JIPMER - The Journey of Your Dreams

The admission process is fairly simple. After filling out the form on the website, we are expected to go to the Institution at Pondicherry for the counseling process. A set of documents, as asked for on the website, have to be produced and will be checked, after which ranks allotment of seats will be done in either Puducherry or Karaikal campus. Then our documents have to be submitted and a bonafide certificate shall be given to us. The admission fees have to be paid. The health checkup is done a couple of days later after which you officially become a JIPMERite and classes start. Counseling for reservation-benefitted students is conducted on separate days.

The course curriculum consists of 19 subjects divided over 4.5 years. Often what happens for clinical subjects is we have super specialty faculties take classes for us. For example, neurosurgery classes are taken by a neurosurgeon instead of a general surgery faculty. Apart from that, many famous medical authors like Dr. Apurb Sastry and Dr. G K Pal are in our faculties. Our faculties have been sent as directors on deputation to other peripheral AIIMS as well. The facilities we get at JIPMER are hard to find anywhere else. University and Sendup exams are held at the end of the year with internals, formative assessments and ward leavings held regularly. Exams are quite difficult actually but the quality of training is sufficient for students to be able to pass them.

One year of compulsory internship happens in our college like every other medical college as mandated by NMC. The edge we have over other colleges is that being a government institution and that too, an Institute of National Importance, there are usually more patients than we have the capacity for. There is no dearth of patients to learn from and you get to see both common cases and rare cases. Payment is handsome and as per Central Pay Commission guidelines. The stipend for an internship is equal in all central institutions except AFMC.

The fees are Rs 6770 to be paid 4 times and half the amount has to be paid once during the course. There are no fee hikes since when I came but there have been fee hikes in the past. However, the fee is negligibly less if compared to private colleges. That itself is the biggest possible scholarship since the government is heavily subsidizing the cost of education. No other scholarships are available. Some intramural research grants are however available. And many students get a scholarship from external organizations. The main cost incurred is food and lodging.

The annual fest conducted here is Spandan which is on a really large scale and thousands of students can be seen participating. It is without a doubt one of the best medical college fests in India. Other than that, there are many committees and clubs and we can be a part of them. The city of Pondicherry in itself is very vibrant with a beautiful beach and Auroville nearby and trips are very common. There are many artistic cafes and White Town is also there. Amazing French food can be found here. Combine this with amazing seniors and events around the year and you get one of the most active and happening college life you can find in Indian colleges. No matter what your liking is, be it sports, dance, music, etc., there is a place for you here at JIPMER.

There are various kinds of hostels with single rooms, double rooms, etc. with new hostel buildings being planned. Usually, students stay in double rooms but are upgraded to single rooms by the final year for boys or earlier for girls. The rooms have all the basic amenities. While some hostels have common bathrooms, others have personal bathrooms. Laundry service, drinking water ( both normal and chilled), and pantry rooms are available. AC is not allowed in hostels. There are various mess services available on campus out of which the 3 most famous messes are a common mess, Harvey mess, and Lister mess. There are many cafeterias as well. The menu does not cater to regional cuisines however and hence many regional cuisine-based external mess services are available. Many local PGs are also available for rent. The process of obtaining a hostel is smooth and done immediately after the admission process is completed.