Discovering NIT Rourkela

The course curriculum isn't extremely well structured In first year , students are taught a fundamental course from various departments of engineering though most of it is irrelevant to most other departments. From second year , department specific subjects are brought on but in no way is the curicullum cutting edge but it does provide a good fundamental understanding and most faculty are well versed in their domain to be able to appropriately convey the material. Furthermore, the college environment provides access to all kinds of pursuits from being able to work in tutelage of PHD scholars or faculty in assisting them in their projects or to join clubs and groups working in wide array of specialized domains.

The fee structure is well outlined in the relevant circular but to provide a breakdown : *Hostels are mandatory Income >5 Lakhs- 1,11,500 per semester but do keep in mind that there is rebate on some of the mess fees so it will probably be closer to 1,00,000 to 1,05,000 per semester . Income>1Lakh and <5Lakhs- only 1/3rd of the tuition fees(76500) per semester has to paid , so the fees comes to about 50000-55000 per semester. Income<1Laks- NO tuition fees , hence the resultant fees is close to 30000 per semester. Furthermore, many scholarship schemes are provided by NITR depending on merit,caste and need. Along with this, many students obtain external scholarships which more than covers their entire fees from state or central government or through scholarship portals of various companies such as reliance and aditya birla.

In the autumn semester(August to December) , a cultural and technical fest are held each lasting about 3-4 days and all classes are suspended during this period. The cultural fest composed of three days consists of various performances by multiple clubs and individuals along with multiple stalls ,both student-run and business-run.The tech fest , on the other hand, consists of various events organised by multiple clubs across the campus such as hackathons, treasure -hunts,robowars,etc. In the spring semester(January to April), two similar fests are organised with a similar premise. Along with this, an expansive libary as well as various grounds for multiple sports are also provided.

The college provides a bed frame , a chair , tables, and internet port which provides 1-2 mbps of speed most of the times. The menu of hostel mess are well rounded but the quality of food in hostels is often poor and could really do with improvement. The hostels are cleaned regularly, shared bathrooms are cleaned well everyday and room service cleaning is also provided for free. Furthermore, washing machines are provided by NITR alumni which are fixed regularly if any issue occurs, the hostels are quite old but are well maintained with repairs taking place regularly. The hostels cost about 10000 per semester and the mess is about 30000 per semester but a large chunk of it is returned for holidays that take place and if you return to your homes and don't have meals on campus.

I chose NIT rourkela based on my JEE rank, as this was the highest rated college I could get.It had good placements, had a high NIRF ranking and in comparsion to my other choices was the clear winner. The admission process takes place through JOSSA counselling for B.Tech.After being alloted a college on site registration takes place followed by hostel allocation and branch admission , a procedure that lasts about 6-10 hours. To avail admission you need to have a good JEE Main rank for which previous year cutoffs are available on the internet.

As a result of NEP policy, some improvements have been made in the curriculum but it still remains mostly obselete especially for first years. Most faculties I have encountered are extremely approachable, you can email or message them anytime or visit their assigned rooms for any concerns or queries,every subject is known to have its best faculty ,for example,Math in 1st year would be Divya Ma'am who is an incredible teacher and the question paper often comes from her notes, seniors will guide you depending on how to approach the subject and the best methodology to score well. There are 2 papers within each semester for each theory subject ,i.e mid semester and end semester. Mid semester consists of 30 marks ,there are some subjects in every branch that require more efforts but in general with a few days of preperation one can easily score 25 in most papers. End semester consists of 50 marks, a similar to mid semester one canwith ease obtain a score of 40 in the paper if they have good writing skills and put efforts a week or two before the exam. The remaining 20 marks is upto the discretion of the professors depending on class tests,attendance,class engangement or whatever criteria they wish to use to grade you . Failing in subjects is quite uncommon probably in difficult subjects 1 in 30 fail , generally they get subject back due to multiple absents in the subject. For practical subjects,it is upto the faculties discretion how they wish to grade you ,it could be a mixture of assignments and attendance or practical notebooks .

NO there were no Group Discusion,Interview for the admission. Only a valid eligible JEE Main rank to clear the cutoff is required to enter the college through JOSAA counselling and on site registration and physical verification is done.

There are gyms ,reading rooms , badmintion courts and cricket fields provided in every hostel across the campus along with various grounds located across the campus to play all kinds of sports. In terms of cafeterias , there are 4-5 major eateries on campus and various minor stalls spread across the campus. The library is also a popular meetup place being open from early morning to about 10 pm at night. For first years and female students,there are curfew timings but arent strictly maintained and you can easily travel across the campus at night but leaving the campus is complicated at night as your entry and exit times are strictly maintained and are immediately forwarded to your parents contact info.