech and non tech placements, and recruited the student assocation post holders hefty packages, around 20 lakhs pa.

Plethora of events are celebrated in DTU, because the delhi crowd loves to celebrate and enjoy. This was the prime reason i chose DTU and not NIT allahabad (because DTU IS in delhi and hence better atmosphere mostly). various small events with different objectives are celebrated almost every week. From fresher's week to freshers night, to sports fest, to engifest (college fest) to technical fest, everything is celebrated. The engifest is the fest that we all long for throughout the year, with the budget of over 30 lakhs, we are assured of thorough joy over the space of 3 days of the fest. Celebrities come to hold concerts and there is an atmosphere in college like never before, with the outside college girls adding a tinch of spark. Participation in the events and fests is huge as people from all over delhi and all over india (in engifest) come to participate.

The fees structure keeps getting revised every year. It is 91000 (around 400000 for NRIs) for us in second year and was 99000 in first year including 10000 rs are deposited as security. 91000 rs is broken down as follows, 7500rs as tuition fee. 15000rs development fee, 6000rs examination fee, 500rs mediclaim and 12000rs student fee. The campus is slightly under maintained if we look at the hefty and expensive fees they take. College however offers scholarship to underprivileged and students with financial issues.

Personally, I haven't availed any scholarship. However, there are some scholarships that we can avail if we have financial crisis at home and college fees is heavy to bear. SC, ST and OBC students only need to provide income proof of less than 4 lakhs per year to avail good scholarships and fee waiver. Companies from outside the college too offer scholarships to deserving students who excel in particular fields and also belong to financially weak families.

The campus is beautiful, although if you compare with the fees thr college takes, this is an overstatement. It is spread over 165 acres and we literally have to go on tours to explore the college. There is a haunted lane and dtu lake in the college. The former is renowned for being haunted and also for the presence of a reindeer or a deer, latter is renowned because its a lake, although as dirty as a drain. If we are lucky to have good friends, there is nothing better than lollygagging around in the college after class hours. Gender ratio is poor as in the case of every engineering college. Classes are crowded with 60-80 people. And only 15-20% girls. That being 0-5% in departments like mechanical. DTU is renowned for its interaction between juniors and seniors because it boasts of many societies. IEEE, education tree, Enactus, E cell, NSS, UAS DTU, DTU supermileage, sahitya, pratibimbh are some of them. There are enough resources to explore almost all of our interests. And if there isnt a society that meets our interest, we can, at any time, open one. The extra curricular competitions are held very regularly, so regularly, that they are mostly untalked about because of being so common, but the participation is very large. Our college is very shallow in spending money in renovating gyms and sports complex. In spite of that, we organised inter college football tournament where 32 teams participated from all over delhi. So, sports is a culture here, regardless of bad amenities.

The hostel fees is merely 21000rs for one year. As the low fees suggests, the hostels are very ugly and hard to adjust in. However, the internet speed in some hostels is very high that mostly covers for everything. In proximity of the boys hostels, there are 2 gyms, 4 badminton courts in hostels, a huge sports complex. The mess charges are 1875rs/month for veg and 1925rs/month for non veg, non veg is served once a week. Mess offers snacks which can be purchased on credit and this credit is added to mess bills. The food, fortunately, isn't as bad as i was told about it. It doesnt match the standards of home cooked food, but some dishes do make me eat more. I have gained weight after eating mess food! The hostels being very limited, are not offered to everyone. All outside delhi candidates get hostels but delhi students don't. They have to commute daily or get accommodation in a pg or flat nearby. There are as many as 25 flats and pgs close to the college. Their rents are very high as compared to the hostels. Around 5000rs/month + electricity bill.

I wish to be entrepreneur, and not go for a core field job. Regarding this, i talked to some seniors, some have willingly guided me, others have ignored. For topics other than entreprenrship and business, i have been lucky to have seniors that i have. They are mostly very helpful and give the best and most practical advice. From them, i have learned the experience of life being an engineering student.

Unlike many DU colleges, the exam and class timetable are terrible. In a semester, we have 2 exams, mid sems and end sems. The syllabus is vast and the teachers are absolutely unwilling to share the syllabus with students, assuming they follow the classes regularly and would therefore know the syllabus ( impossible situation in my case). Of the 6 subjects, we have 4 labs this year, and the lab files are very time demanding. Overall, if we do things like attending every class and keep our work updated, we would be rendered useless and time-less for any other work in college.

Through the common online portal of NSIT and DTU, I filled in my form and choices of stream and college in priority order. The list of alloted seats came after every subsequent round of allocation(3-5 days) on the same online portal. In the first round i got MCE branch, in the third i got ECE which didnt upgrade in the remaining rounds. I payed the non-refundable fees of rs 99000 to fix my seat and later froze my branch.

The student to faculty ratio is terrible, at least for freshers. We were taught more by mtech and phd students of our college and less by actual professors. However, second year onwards, assistant professors and professors take charge of teaching the classes. Some teachers teach in a marks oriented way, while others look to develop the student's insight of the topic. The qualification of assistant professors is mostly mtech and past teaching experience of 4-5 years and above.