True, old school and one of a kind

A couple of years of not so good admission process really affected the institution. They had a failure in the system which ended up granting admission to candidates who scored way below the normal threshold. It brought down the morale, pass percentage, vision and peace of mind of the institution. It was a rough road from there, but they have built it back up right now. Deserving, talented young students can always benefit from the college's infinite hidden potential, only that they might have to fight through it a little bit. But the best thing about this University, is the way it teaches you life and there is an 80% guarantee that you will be successful after this.

CUSAT has its own entrance examination. It is also called CAT, but unlike the Common Admission Test for MBA, this is only for admissions in the Cochin University governed non self financing colleges. I chose this exam as CUSAT is a regionally reputed college and provided ample opportunities to study as well as be active in other extracurricular activities. Computer Science and programming logic has always been my forte, there was frankly no question of what course to choose.

The course curriculum is rather broad and includes various branched courses which might seem irrelevant for your option at the moment, but will later prove quite necessary and you will be able to connect the dots and correlate the different courses' connection to others. It is well spread out over 8 semesters, the 6th semester has a minor project and 8th semester would include a major project. The course offers countless opportunities to go deeper into the subject and often has dedicated marks for internal assignments and a presentation of a subject of study in the 8th semester.

No. Internships have never been mandatory and the student interest to initiate and do internship would be his/her sole effort. Students often went to Bangalore or other cities with their academic scores. A major 80% would not bother, which should be a matter of concern here. A student would thus need a lot of help to secure a good worthwhile internship and not even 1% of the times, it converts to an actual placement after the course.

A majority of the organizations who come to hire, are often considered as mediocre companies which pay considerably less at the initial stages. The arrears a student has, has a direct impact on the placements he can appear. For instance, a company which hired over 900 students at a popular non merit college only hired 14 students from a class of Computer Science students. More placements follow afterwards, but the best ones always ask for high merits and no history of backlogs, both of which are quite difficult in the college. The pass percentages were between 37 and 45 in and around 2010 and had not increased a whole lot over 4 years since I was present.

Since mine is a University, we had different branches of study in the same roughly 180 acre campus. The regularly held event was the arts fest, Vipanchika, it happened once every year and included different colleges which were affiliated to the university. The event lasts usually for 4 days and never , ever goes unnoticed. These are primarily only for the creative section of the lot. The next most noticeable is 'Talentime', which was the annual School of Management Studies' fest. The scale of this event was huge and only got better by every coming year. They had rock shows, band performances by widely acknowledged artists and other fun events which one may participate in. The School of Engineering had its own arts and competed between branches of study. These were sparking with spirit and often gave the smaller or less interested students a platform to perform with lesser effort and not affecting their academics. School of Engineering's annual tech event has been called many things. First, it used to be called Xplendor. In the year 2010, it had a name change and was called Dhishna hence. The event was entirely tech only. It had gaming fests, coding championships, hackathons etc, but was not very happening unlike the other events. Berserk was a rock show which died out after the first year of its existence as a part of Dhishna. In spite of being good, there was no leadership or initiative to take it forward.

It is a semi-government university and very feasible hence. For instance, one can study here for four years and get a decent accommodation for about the sum of money charged by big non merit, management colleges for one year. The fee is to be payed as a lump-sum for the first year. Thereafter, every semester one has to pay the fee. This amount is less, even for a General candidate and almost negligible for candidates with reservation.

Neither a scholarship, nor loan would be necessary for most people studying here. The fee is so incredibly low. No in-house loans or scholarships are hence popular here. But once you secure an admission, you can always avail loans from local financial undertakings or a national bank with ease.

Campus life in CUSAT was 'easy' in simple words. To be put bluntly, nobody questions you if you bunk classes or examinations. No teacher or administration bothers what you do to get to the end result. They offer advises and remedial opportunities but it is always up to a student to take it up. Apart from the academics, comes the extracurricular opportunities. There used to be many workshops during the events like mentioned earlier. In a regular month, without any events or functions, the number of workshops would range between 2 and 5. This would be for a vastly different subjects and thus would not have made sense for everyone to attend.

Hostel rooms are all two sharing. Nobody is designated to clean the rooms. The rooms are shabby and not well constructed. The whole place has a cheap yet comfortable ambience. Mess is also substandard with little or no choice for the food you want to eat. Even on it's best day, it would not earn a 4/5 from an average consumer. The relief here is that it is not mandatory to join the mess and there are plenty of restaurants that are cheap and offer very good food which you can grow an attachment towards.

The alumni were very involved during the early 2000s, many of them still hold very high positions in different organizations and government services. We were often fed news by the faculty about someone, from when we were too young to anticipate a day like that, scaling a tall mountain (metaphorically). But lately, there have been good progresses and interaction with the Alumni and there were productive meets held by the students. Constructive advises from the experienced and current working public had found it's way in and helped the students make informed decisions. Unlike most of us, who were out in the wild before we knew it and had expectations from our peers which were largely demoralizing and at the same time, diminishing growth.

The internal exams are cramped up and stacked mercilessly and without much thought given to the course. A student will have to undergo severe tests of their morality, capability, confidence, patience, caffeine intakes and ability to grasp quickly. The good thing here is the internal exams only convert to 33% of the total annual score. This is again an average of two tests held amidst the semester, so one gets enough chances to get back up. The external examinations are well structured, enough days in between tests (well spaced) and not really taxing unless one decides not to appear or study (which happens to happen a whole lot more)

The admission process is only for the candidates who appeared for the special CAT for CUSAT. A selection of courses can be made and prioritized. After which, the admission will take place over several days. Candidates are requested presence in the admission wing with 2 semesters' fee and some advance payments. The admission happens according to the number of remaining seats for a candidate's preference of a course. If the seats are exhausted, they can join any other course in their list of preferences. Even if all the options are exhausted, there is still chance for you to secure admission as other students may back-out from their admissions later.

The head faculty is extremely knowledgeable, although the fresh temporarily hired teachers often lack the ability to keep it interesting. The head of the departments would have all had their share of good achievements in the past. They continue to amuse the alumni and the students with new research papers, PhD, music direction in movies, recognition from the government, appearances in the news etc. If a student shows interest to learn and try to understand deeply any subject, the teachers give honest attempts to satisfy your mind and breathe easier. The same, they would not do for the regular academic sessions, so the only problem is that you will be the one finding your passion.