A brief discussion on ISI, Kolkata

Reason for preferring this college over others: I wished to study statistics and Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) is considered to be one of the best institutes in India to study mathematics and statistics. That is why I decided to take admission here. Admission process:(I) The written exam includes an objective paper(UGA) containing 30 questions and a subjective paper(UGB) containing 8 questions. If a student scores above the cut off marks in UGA (which varies from year to year but is typically between 65 to 80 out of 120) then his/her solutions for UGB will be checked. (II) Suppose the student got x in UGA and y in UGB. If ax+by(where a and b(a

Reason for choosing the course: I wished to study statistics and the B.Stat.+M.Stat. courses offered by the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), Kolkata is considered to be one of the best courses in statistics in India. That is why I decided to opt for this course. Qualification of faculty: Atleast PhD is a must for every faculty.Frequency of exams: Mid semester and end semester are held for every subjects. Professors in some courses may take class tests(graded) also.Difficulty of exams: One may face open ended questions. Exact answers are not expected but an outline of the solution will suffice. Rarely questions from past years get repeated in exams. I would rate the average overall difficulty of the questions 8.5 out of 10. However the difficulty mainly depends on the faculty.

Since I wish to go for a PhD, I am working on research projects and not much interested in job internships.

Undergraduate students are not allowed for placements. Masters students can sit for placements which starts at the beginning of third semester. Apart from that some students also get PPO after completing there internship at the end of first year of Masters or final year of undergrad. Companies like Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JPMC, Deloitte, Microsoft, Google, Intuit, UBS, Amazon etc.(all the names can be found in the placement brochure published by the institute and available online)According to 2021-2022 placement statistics for M.Stat. course:Highest package: 56 LPAAverage package: 22 LPAMedian package: 19 LPA(Placement statistics for previous years can be found in the placement brochure published by the institute and available online)Every year around 50% of the students completing M.Stat. go for PhD (mostly abroad but some prefer ISI) and remaining 50% go for a job. 100% of those students who go for a job get placed. My plans after completing M.Stat.: As of now, I wish to go for a PhD but is stuck in the situation of "PhD vs job".

Annual techno cultural fest - INTEGRATION held usually in the first three weekends of February.Brilliant library facility(including e-library) with helpful librarians. Various antique books and journals are well preserved both in online and offline mode. However there are restrictions on the maximum number of books a student can keep at any point of time. These numbers is different for different courses(typically 3 books at a time for bachelors students and 4 books at a time for masters students).Classrooms are well maintained and spacious. Post covid times projector facility is available in almost 60-70% of the classrooms.Various sports events in cricket, football, table tennis, badminton, carrom, chess, cards etc are conducted throughout the year (some by the institute and rest by the sports committee in the hostel).Since the number of students is too few, no such clubs or websites are there. But there are some student run committees to look after various student issues like General Affairs committee, Sports committee, Mess committee etc. However, several events on sports, quiz, treasure hunt, musical night etc are arranged by the hostel committees.

Tuition fee is 0. A very nominal one-time charge for library, medical facilities is paid during admission. Hostel fees worth Rs. 200 should be paid per month. You have to pay only for what you eat.Every student recieves monthly stipends(Rs. 5000 for bachelors, Rs. 8000 for masters) from the institute. One can even apply for other scholarship like KVPY, INSPIRE, JBNSTS etc instead of accepting the ISI stipend. A yearly contingency grant worth Rs. 5000 for bachelors students and Rs. 8000 for masters students is also provided to the students who take ISI stipend which covers the cost of the books, copy, pens, photocopy and other essential items purchased in an academic year.

Sports facility: Decent. Sports like cricket, football, volleyball, carrom, table tennis, badminton, chess, cards are quite common among students, research scholars as well faculty and staffs. A basketball court is under construction.Wi-Fi: Apart from "student Wi-Fi" which is accessible to all the students, every division and unit has their own Wi-Fi networks. LAN is also available in the hostel with great speed almost always.Size of library: The library at ISI, Kolkata spans entirely for three floors of the main academic building i.e. S.N.Bose Bhavan. I have already provided other informations regarding library in the previous sections.Equipment in Labs: Never visited the biology geology or psychology labs of the institute. However there are few Computer labs corresponding to every division and a centralized CSSC Lab.

Every student who apply for hostel facility gets single room. Currently, one hostel building is under repair, so students from Kolkata may not get hostel in the first year.Hostel rent: Rs. 200 per monthFood quality: Hostel mess is run by private tenders. Usually good quality food is available but the quality also depends on the tender.

Admission process: This point is completely discussed in the admission process section of "What were the factors that made you choose this College/Institute/University?"Test pattern and interview questions: (I) The syllabus of the exam includes the entire syllabus of IITJEE along with some additional topics like Euclidean geometry and Number Theory. (II) Written exam is held in two phases: Objective (UGA) where one has to solve 30 questions in 120 mins(marking scheme is +4 if correct answer, +1 if unanswered, 0 if wrong) and Subjective (UGB) which contains 8 questions.(III) In the interview, typically one will be asked 4-5 questions on an average but the professors are helpful and give hints if a student gets stuck.Preparation: Problem solving is the key thing. One should try to solve the entire book Test of Mathematics at 10+2 Level(aka TOMATO) published by ISI. Additionally, I also used to take coaching for ISI entrance.