IIT Kharagpur from the perspective of a PhD student.

The admission process includes a written exam and later if qualified, followed by a personal interview. The main admission criteria included but were not limited to 10th and 12th marks and GATE scores. An added advantage of prior industrial experience is given in the final assessment. The written exam consists of core subject questions, engineering mathematics, and reasoning. The interview panel generally consists of 4-5 expert faculties that assess the student and may ask to explain the concept on the green board.

Ph.D. gives a fair idea of an entirely novel perspective of seeing an engineering subject. The inter-disciplinary curriculum makes it a comprehensive study help in making a normal post-graduate to a doctorate. The course-work in the first year of the doctoral degree consists of 10 credits for post-graduate students and 20 credits for a graduate student admitted into the Ph.D. program. A subject called English for communication is a compulsory subject for every doctoral candidate to qualify, in order to finish the coursework. The difficulty of the subjects depends on the selection of the subjects and generally, the post-graduates can easily crack the exams with flying colors, provided the student studies in the class.

The students generally bags all kinds of internships varying from business consulting, financial firms to core engineering companies in and outside India. The main companies that offer internships are Microsoft, Google, Apple, Amazon, Havells, Schenider, L&T, BCG, Barclays, Mahindra, Flipkart, Zomato, Tata Motors, and the list is endless including several private startups as well. The CDC (Campus development Centre) at IIT Kharagpur is quite efficient and make use of the strong alumni network to provide internship, pre-placements offer and placements to the students. The student has to get registered in the CDC for placement and the placement and internship season generally starts just after October and stretches up to 15th January.

In the UG courses, the placements start from the 6th semester, while for Ph.D. students, it is generally in their final year when they get eligible to appear for the placements. IIT Kharagpur has a very strong alumni network and generally, all the big shot companies like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Honeywell, Scheider, BCG, Barclays, and several PSUs visit for the placements. The average package is around 7-14 lakhs p.a. and the highest package of 1 crore is offered every year and almost 90-95% of students from the various programmes bags a placement. For Ph.D. students, generally, some core companies offer placements, while most of the students opt for becoming faculty in prestigious engineering colleges of the country. Although. after completing my curriculum, I will be joining a post-doctoral programme at a foreign university.

The institute scholars receive an MHRD fellowship of Rs. 31,000/- for Junior Research Fellow and later Rs. 35,000/- for the Senior Research Fellow. Generally, the students pay their six-monthly fees from this scholarship itself and still can save. Other than that students may get additional Rs. 15000/-, after their 5th year as Teaching Assistantship. For the jobs in Ph.D., the student may opt for a campus placement or can go for an off-campus drive as well, depending upon their choices and skills.

The annual cultural fest at IIT Kharagpur is called the SpringFest (or SF) where students from pan-India come and participate, while the guest speakers and performers come from India and abroad. The annual tech-fest at IIT Kharagpur is called Kshitij (or KTJ), where students from various institutes across the country participate in the mega-events. The IIT Kharagpur campus has one of the biggest libraries in the country with more than 3.5 lakhs of books. The classrooms are well-equipped with green boards and projectors for providing an amazing classroom experience for the students. There are several inter-hostel and inter-department sports meet happening throughout the year. There is an annual sport meet among all IITs, which is called the Inter-IIT sports meet. The campus has more than 45 registered clubs stretching from business clubs to dramatics which comes under Technology Student Gymkhana, and are solely run by the students, for the students, and of the students.

The hostel room has a fan, two-room lights, and one table lamp along with a cupboard for a single student. The mess menu is generally formed by a student committee in association with the mess contractor. The food is generally unlimited, except for some days when the special menu is prepared. The registration for a hostel is managed by the Hall Office which is a very smooth process. Since the campus provides all-time electricity and wifi services, it is better to stay inside the campus only. Although. the outer locality has several rented PGs available if one decides to stay outside the campus. The localities include Talbagicha, DVC society, Hijli Cooperative society, and Prem Bazar.