A honest review of IIEST, Shibpur

It is the second oldest engineering college in India. It was established in 1856 by the British government and was called Calcutta Civil Engineering College. Then, it evolved and it was named Bengal Engineering College, thereafter Bengal Engineering and Science University and finally IIEST, Shibpur. The legacy and culture of the college is 162 years old and that's what makes it different from other colleges in India.

The course is of four years. In the first year, all the students are made to study the same subjects, which are the basics of various engineering disciplines and some subjects of applied science like mathematics and chemistry. From second year onward, the departmental subjects are taught. At the end of every semester, there is an end-semester examination, while there is a mid-semester examination during the semester.

My college was previously a state government funded college, until 2014. In 214, it transformed into the first IIEST of India and since then, placement and internship opportunities have been getting better every year. Barring the civil and electronics departments, there is almost 100% placement in all the departments. More and more students have started getting internships in last 2-3 years.

The college administration celebrates all the major events of the year. Apart from Independence Day and Republic Day, the birthdays of prominent personalities like Mahatma Gandhi, Subhash Chandra Bose, Swami Vivekanand, etc are celebrated. Other important events like Hindi Divas, Vigilance Awareness Week are also celebrated.

The tuition fee for a semester is Rs. 62,500 but the fee depends on the category and the annual income of the parents. For students of Schedule Caste and Schedule Tribe category, tuition fees is completely waived off. For students with annual parental income less than Rs. 1 lakh, the tuition fees is completely waived off, while 40% of the fess is waived off for students with parental income less than Rs. 5 lakhs. Overall, I can say that it is feasible.

Loan facilities are provided by the three banks whose branches are present in the college campus. State bank of India, United Bank of India and UCO Bank have their branches inside the college campus and they offer loan facilities to students of the college. Any scholarship programme offered by the government of India is offered by the college as well.

The laboratories are very advanced and well-equipped. Each laboratory has at least one or more number of lab assistant, who assists the students and is responsible for the maintenance of the lab as well. The labs have some very rare equipment which are present in very few colleges of India. Facilities for all the major sports like cricket, football, table tennis, basketball, volleyball, badminton, etc are present. There is a University team for each sport which represents the college at different levels. Different clubs and societies are present for all the extra-curricular activities like debating, drama, robotics, dancing, photography,etc. These societies are funded by the college.

There are 14 hostels for boys and 3 for girls. Almost everyone who wishes to opt for a hostel, gets a seat in the hostel. The hostels for students of different years are different, so you have to shift from one hostel to another every year.The hostels are spacious and mess facility is present in each hostel. Single rooms are provide to students of final year and pre-final year. Some of the hostel buildings are very old and have a few maintenance problems but the college administration is very supportive and any such problem is sorted out immediately.

Since the college is very old, the alumni network of the college is very strong. Wherever we go for our job or internships, we get to meet our alumni and they are very very supportive. They treat us like their younger siblings and are very helpful. Same goes for the senior students of the college as well. There is enough senior-junior interaction in the college but there is no ragging as there are very severe rules against ragging. There is a culture in the college that the seniors help their juniors in academics and extra-curricular activities.

I appeared for JEE-Main in 2017 and secured an all India rank of 33866. Then, a counselling process was carried out by Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JoSAA) for the 92 institutions funded by central government. The counselling went on for seven rounds and in the seventh round, I was allotted a seat in my college. Then, I reported to my college and the admission process was complete.

The faculties of my college are highly qualified and learned personalities. Most of them have studied in the most prestigious colleges of India, some have even studied in foreign institutions and most of them have taught in any of the IITs.