Survival Guide of NIT Durgapur

The Course curriculum covers the basics of Computer Science pretty well. The course covers the topics of computer science right from the roots. Data Structures, Digital logic design to advanced topics like AI/ML and operating systems. The course prepares you to tackle most interviews if you focus on them properly. The topics are applicable to industry technologies.

Placements at NIT Durgapur are phenomenal. Students are eligible for placements from 6th semester onwards. Some of the visiting companies include Microsoft, Apple, and JPMC. They offer attractive packages to students, with the highest placement being 50 LPA. The average placement for all the students is around 11LPA. For branches like CSE, ECE and EEE, the average is consistently above 16-17 LPA. The placement percentage is around 80% for CSE students. My plans after getting the degree will be to work in the industry for 1-2 years and then proceed to higher studies abroad.

I am a DASA student at NIT Durgapur and I pay about 3.5 Lakhs per semester as tuition fees, excluding hostel and mess fees. The hostels take a security deposit of 5000rs and the mess fee is a fixed 19600 per semester. That brings the grand total (excluding the security deposit) to about 7.4 Lakhs.

Campus life in the first semester was pretty dull, with restrictions imposed on first years. We couldn't come out to buy snacks or do anything as a matter of fact. But as second semester started, gates started opening, and within no time we were busy with club events. Every other day there was an event or two of some or the other club. We were allowed to roam the campus, celebrate festivals like holi and just roam around durgapur. When it comes to infrastructure, the classrooms are fitted with projectors, Air conditioners and Sound systems to amplify the professors' voice. Sports and extra curricular activities are highly encouraged by the administration, they provide a gym, indoor badminton court, table tennis arena, basketball court. Upon student demand, they also started giving sports equipments like raquets and balls to the student for temporary use. Overall, the environment is very free and enjoyable.

Hostel rooms are mostly fine, except the newest hall 14. The rooms provide you with a shelf, a bed, a study table and a study lamp (broken). The rooms have a very bad seepage problem. The paint falls off and makes the room messy. When we leave for a small break to our hometowns, the seepage water evaporates within the room and moisturises everything, spoiling many items. When it comes to Meals, each hostel has its own separate mess, and the mess of hall 14 is below average. Being in West bengal, the mess menu has fish and rice several times of the week, which tastes almost tasteless. Eating here has taught me one thing, you don't live to eat, you eat to live. Registration process is pretty straightforward. Show up at the hostel with all your documents, and get your room allotted. If you want a room with your friends, go for registration together. The hostel fee per semester is around 24600, which includes a 5000 security deposit for the hostel, in case of any damages to the property (everything here is broken) and a mess fee of 19600, of which any extra money if it remains, will be credited to your account after the semester.

I chose NIT Durgapur, because a cousin of mine graduated from the college an year before I took admission in the college. His reviews about the college were pretty good. I applied to colleges abroad, like UW Madison, ASU, etc., but I preferred a college within India to get the exposure I needed, having been brought up abroad. I had other colleges like MNNIT Allahabad, NIT Rourkela, NIT Warangal, Surathkal, Trichy over NIT Durgapur. I couldn't get into them because of my rank. No regrets joining NIT Durgapur though, love my college <3. My admission process was a bit unconventional, instead of being allotted seats in the Josaa Portal, I had to register through the DASA portal. DASA is a scheme introduced for NRI students and students of other nationalities. We had to give JEE like the rest of the students, but had a separate rank list generated for all the students of DASA. Pretty smooth process.

NIT Durgapur's faculty to student ratio stands at 1:20. Faculty to student relationship is pretty excellent as far as my experience goes, there are several professors of the Computer Science department who are very helpful and friendly with the students and help them out with most academic-related issues, making them very approachable. To name a few, Bibhash Sen sir is one of the most approachable sirs in the department, his interactions with me have been tremendous. He was always helpful in times of need. In a semester, there may be 3-4 examinations, depends on the professor you have. Each semester, you have 1 mid-semester exam, 1 end-semester exam, and 1-2 CA (Continuous Assessment) exam. Depends on the subjects and their professors. This is for Theory Courses. Sessional Courses (labs) have one examination per semester, with performance grading in every lab session. At the end of the semester, the grand total comprises the lab sessional scores and the final lab viva + practical scores.

Nightlife is mostly absent in the college, owing to the intime of the hostels, yet some of the students prefer staying out with their friends and hangout till the morning when the gates open. There is a concept of 'morning jhoops', where one stays up with his friends till 6 AM, has breakfast at the jhoops in front of the campus, and sleeps the whole day. (On weekends only)