IISER PUNE : A Student Review

The structure is very flexible. It also differs from IISER to IISER. But for IISER Pune, we have a 1.5 year of compulsory courses and then 0.5 year of pre major, followed by 3 years of major. The structure is completely research oriented with a fair weightage on Lab curriculum alongside the Theory curriculum. The academic year has 2 semesters, with one midsem and endsem each. The rest of the evaluation is based on quizzes and assignments. The schedule is hectic in the first 2 years, but becomes balanced in the major years.

Placements aren't much focused because students mostly apply for a PhD, and believe that they could search for opportunities themselves. Still, the institute being in its infancy, has a placement cell dedicated to providing job scopes to interested students. Yes, IISER Pune does provide internships.

Karavaan is the annual socio-cultural fest of IISER Pune. Since its inception in 2008, Karavaan has grown by leaps and bounds and has made its mark on the society of Pune, with a myriad events to participate in, a plethora of workshops to learn from and activities for both the young and the old. The fest is huge, attracting audience from biggest cities in Maharashtra and beyond. The participation isn't limited to it's students. Events like Band Wars and Nupura brought participants from outside colleges. Also, the Pronite hosts some of the biggest music bands of India.

The fee structure is both feasible and expensive for different catagory people. The fees per semester is about 40000 for students belonging to General catagory, and around 8000 for SC and ST students.

People entering via KVPY avail KVPY scholarship. Also a lot of students can get the INSPIRE scholarship based on DST guidelines. Also there are some limited college scholarships that can be availed through the academic office based on their specific criteria.

Hostel is compulsory for every student. The rooms are double sharing, with enough space for two people. The rooms have two single sized beds, one bed table, a huge compartmentalized cupboard with too much space, 2 chairs and 2 night lamps. Meals aren't included. For meals, there are college canteens and dining halls where students eat in their own volition. So cost of food varies from person to person. On an average, it would be around 5000 per month.

The Alumni Network, although isn't that much robust yet, the interaction with one of my school alumni, who is also an IISER Pune Alumni, greatly helped me decide to join IISER. Also I've got answers to many of my queries from the alumni's written accounts on social media.

Science was always something that intrigued me since my childhood. I wanted to pursue science and become a researcher. When I searched for colleges offering research courses after 12th, IISERs are easily one of the finest options alongside IISc, NISER, etc. The admission process in IISERs consist of 3 channels, SCB, KVPY and JEE. I got through the SCB channel, wherein an entrance exam called IAT is conducted by the JAC of IISERs. There are suitable criterias for eligibility, and then students are selected through their ranks in IAT which has portions of Physics, Chemistry, Maths and Biology. The selection occurs by allotting students a choice among the 7 IISERs with some distinct courses based on their preference order by the student via a 3 or more rounds of Counselling. The JEE and KVPY channel also takes students the same way, only difference is that the JEE and KVPY channel 8s reserved for 50% of total intake together, while the SCB has 50% intake for itself.

The faculty are highly qualified, each having immense research and teaching experience. A majority of them are world class scientists with a equal focused attitude towards teaching and developing a scientific aptitude in their students.