The Unbiased Truth

The curriculum is industry-relevant. Our courses are made by companies like IBM and Xebia. The syllabus is well articulated but very open-ended. Here we choose our specialization, exploratory course, and minor subjects providing us the liberty to choose what we want to explore. The specializations are very industry-relevant and new with a wide range like AI and ML, gaming and graphics, cloud, DevOps Blockchain, etc. Improvements should be made in the area of making it more specific. Force us to think more. Our marks are more in the hands of professors and not in ours. Teaching methods are very old, approach needs to be more tech-savvy. Computer science is a very logical subject, it should be taught like that not in the form of lectures through ppts. They make us follow steps, follow questions, they need to force us to think more. My concepts are never clear in class, I always need outside help from YouTube and online courses. The exams are easy if you are regular in class and are on pace with the teacher, otherwise they might be a struggle. Depending on the professor, the class tests, quizzes, and assignments do get piled up at the end of the semester rather than being spread across the semester evenly.

There are good companies that come with internships and PPO opportunities like Barclays, Dell, PwC, S&P Global, etc. Stipends are usually around 20k and depending on the company they vary for example Barclays offered 35k but PwC didn't offer any. It is mandatory to do a social internship after your 2nd semester which college helps you find an NGO. It is mandatory to do a technical internship after the 6th semester. I did mine with PwC. It was a 5-month program where we had to do micro-certifications and lab activities. It was more of a learning course than office work. It was all online. The students who are unable to find any internships are placed with IBM (university partner) to make a project in groups.

You start sitting for internship companies in the 5th semester and for jobs in the 7th semester. The companies keep coming continuously. Big MNC's come every other month but startups keep coming every other day. The CSO keeps working till you are placed even if you are an NC student (have active backlogs). I have received an offer from HPE. There have been only 1-2 companies who came and didn't offer to any student. Highest package since Sept'24 (I am writing in Nov'24) is actually 40lpa from D.E Shaw to one student and average so far has been 5lpa.

All of the below information is for my batch 2021-25, fees have increased exponentially since then. girls scholarship = 20% (2021-25) academic scholarship = 34,050 (2021-22) admission fee = 1lakh 1st semester fees= 1.23 lakh 5th semester = 2.13 lakh 6th semester = 1.46 lakh (scholarship was not applied last year due to some mistake hence it was all applied together in this year hence the drop in the fee) 7th semester = 2.23 lakh (on girl scholarship) 7th semester without scholarship = 2.50 lakh about 7th sem: tuition = 1.42 lakh academic fee = 94,250 medical insurance = 500 personality development charges= 10000 convocation fee = 1500 online and technology fee = 32000 scholarship applied = -28,400 During my admission time (2021) we had girls, domicile, merit, and financial aid scholarships but I am not sure if they still have it. I think they have removed it all. Also, the 1st sem fee right now is around 2 lakh, and the admission fee is 1.78 lakh.

The biggest fest that happens annually here is called Urja. There are other events like Dholid(dandiya night), Spandan(sports fest), etc but there is one common issue in all, it is way too crowded to even stand in the ground. There are so many students in total, it gets really bad. Also recently there have been so many fights breaking out anywhere and everywhere in these events. Management is really bad. The food stalls are really expensive. The annual fest doesn't host really good artists, just cheap ones they can afford (which I don't understand cause the fees are so high). There are a lot of technical activities happening though. Either hackathons or workshops, something is going around constantly by the chapters and communities here. But the student life and their energy is so low here that no one really participates. There are so many classes that no one can find any time to attend anything, hence hosting is also a loss for these communities. And getting funding from college is another nightmare. When I first joined here there were a lot of student-run clubs, chapters, and communities, but now it's not allowed anymore. Only 1-2 which are officially of the college can exist anymore. This has made the college life very dull here. These groups also have a lot of politics. It's easier to not do anything. Sports are an area of interest for the college, especially cricket. We have teams of almost all sports, but only support for a few that too rarely. Students achieve whatever they do on their own. Cricket things are rather very well organized cause a lot of faculty likes playing cricket here, but for example, I can't say the same for football. Each school has different sports they support, but not all. I was a highly active member all my life and everything died down ever since I came here and now I am a very nonactive person. I had a really good dancing career, and I rarely get to participate here.

