Experience of college life

It is quite a decent college but the strength is way too much and the students have to work much harder than the students in other universities. Yet, it is working well and has a good reputation.

After giving my 12th standard, I realized that I didn't do quite well in my competitive examinations and hence I decided to drop a year. When I decided to give exams, I thought of giving UPESEAT, an exam for UPES, Dehradun. I scored a rank of 253 among 50000 other students who gave the exams and it was the option I had as compared to the other local colleges I had. Generally, no score is provided by the authorities and they only disclose the ranks of the students.

APE UP is considered as one of the best branches of the University. The University was set up by Hydrocarbon Education and Research Society and since then it has always focused on the energy sector. Lately, the focus of the college has shifted towards other branches and the Petroleum Exploration and Energy Sciences department isn't up to the mark due to which it is losing its reputation over the time. Overall, the department still produces great engineers and the curriculum sticks to the conventional techniques of petroleum engineering.

Yes, the college provides internships but only for the summer after 4th year as it is compulsory for the students. Students have the liberty to choose the internship where they want to work. Otherwise, the college generally provides the internship to the students. As the intake of the students has increased significantly, the placement cell has a hard time to find summer internships for the students. Yet, the students always manage to get a decent internship. One may not comment on the stipend as several companies do not provide stipends like ONGC while private companies may offer anything from 5,000-20,000.

The placement in the college is decent. When it comes to APE UP, it always has managed to secure near the stats varying from 85-95% of placement. Since the industry is down, most of the placements are in the IT sector rather the domain related companies. Companies like CGI, Wipro, Infosys etc. have offered 4.5-6L packages. While the likes of huge companies like HLS Asia, Exxon Mobil, Shell Business Operations etc. have offered till 12L (Maximum). A few students are also offered PPOs but the number is quite less.

Officially, the college has 2 fests that are Uurja and Ignite which are the cultural and technical fests respectively. These fests are organized quite poorly and the OC has certain limitations to perform their functions. These fests also have almost 0 participation from the other Universities and have to often have the scrutiny by the students. On the other hand, the colleges have students chapters like SPE, Infinity Club which organize independent fests and it is done quite smoothly and done at a large scale.

When it comes to the fees, it is a bit on the expensive side and it generally burns a hole in the pockets of the parents. But when it is compared to other private colleges, the fees are just over their fee structure. The fees increase for each year and are minimum for the first year and maximum for the last year. Other miscellaneous fees have to given by the students like Industrial visit fee, Computational Fee etc. The overall fees are approximately 16 L for the entire B.Tech.

The college offers a scholarship to the student on several bases. One criteria is by the 12th board's percentage. The students may get a scholarship up to 1,00,000 of they get more than the percentage the authorities have decided. Also, the students who have scored a pointer more than 9 then they may get a scholarship on the same basis.

When it comes to college life, it is quite different than it is shown in movies. Students have quite a lot of work from assignments, practicals etc and then they have to work for their own welfare to improve the CV. There are a lot of student chapters and clubs in the college and the events are always lined up. The university has a lot to offer and the difference is made if the students are ready to grab the opportunity. When it comes to gender ratio, the girls are more in the Computer Science branches as compared to other but it is still better than other universities than in the country.

There are a lot of students in the college and it doesn't allow them all to stay in the campus hostel. Hence only 550 boys and 350 girls have the accommodation facility in the campus hostel and the others live in private hostels or P.G. When it comes to the campus hostel, it is not exactly the hostel that one wishes for as the fees for 1 year is 1,37,000 and other private hostels provide much more facilities like laundry, gym etc. The food provided in the mess is just okay and students have to consume food often from the outside the campus. But the wardens are quite supportive and it is advisable for the students of 1st year to opt for campus hostel.

The university has no platform for the alumni to connect but again a huge part is played by the student's chapters. These student chapters invite the alumni to college for lecture programmes or for several technical meeting and the students have a really amazing time as they are directly able to connect to them.

The exam structure of the college is quite simple. It consists of 20% Mid Semester, 30% Internals and 50% End Semester examinations. The labs have a continuous evaluation and hence there is no final exam or external viva which is a really helpful aid for the students. The exam paper is much simpler than the other universities and colleges across the country. The best part is that the checking of the papers is quite a transparent process and the students get a chance to see how they performed in the final examinations. Earlier, the college had continuous examinations but recently the University decided to give a gap between the exams for better preparation. The cut off the examinations depends upon the 40% of the highest marks in that particular branch. If a person doesn't manage to clear the cutoff, then the person has attended compulsory summer classes and then has to give the supplementary exam later. Also, the grade in that particular subject is capped i.e. the student's grade will be less than a certain grade that is decided by the authorities.

Once the ranks were disclosed, we were asked to report at Indian Air Force Auditorium, Delhi with several documents like ID proofs, 10/12th Marksheets, an advance of 1,00,000 for 1st Sem (Demand Draft) and Campus Hostel Fees. The procedure to allot the branches was quite sophisticated. There were a lot a faculties from the college to guide the students in which direction they wanted to do their B.Tech. Each student was called out according to their ranks and then they were sent according their serial no. Applied Petroleum Engineering (Upstream) was the most favoured by the students. When our chance came to choose the branch, I opted for APE UP and then we received the fees receipt and received the documents to present once we register at college in the month of July.

There was a time when the college had really knowledgeable and experienced faculty from ONGC and several other institutes from all over the country. But with time, quite a lot of good faculty left the University and the college was left just a few experienced teachers to give the students the knowledge. Not only that, the University also increased the intake of the students and there feels a shortage of the faculty for several subjects. But now, the scenario is changing again. The University is bringing in new faculties which come with a lot of experience and expectations.