MA in JNU

The college is good overall. Our department (Philosophy) is not that good, but still due to other courses I'll rate it highly in academics. The environment inside is political and that's not a bad thing. The politics here more often than not is healthy.

The course curriculum is not as good as I had expected. Before this I was in BHU, there it was much better than it is here. In this semester I learnt nothing new and I feel stuck. There are four papers, we have two sessional in each (of 25-25 marks) and then final exam of 50 marks thus making it 100. In some papers we have to write term papers and in some we have to sit for tests.

After MA one has to do M.phil and then PhD. Different scholarships are provided by our department. Non-net M.phil scholarship is 5000 Rs. Non net PhD is 8000. Net stipend is slightly higher. JRF stipend is around 30k.

People from all over India come and live in the campus so we have a diverse group of people living here. We celebrate almost all the festivals such as Holi, Baishakhi, Pongal, Onam etc. Apart from that there is fresher's every year for newly admitted students. In hostels there is hostel DJ night etc. Various departments celebrate various days like 21st November is celebrated in our department as World Philosophy day.

The fee structure is very feasible. Infact people from very poor families too can come and pursue higher education here. Fee for one semester is around ?268. Also, in hostel, including fooding and lodging we don't have to pay more than ?3500 per month (as of now, i.e, 24-11-2019)

MCM is a scholarship offered by my college for poor students. In this their mess bill is partially reimbursed by the college. ?2000 is paid to students who produce income certificate of income less than ?1,44,000 per annum. Apart from MCM there are various Non Net scholarships provided by college.

There's no lab in Philosophy department obviously but we have labs in other departments like the sciences and computer etc. The labs are very good, world class I have heard. There is a sports complex, a stadium, and many courts inside campus. There is a mountaineering club which trains and takes students on hiking every year. There's a badminton club, and a cricket club. Almost every hostel has a playing area.

Yes, I have opted for the hostel. There are around 30 hostels in JNU, some are old while some are new. Obviously the newer ones are definitely better than the older ones. But still the overall infrastructure is nice. We get two beds (in a two seater room), two tables and two chairs. We get one or two almirahs. We get a fan an a tubelight. For food mess is located inside hostels itself. In mess we get breakfast, lunch and dinner. The monthly mess bill is not more than 3000? for one person.

Many great alumni have graduated from our college. Abhijit Banarjee for example, who won a Nobel prize this year in economics. Among the Alumni there are many politicians, economists, activists, scientists etc. There is a JNU Alumuni's Association as well. Yes, the amuminis are very helpful and come forward to help us whenever we need.

Through entrance exam. I sat in entrance exam for MA Philosophy. I scored 86 and got three deprivation points. After that merit list was declared. I was in that list. I was called for counseling. I got admission the same day.

One or two teachers are good. About rest I don't know how they got here. Their teaching is often very repetitive and boring. This is a Master's program for God's sake and they have still not moved forward from what I had already learnt in BA.