Once in a lifetime!

The college recently celebrated it's Diamond Jubilee year but still lacks in some of the areas with the infrastructure being the most critical. The college staff and faculty and students are very much energetic and enthusiastic in every field but I must admit there has been a gross negligence in part of government administrator which let the half a century old infrastructure to be as it is without much development.

I took the Assam Combined Entrance Examination (CEE) and was ranked 220th. AEC was the best engineering college in the region and the course was fully government sponsored so there was no doubt while I was going through the admission process.

The course structure is very rigourous covering all the possible subjects of any particular branch. Practical knowledge is very much emphasised on. I spent a lot of time in the laboratory and as well as in the field during two semesters of Surveying and an extra Survey Camp. From early semesters the students are encouraged to engage themselves in research activities and also academically they are engaged through many mini projects from earlier semesters besides the final year major projects.

Yes, AEC do provides internships. We have a seperate cell looking after those matters. Field training and internships are mandatory for every student. Every student goes through two to three trainings or internships.

I don't know exactly how many students were placed but the placement scenario is very much different depending on the branch and year. Last year it was very good for all the other branches and particularly very good for computer science engineering where almost all of then were placed. I myself was placed but it was not a good year for civil engineering. Companies range from PSUs like BPCL, OIL, Powegrid Corporation etc to IT and electronics and telecom sector companies like TCS, Oracle, Wipro, Accenture, IBM, Capegemini, Amazon, Huawei, Vodafone, etc to chemical industries like Torrecid, British Pints, Century Ply etc to auto industry like Ashok Leyland etc to even marketing and management roles in business consultantancies and many other roles and companies. Salary package range from 3lpa to 11-12lpa depending on position offered and the company.

There are the intracollege events and the inter college events. There are many intra college events spread around the calendar and around the disciplines the prominent of them being the college week. But the biggest of everything is the inter college techno cultural festival Pyrokinesis. Every AECian, as we call ourselves, waits in anticipation for this event. It is one of the largest in the region and by far the most chilled out one. The other big event is the technical festival Udhvawanam. It is a dedicated technical fest participted mainly by other engineering colleges of the region in many technical disciples ranging from robotics to construction and designing. Many national and international research seminars and conventions are also organised every year by every department. There is also an entrepreneurial and management fest organised by the E-Cell of AEC. Other individual inter college events like a national level quiz and debate competition and many more.

All the courses are funded by government organisation so the fees are very minimal with respect to other colleges. The tution fees and exam fees are the main expenses. The tution fees is collected on an annual basis and changes marginally every year. Normally it can be averaged at around Rs9,500 annually. The exam fees has to be deposited once a semester and comes at a maximum of Rs1800.

Student loan was very scarce among us as the fees was very low. Scholarships are available depending on merit like the NEC Scholarships, Ishan Uday scholarship etc. Also there are specific scholarships for religious minorities and students belonging to SC, ST and OBC categories.

There is this trend of lower girls in engineering colleges and AEC is no exception. The number of girls are less but not very less though(about 35 to 40%). The student community is very diverse ethnically as they come from all of the already diverse north eastern states. With them they bring their own cultures and mainly the food culture which can be seen and experienced in the numerous student parties about which I don't want to be much elaborate here. There is absolutely no disparities in lines of gender, ethnicity, race, religion or economic and political status. People there just don't care about all these things. Every religious event is celebrated in AEC and is participated by all others irrespective of anything. The cultural rally organised every year showcases all the different cultures of North East from which the different students belong.

There are seven boys hostel with capacities ranging from 70 to 110 students depending on the hostel. There is only one girls hostel with a capacity of about 300 students. There is also one post graduate hostel for post grad and doctorate students. The hostel mess is monitored and maintaied by a student committee in each hostel and the quantity of food ranges from good to not so good periodically. Mess dues ranges from Rs1800 to Rs2000. The hostel intake is low and the college is in dire need of more hostels and development of existing infrastructure. A large part of the students live in PGs or shared rented accommodation. PGs range from Rs3500 to Rs6000 per month.

The alumni network is very widespread as the college was established in 1955 and since then has maintaied a well organised Alumni Association with every passing student as it's member. The Association has been very active in funding various activities and establishments in the college and also helds regular meetings and discussion sessions on various issues relating to the students welfare and college.

I won't call it hectic and not even chilled. It was somewhere in between. Yes, there were some very hectic days and there were also some exam days even when I was all chilled out. Mid semesters and End Semester Exams were the two main examination every semester along with the odd class tests. In a couple of sems though (excluding final year) we spent about 5 days of the week in the lab.

The entrance exam is called CEE. The application notification came out in the first week of April. The exam was conducted in four seasons during a couple of days. The entire exam was objective type. Once the results are declared, the Director of Technical Education of Assam conducts a counselling for admission into all the government and non governmental engineering colleges in Assam. AEC is most sought after college in this counselling. I was admitted provisionally in this counselling and for the final admission I went through a detailed admission process conducted by AEC on 1st of August.

The faculty is very highly qualified and packs a ton of experience with them. They are very much motivating and engage with the students very well, with the exception of a very few which I think is true for every other college. The subjects are divided among the faculty with respect to their field of expertise and experience. While I was studying there I found some of the faculty members very friendly and cooperated us in many non academic activities as well. We even had motorbike tours riding side by side with professors, I guess that doesn't happen so often.