Sachin's Review On IIT Kharagpur - Indian Institute Of Technology - [IITKGP], Kharagpur

The college experience is really good. I learnt a lot and made the best friends of my life. Education quality is not at par with international standards. More qualified professors are needed.

I took IIT JEE in 2011. My all India rank was 2446 in General Category. I had multiple friends in various IITs which helped me select my preferences. I ultimately got acceptance from IIT Kharagpur in Aerospace Engineering which I later changed to Computer Science in my second year.

Course curriculum is very diverse offering multitude of electives. Uptil second year most of the courses offered in the department are compulsory after which we are given an array of electives both from and outside the department, in data science, software engineering, cryptography, advanced algorithms, advanced architecture, systems, computer networks and so on.

B.Tech students go for internships after their third year. We can an accredited course which is graded on the work of our internship. For computer science department, companies like Microsoft, Google, Facebook, IBM, Xerox, Goldman Sachs. Adobe, Amazon, Flipkart, Cisco, Philips etc visit the campus. Stipend varies from 20 K per month to around 50 K per month in India.

Really good. Placement starts from dec 1 every year and CS department is placed in the first few days. Similar companies as internships visit for placements as well, additionally Companies like World Quant, Tower Research, American Express also visit. Packages vary from 14 LPA to 40 LPA in CS.

Social and Culture event of Kharagpur is called Spring Fest which happens every January. Students from all over the country come participate. We receive outside participation of more than 4000 per year. In addition, there are concerts by famous Indian singers and bands. Techo-management festival called Kshitij happens after a week after Spring Fest involving participation from many colleges.

Fee structure was feasible during my time. Tuition fees is 25000 per semester, and hostel and mess cost around 20000. This is very affordable compared to non-IITs. But recently the fees have been hiked. Per year cost is now approx 2L per annum. This is expensive but IITs have collaborated with many banks to provide interest free loan facilities.

There are tonnes of scholarships available based or merit as well as economic status. One called MCM provides 2/3rd fee remittance, which I availed during my entire college. The website of IIT Kharagpur provides much details and eligibility of all other scholarships. There are interest free loan facilities available as well.

Campus life is vibrant. There is nothing outside the campus (Its a village really), so students engage themselves in variety of activities. There are many tech societies like Robotics and Space Exploration, cultural clubs like Fine Arts, Dance, Drama, Western Music, Eastern Music, campus newspaper like TLS, Awaaz, and Entrepreneurship society called ECell.

We have an annual alumni meet where alumni from different batches come every year. Alumni also contribute by sponsoring our tech and culture festivals. There are also many inter-hostel competitions where students participate. Seniors are most helpful in these cases.

There are two exams per semesters for each course. Labs are weekly. There are at most 3 Labs per semester. The weekly schedule can get really hectic in second and third year. Additionally there are assignments which consume much of your weekend. In fourth year, you start working on your thesis as well, which takes additional time.

When JEE 2011 result was declared, they provided us with links to preference list and previous years' opening and closing ranks for all the affiliated institutions and their departments. We were given a few weeks to fill out our preferences. 10 days later they issued first counselling list where I got IIT Kharagpur.

Despite offering a variety of courses, many professors are not well equipped/interested to teach the courses well. A few classes involve just reading from the slides, or inability to involve the students. That is not true of all faculty though. Most professors especially teaching system level courses are well read and explain in great detail giving interesting projects.