REVIEW OF IIST

I am from Hyderabad and I had applied for only TS-EAMCET counseling along side JoSAA and IIST counseling where I got JNTU-H through EAMCET. Later I got an oppurtunity to through spot admission to study at IIST which I accepted and flew to Thiruvananthapuram to get the procedures done. The minimum requirement for IIST is to qualify JEE-Advanced. To get into IIST, we have to apply for the independent admission counseling of IIST wherein we had 10 rounds of seat allotment and acceptance online, and after which there was a spot round which was held at the institute it self. I got my admission through the spot round and the day of counseling was a little chaotic as there were about 200 students with families to avail their seats at IIST but the management did a good job at taking care of everything and the whole process was smooth.

The course I have chosen is Bachelors of Technology in Electronics and Communication with Avionics and I have chosen this course as I want to be a satellite engineer and this course is a little specialized for my goal. Our department has a well-qualified faculty who are pioneers in their respective fields and work in immersive research. We have around 20 professors in our department which is quite a good number and about 90% of them are proficient teachers while some of them are still rusty they do seem to pick it up over the years. The exams are well prepared and it is considered that our exams are a little harder than general. The exams are smartly crafted to make us think more intuitively and takes the genuine effort of each individual to score well.

Students get a lot of internship oppurtunities to work in the ISRO missions at various ISRO centers around the country through our college. The professors are pioneers in their fields of research and students get to work with them in their research from a very early time and these become potential reseach internships. The college also has MoUs with international institutes like CalTech-JPL, Unversity of Colorado, Australian National University, NTU Singapore and many more where select students get to intern in international projects. The college also has its own small satellite development facility called SSPACE where students along with professors engineer indegenius satellite and subsystems developments.

Students are eligible for placements from the 8th semester. The students have to sign a bond that binds to work with ISRO for 3 years minimum if they get above 7.5 CGPA overall throughout the course at a good opening pay at an average of 70,000 INR for every student who gets placed into ISRO. They're also a few companies that come for college placements with similar placement offers but the majority of the students land up in ISRO. About 85% get placed with ease and the rest either pursue high studies or find outside jobs.

For my years the course fees are as follows per semester in INR: Tuition fee: 20,000 Hostel fee: 2,400 Amenities fee: 4,000 Dining fee: 12,000 Establishment charges: 8,000 Medical charges: 2,000 TOTAL: 48,400 per semester But as per a recent notice, there will be a fees hike due to the pandemic which would most likely be as follows for the general category (yet to be finalized.) Tuition Fee: 62500 Medical Fee: 2000 Amenities Fee: 3450 Hostel and Dining Fee: 23750 The college also provided percentage fee reduction for various categories and it has an assistance scholarship wherein a general category student who gets above 7.5 GPA and any other category student who gets above 6.5 GPA for a semester gets their complete semester fee waivered. The college also provides a book grant worth 3,000 INR per semester for every student who scores above 7.5 GPA. We do not get any stipend for the campus for Bachelors's students but there are good stipends for Master's students.

The college hosts a cultural fest named "Dhanak" in the months of September-October and a technical fest named "Conscientia" in the month of March. Both are one of the biggest fests in Kerala with high attendance. Our library is a 7-story structure with every possible thing you need. It has a high-tech internet facilty along with fast Wifi provision inside the building, a proper reprographic section, a binding section, fully airconditioned with various seating options. The classrooms have a high ceiling with huge windows for proper lighting and ventilation along with sufficient lights, fans and some rooms are air-conditioned as well. They also have comfortable desks and cushioned seats, with projectors, white and blackboards. We have a gym with a student activities center for indoor sports, a basketball and a football ground. The college has a lot of functional clubs like Music club, Quiz club, a student led college magazine and many other fun clubs with are breathers for us.

It is mandatory for Bachelor students to avail of the hostel services being a one-time registration during the admission but they are quite affordable being 2,000 per semester. Rooms are good in size and are shared among two and they come with 2 almirahs, 2 single cots, 2 single table and chair sets, 2 big wall shelves, and a night table. The hostels have a common washroom which is sanitized daily. The meals provided at the mess are of good quality with a high level of cleanliness and the menu has a lot of variety from South-North Indian cuisines to speical meals in Chinese, Italian and Mughalai. The mess services take regular feedback and keep improving and bring changes in the menu to break the minority in their already diverse menu. They also cater for special events held by students at a very affordable price.