Pratham Agrawal's Review On Thapar Institute Of Engineering And Technology - [Thapar University], Patiala

I had undertaken like any other engineering aspirant, a host of examinations like IIT-JEE, BIT-SAT, AIEEE and IP University during my time i.e. the year of 2005. I managed to get a respectable rank in AIEEE which was 14762. In that range i was getting 3 NIT's and Thapar and apart from that, a host of other lower ranked colleges.

The course structure is a copy of the IIT's. But what made the curriculum awesome was the faculty's grasp at concepts and their skill at imparting knowledge. Beginning 2nd semester, core subjects began and the curriculum was a healthy mix of both theoretical and practical knowledge. I remember quite distinctly that all equipment related to soil mechanics, concrete technology and structures were available in the laboratory.

My college used to provide internship but it wasn’t a desired choice by the students. There wasn’t a stipend paid to students who used to intern at college. At my time, only one company came which was offering a stipend of Rs. 5000 per month. I had done my internship in a PSU and the overall experience was good. It is an opportunity to have hands on field experience and enhance your learning.

Our college is quite blessed with regard to the scenario of placements with my branch i.e. civil engineering having 100 % placement for students having CGPA greater than 6.00. The companies that came for campus recruitment were quite good.

As a student of Bachelors Degree only 2 festivals come to my mind. One is the Technical Festival named Aranya and the other is the Cultural Festival named Saturnalia. Both these festivals attract students from North Based Engineering Colleges in great nos. Maybe a rumor but i heard that our budget fro the Cultural Festival in the year 2009 was 50 lakhs.

The fee structure is steep (as you would expect from a private engineering college). I did my B.E. from 2006 – 10 and was charged approx. Rs 56K per semester. In addition to that add 1.5K per month as messing charges for the approx. 9 months in college per year. And in addition to it add another 1.5K per month as miscellaneous expenses. This total for a year amounts to Rs. 1.5 Lakh. And that used to be the year of 2006.

There was one scholarship which was awarded to meritorious students wherein if you had secured 90 % above in your boards and managed to keep your S.G.P.A. above 8.5 for all semesters to follow then the entire tuition fee was waved which i must say was quite substantial. Any dip in S.G.P.A. for any one semester even while maintaining a C.G.P.A. above 8.5 would result in cancellation of the scholarship.

Campus Life was pretty awesome. I miss those days a lot. My campus was beautiful. Gender Ratio was skewed with approx. 70 girls on a batch strength of 650. In my civil branch, 5/83. For mechanical 0/95. For Biotech 21/40. For computer science and Instrumentation approx. 30% girls strength was there.

The course curriculum was well structured but was loaded with a lot of examinations. Picture this – 5 months with the first 2 months being pretty awesome (by awesome I mean chilled out) and the remaining months being full of examinations. The mandatory clause of maintaining minimum 75 % attendance was strictly adhered to with no relaxation whatsoever.

Prior to writing the AIEEE, i had the good sense of filling in the application form of Thapar University. After securing a rank in AIEEE, i proceeded to attend the counselling session at the campus. In all 4 counselling sessions were conducted and i managed to secure a berth in civil engineering in the third counselling session. The fourth counselling session ended for outside quota seats at a rank of approx 18500.

The faculty was the highlight of my college. I can say with utmost confidence that this college houses the best faculty for civil engineering in India. It is because of their training that i and many of my seniors and batch mates managed to crack the most competitive engineering examination of the country which is the Engineering Services conducted by UPSC every year.