Navigating my College Life : Unfiltered Insights

I choose this course not because of my interest but my aim was to get a better IIT than a better course. Specifically, I didn't know much about chemical engineering at the time of admisssion. After studying it here, I developed interest in it because professors are very friendly and knowledgable and they show genuine interest while teaching. They try their best to keep the course structure and material up to date as per industry standards. However, I cannot deny that there are a few number of professors who are still following old study materials like same set of slides being used since 2010, otherwise I do not think any other thing need to change. We have well-furnished laboratories and ample of opportunities to do projects ir research in our field of interest. As per exams, we have Mid-semester and End-Semester exams in each semester. Regarding class tests, it totally depend upon the professor. The difficulty of exam also depends on the professor, where some just rotate PYQ papers.

The internship opportunities provided are breath-taking. Lot of companies visit and it only depend upon the knowledge of students if they are able to grab it, otherwise sometimes it happened that companies have to go back empty-handed. These companies include Nvidia, Flipkart, PWC, P&G, amazon, swiggy, Springler, zomato, Deustche bank, google and many more, like approximately 150 companies. They offer lucrative pays ranging from 50000 to 4 lakhs per month. They offer multiple roles from software developer to program analyst, product manager to quant researcher and so on. Multiple companies for core branches also visit. Apart from this, mostly all internships are open for students from all branches.

There is Career Development Centre in IIT Kharagpur which looks after placements and internships. Students have to compulsorily do an intern in the pre-final year, the internship opportunities are provided by college itself where companies are called on-campus. The students become eligible for placement in their last year if they have no backlogs. This year approximately 150 companies visited the campus for interns and 68 companies for placements including IBM,Google, Amazon, Puma, Bain&Bain,ITC,HUL, DRL, Wells Fargo, Lenovo, Samsung, Delloite, Kotak Bank and many more. Total 850 offers were made with 21 international offers. Highest package was like 1 crore made by some HFT for software role. Average package was about 12 lakhs. This year placemet offers fall by 20 to 30 percent with less than 50% students getting placed. I aim to do higher studies after graduation.

Each semester we need to pay 1 lakh tuition fees and approximately, 35 to 38 thousands for mess fees, hostel fees and all other charges. There has been no hikes in the fees since I am studying. This makes the total cost of education of approximately 280000 per year. However, SC/ST students are not required to pay tuition fees while other having their family income less than 8 lakhs, get 33% off on tuition fees. There are multiple scholarships being rewarded to students if one satisfies its conditions. For example, more than 1000 students recieve MCM scholarship, there are also alumi-funded scholarships and endowment prizes. Also, dual -degree students having CGPA greater than 8, get approximately 12,000 rupees each month in their final year. However, there should be more scholarships based on merit as compared to those based on family income (generally less than 3 to 5 lakhs). Those with 8 lakhs annual family income are also suffering in this inflation,so this limit must be increased.

The Campus life in IIT Kharagpur is best, so much to learn and expirience. Each year Spring Fest (annual fest) happens in February last week and Kshitij ( technical fest ) happens just a week before Spring Fest. The library in IIT KGP is the largest in Asia, so get almost all relevant books and journals. The classrooms are huge, fully air-conditioned with hundreds of seating capacity. They are equipped with two projectors on each side of blackboard. There is a computer in each class. We also have a auditorium where any recent movie is being projected each week. There is a swimming pool, gyms in most of halls. Each and every facility regarding sports is available, almost every sport. Ther is a huge athletic ground, cricket, hockey, basketball, lawn tennis and football ground. Also, each hall has their own cricket, badminton, volleyball, football, basketball grounds. There is Gymkhana which provide facility for all indoor games. There are multiple socities and clubs run by students only.

Depending upon the hall which are randomly allocated, one can get a single room or shared room of 2, 3 or 4 students. In most halls, there are both single and shared rooms where single rooms are generally alloted to seniors. We get a bed, table, chair, working fan and led light. There is a good amount of storage section in rooms. The facilities provide in hall are appropriate , there is a common room for indoor games like table tennis, billiards, carrom etc. There is an interaction room for meetings. There are cricket, badminton, football and volleyball grounds. The mess food is neutral. Some days the menu is good and some days is bad, but it actually depends on the person. The menu is decide monthly by all students in mess meeting based on votes. There was no such registration process for halls, it was alloted by Hall Management Center,IIT Kharagpur. The hostel and mess fees are affordable.

The admission was through JEE Advanced exam based on my rank. It was conducted as usual by JoSSA in six rounds. I registered at their wesite using JEE Advanced roll number, registration number and password. After that, I need to list of my preferred college and courses. Based on the ranks, seats were allocated. This whole procedure was done online, since it was during the Corona period. Otherwise, I need to physically go to IIT Kharagpur with all my documents(JEE Advanced Amit card, 10th and 12th marksheets, Category certificate, photographs etc) and pay the admission fees (it was Rs 33,000 at that time but it is adjusted afterwards in your 1st semester fees ) to confirm the admission. The benefit I got using my GEN-EWS quota was lower cutoff ranks (1154 EWS comparable to 10000 GEN rank) but less as compared to OBCs and SC/STs. Jee Advanced exam appears in 2 parts on the same date,9 am to 12 pm and then 2 pm to 5 pm. Also, we need to qualify Jee Mains to become eligible for this exam.