There are too many students and way less accommodation so the majority of students live outside the college. College hostels are expensive, and are triple-sharing, and shared bathrooms. You get a cupboard, study table, bedside table, and even a bedbox. The food quality is just okay but they feed you a lot. The taste is well not that great but you get tea 3 times a day, milk in the morning, fruits daily at lunch, and even snacks. But fewer students can live inside. There is a registration portal that opens up at the mentioned time, but it'll close up in less than 15 minutes cause seats will fill up so getting registered is also a completion. There are a lot of living options outside near campus though. The whole area is filled with living spaces. Flat, pgs and hostels everything setting is available according to your need. Also, you can get tiffin service and food from nearby restaurants which are home-like. In my experience, food in outside hostels is even worse so it's better to get your own. 1st year students usually go for hostels, and eventually flats.

In 2021 just after COVID-19, times were sensitive and my priority was not to take a gap year. I already had an interest in AI so I wanted to do it from my bachelor's too. At the time there weren't many colleges offering this specialization in B.Tech CSE, hence I applied here. Also, I liked the idea of living in Dehradun. They had a good track record in terms of placements, this is an old university and trustworthy. The admission process was also easy, I got in through their entrance exam. I was initially looking for liberal colleges in India as I wanted that type of education for myself. The best option was Ashoka but they only offered B.Sc courses. They didn't have what I wanted. I did apply there. My application didn't get accepted though. The other university I considered was Atria as they had B.Tech and AI-specific course. Their course structure and syllabus seemed ever interesting to me and experimental. But I would have been the first batch studying there, I didn't want to take the risk of this uncertainty, especially with my career. But I did apply there, the admission process was very fun also. The process was a group activity, with individual activity followed by a personal interview. I got through it and was also offered a 40% scholarship in total based on merit and financial aid. But the university was still too expensive and risky for me. Also, Bangalore is too expensive to live in on top of it. Overall studying there wouldn't have been a good decision for me hence I chose UPES over it. Getting admission to UPES is not difficult at all they accept everyone who is willing to pay. They take admission based on JEE marks, 12th marks. I don't think they offer a lot of scholarships now. You need to have a lot of money to choose this college now. Things are very different from when they were when I joined here.

We are initially divided into batches of around 40 students, specialization-wise. In one class 3 batches sit together so it makes it a total of 120 students in one class but all of them never show up hence our classrooms allotted don't have seating for 120 but that is never an issue. 1:120 is the faculty-to-student ratio. I have faced faculty who have given me support, and understanding, helped me grow, and people who are genuinely interested in the subject they are teaching. Gaurav sir(not in the college anymore) and Sanoj sir are my favorites. Rest if the informatics cluster's teachers aren't the best at teaching. Many times they know a lot but aren't able to communicate and teach us. All the good teachers always leave the college soon. No one stays for long hence all the good professors ALWAYS leave. Administrations are always on the head of them and faculty get jumbled in subjects each semester. There is no stability. Some teachers support us even to get freelancing opportunities, but getting close to them is difficult in such a big class. Subjects are very relevant, exceptions are just 1-2. The content is also very relevant. We have mid-semester and end exams, around 4 quizzes, 2 min class tests, and 2 min assignments for each subject each semester. We have lab assignments due every week. Exams are at a moderate level. Many students face attendance issues where they get debarred as it is below 75% so they can't appear for the exams in the first place. For those who do, it is common for people to fail here. If you don't regularly study or grasp the concept then the exam will be difficult. Other than that you get enough support from the majority of faculty to pass easily. Marking is always very fair, and to the point.