My college experience

A reputed and prestigious university with a notable alumni network. Hopefully, changes to the academic curriculum and new initiatives under the institute's identity as DTU can lead to a better growth.

Up until the year 2013, Delhi Technological University was Delhi College of Engineering and was under the Central Government along with Netaji Subhash Institute of Technology (NSIT). Both the colleges had a common entrance examination (CEE) to admit around a thousand candidates, with 85% seats reserved for students from Delhi. The competition was tough as both are reputed institutions. I remember getting a rank of around 800 and just being able to secure a seat, despite being one of the top students in my school with a 96% score in the board examinations and an AIEEE rank under 10000.

The course curriculum was the one thing in DCE that needed a lot of improvement. On going through the syllabus, we quickly realized that it had not been updated in over two decades and as a result we missed out on many new developments in the field. For example, we were still required to practice engineering drawings by hand when the industry had advanced upon to CAD years back. To an extent I feel that the syllabus did cover the basic, timeless concepts but due to its outdated character, the professors should also have provided us with some supplementary material to bring us up to date. There was hardly any focus on research in the classrooms (of course this is impossible with an outdated curriculum), however, on an individual level, professors did collaborate with students and worked on projects.

Yes, it is possible to obtain an internship through the training and placement cell at DCE/DTU. In this case, the stipend depends on the company profile with the software companies generally providing a paid internship. The selection for these internships start in the beginning of the fifth semester with companies visiting the campus. For many branches, no companies visit the campus and arranging for internships is then up to the students' efforts. The internship period is at the end of the sixth semester to the beginning of the seventh (roughly 8 weeks).

The placements and job opportunities are extremely good at DCE/DTU with many companies paying a visit to the campus to hire students. I believe DCE benefits greatly from situated in Delhi/NCR region as it is convenient for the training and placement cell to organize company visits and generate interest. Of course, having a vast alumni network also helps. In my branch, 85-90% of the students got placed through campus placements. Many core civil engineering companies like Bechtel, L&T. Samsung E&C, GS E&C, Ramboll, Emaar etc. visited along with government companies. Apart from this, a lot of tech and consulting companies also hired civil engineers. In the case of core companies, packages offered were in the range of 4-6 LPA, as the students were hired into a graduate trainee program. Government salaries were higher with more perks. Among the other branches, the likes of Google, Facebook, Amazon etc. made offers of >50 LPA. Startups like Flipkart also hired with a decent salary of 11-14 LPA.

There are basically two major events: the cultural festival Engifest and the technical festival week. Both the events take place in February and are consecutive. Engifest is a three day cultural celebration with the cultural societies organizing events like poetry reading, theatre, street dancing, fashion show etc. Colleges from the Delhi/NCR region are invited to attend and participate in the competitions. Many mainstream musicians are invited to perform at the festival and attendance is huge. The technical festival is also very elaborate with participation from different colleges. Basically, every department has their own representative team which organizes events and competitions.

The fee structure for our batch (when DTU was still DCE) was quite feasible with a maximum, one time, expense of around 23000 INR per year. However, this has been increased to around 1 Lakh INR per year at present. I think the fees can be paid in installments too with the new structure.

There was a reward scheme available for students with a good score/rank in the semester results, but I do not know of the amount or whether it is still available.

The campus comes to life during the annual technical and cultural festivals where students from all departments (and also from other colleges) come together. Apart from that, there are Model United Nations activities organized many times a year and other cultural societies focused on music and dance also hold regular meetups. There are also many sports teams which regularly visit other campuses for meets. (I was part of one such mission to IIT Kharagpur where the whole travel and stay was organized by the sports committee). In this respect, it totally depends on the individual and how proactive they want to be. The gender ratio is highly in favor of males, as is the case with most engineering colleges. However, in terms of participation in activities, the ratio is not so skewed. With regard to diversity on campus, DTU has also started taking in international students: so the campus is becoming more inclusive.

The hostel facility was standard and inexpensive, chiefly because it was government buildings and care had to be taken to cater to even the most economically weak. Until 2013, the fees for hostel was 10000 INR for the whole year, excluding mess bill and some miscellaneous electricity bills. There were 5 hostels for girls and more than twice the number for boys. However, keeping in view the intake, this was not enough to cater to all students so preference was given to those that lived the farthest. Also, students could be expelled from the hostel following indiscipline or bad academic record. As a junior student, you would typically share the room with 1 or 2 roommates but final year students could get an individual room. Many PGs are also available around the campus, specifically renting to DTU students. In this case the average rent would vary from 2000 to 5000 INR per month. The mess food was very basic, again to maintain the low cost. However, you can expect 3 meals a day and 1 light snack. The minimum cost was 1300 INR per month.

The alumni network of DCE is vast and one can find a network in industry or academics, both within the country and abroad. As an alumna myself I never hesitate in sending out advice or assistance to any juniors who contact me.

DCE/DTU has a semester structure with two exams per semester: a 20 point mid semester and 70 point end semester. The remaining 10 points are determined on the basis of class participation. So, yes, the exam structure was quite chilled out with a few weeks of preparation sufficing. In no way can the schedule be called hectic, except for the unlucky few who have end semester exams on consecutive days.

After clearing the examination, I was invited for counselling. Before the counselling event at the venue (DCE campus), I was asked to fill a form with my preferences (we could choose courses from both DCE and NSIT). Following the counselling event, I was admitted to the Biotechnology course in NSIT, with an option to upgrade to a higher preference based on availability. Fortunately that year, 4 new courses were added at DTU (the process of converting DCE to DTU had already begun) and hence a number of students shifted streams creating considerable movement and I was allotted the civil engineering program in DCE which was much higher on my preference list.

I would assess the faculty as average in the institution. Some of the professors made an effort to actively engage the class but a good amount seemed to be doing only enough to justify their salary. A part of this can also be blamed on the outdated curriculum and random course allocation which meant that some professors could find themselves teaching a course they have not really specialized in. On comparing the standard of teaching with the European institution I am attending now, I certainly feel there is a lot to be improved upon in India and revamping of government teaching institutions with new technology and teaching aids is required.