Raksheet Shetty's Review On SDM College Of Engineering And Technology - [SDMCET], Dharwad

I wrote the engineering CET for the state of Karnataka. I had a rank in the early 8000. I decided to opt for this college because of it had a good reputation back in the day and had an amazing campus. I also wanted to experience hostel life away from the cities and this afforded me the best option.

The course curriculum when I attended college was university approved. It had a good balance between practicals and theory with emphasis on projects in the final year. The college has since become a deemed university and has its own curriculum. I am not sure how much it has changed.

During my engineering days, the college did not provide any internship. There was no such thing built into our curriculum. We were though encouraged to undergo some sort of industrial training between our 4th and 5th semesters. In our final year, we were supposed to work on our project.

Placements were very good during my time. More than half of the class were placed in some company or the other. The IT branches had a higher success rate. Most students were placed in IT companies like Cognizant, Wipro and Infosys. We had a few core engineering companies like Hyundai and L&T who also picked up students. Most students were offered packages in the range of 3 to 5 L per annum.

The college had an annual cultural festival called Fantasia - with events like Quizzes, singing, dancing, battle of the bands etc. In addition to this there was another fest held along with the dental and medical colleges under the SDM brand, which also included concerts from singers like Sunidhi Chauhan and Hariharan.

In my days, the fees was standardised for all CET applicants in the state. It was Rs 50000 per annum. We paid another Rs 10000 per annum as hostel fees.

I did not avail of any scholarship. Back then, fees depended on your CET rank and no additional scholarship was available. Students from reserved categories did receive free textbooks and had a reduced fee though.

Gender ratios depended on the branch you were in in. The IT and electronic branches had a 60:40 ratio between boys and girls. There were not many girls in mechanical engineering. We only had 2 in a class of 100. I am not aware of any specific practices put in place by the college to increase diversity.

During the semester, there were 3 internal exams per theory subject (held about once a month) and one internal exam per lab subject. Semester exams were held at the end of every semester. The theory exams were held after the lab exams. We usually had a 3-4 week study holiday before our semester exams. So, it was not very stressful.

A statewide engineering counselling was held after the results of the CET were announced. I got to select my seat in this college through this. I was handed a slip for the college and branch I had selected. I took this slip to the college to finalise the admission process. In the college, I was asked to submit my documents and pay the necessary tuition and hostel fees. It was a smooth process.

The mechanical engineering faculty in the college were very good and experienced. All faculty were highly qualified - made up mainly with Masters degree holders and PhDs. Also, most faculty members had industry experience, which helped us get practical perspectives on the theories we learnt in class. This was also helpful during our final year projects.