Best place for engineering in Bengal

The campus environment is awesome and the teaching methodologies are awesome, but for non-Bengali students who cannot cope up with the Bengali culture prevailing in the campus, it may be a bit difficult.

Entrance Exam

The course-curriculum of Mechanical Engineering was vivid, but a bit tough compared to that of many other universities. Many subjects like Descriptive Geometry, which are not taught in other engineering colleges, were taught to us so that we could understand engineering drawing with a clearer conception. The NBA-based question papers during examinations made sure that we had to study each section of the syllabus well without skipping anything.

The university directly doesn't provide any internship as such. Students can apply at their own or participate in the on-campus intern-hiring processes of various companies. However, a No-Objection Certificate from the Training and Placement Officer or from the HOD of the respective department is a must in all cases. If someone takes up an unpaid internship, there is a provision of getting a token grant from TEQIP scheme.

The placements are at par with the leading institutes like IIT's and NIT's, if not better in some streams. In Mechanical Engineering, a large number of students get placed in the core sector, while the remaining go into banking, analytics and related sectors. Many reputed companies like Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai, TIL Limited, PwC, Tega Industries, ZS Associates, Linde India etc. visit the campus every year for recruiting Mechanical Engineering students in the final year of their study.

Sanskriti (each Faculty Union organises its own) is the annual cultural fest of JU. FETSU Presents Sanskriti (the cultural fest of the engineering faculty) ranges over 9 days. Students from all faculties can attend any of the events as there is no bar. Srijan JU is the annual tech-fest, being sponsored by some of the most reputed techno-innovation companies of India. Apart from that, most departments have their own fests (Mechanical Engineering Department students organise Trajectory). A number of other seminars, workshops, talks, conferences, colloquia and conventions are held all over the year.

The fee-structure is the lowest in India. The total amount that has to be paid to the university over four years is barely Rs10,000 including examination fees.Even after that, for students coming from financially-backward families, there are several scholarships and fee-waiver schemes available.

I did not need to avail any loan or scholarship. TEQIP scholarships and scholarships offered by the Education Dept., Govt. of West Bengal are quite popular. Also D.P.I Special Scholarships and scholarships for ST,SC and PwD students are available.

The annual sports is held during December. Labs and workshops are well equipped and mainatined, though a bit old in terms of their look.The Blue-Earth Machine Shop for Mechanical Engineering Department is best equipped with all machine-tools, providing students access to the actual industry-level work.

The hostel facilities are average. However most students stay outside the hostel, in self-hired rooms as paying guests, or in the form of 'mess'. The hostel rent is nominal and there is additional mess-charges for food.

JU has a very strong alumni network spread across all corners of the globe. In the core-sector industry, JU Alumni are popularly called "Jodubongsho" owing to their immense unity and connectivity. Alumni always try to help the current students in placements, research activities and in organising fests.

There are 8 semester examinations to be cleared in 4 years, with two mid-semester examinations (averaged out of 30 marks per subject) per semester. All the examination answer scripts are evaluated internally with the highest confidentiality and impartiality. For the sessional/practical subjects, the minimum marks for passing is 50% , while for the theoretical subjects, it is 40%.

I competed for West Bengal Joint Entrance Examinations-2014 and secured a General Merit Rank of 425 in it. Then I participated in the Centralised Counselling for engineering institutes of WBJEEB. Finally, at the end of the first round of counselling itself, I got selected for BE Mechanical Engineering at JU. Thereafter on the stipulated date, I reported to the university with all academic documents for the formalities (form fillup, money deposit etc.).

The faculty members are quite competent and most of them have doctorate and post-doctorate degrees from reputed institutes across India. They regularly publish articles and have vast connections across the industry. Professors are approachable even beyond the classroom-hours. They are quite supportive of UG-level projects. However, since the medium of instruction is strictly Bengali and English, non-Bengali students often face a difficulty in understanding the lectures.