Development Studies at IIT Madras

Integrated MA program in IIT Madras takes admission through their own test called HSEE. The syllabus is quite vast but manageable basically Class 11 level Maths, English ability, Economics, General Awareness, Environmental Studies, International Affairs and a separate Essay. The exam is 3 hrs of 144 Objective questions with half an hour for an essay.

The course is quite known for people interested in Humanities/Social Sciences. The faculty students ratio is very good coming to nearly 1:8. The faculty itself is well qualified in their fields but good researchers won't make good teachers hence some aren't that great. The subjects are also very diverse so one could lose interest in some of the classes. The exam component for most part is Quiz, Term paper and End Semester. The subjects by itself is not hard but the workload is very high and if one doesn't plan well it could end up not great towards the end. The evaluation is mostly on a relative scale as it is with IITs but some professors choose otherwise.

For students of HS the placements are quite hazy. Around 10 ppl out of 46 gets placed every year. Mostly in consulting/ Marketing/ Research orgs/ Development sector. The pay range is mostly between 4-12 LPA. The placement scenario as such is not great and most people try for further studies.

The Fee isn't high and comes around 11000/ semester. There are a number of government scholarships that are available. One is given more information about it when we join. Some students can arrange a Teaching Assistant position from the third year onwards that pays around 10000 upwards per month. All students are eligible for HTTA scholarship of MHRD in their final year which is around 16000 per month

The department of Humanities and Social Sciences conducts its Annual Graduate Conference which might be of interest to research enthusiastic people. IIT M as a whole on other hand has Shaastra and Saarang as Tech and cultural fests respectively which are very good and draws huge crowds. The facilities in classes and libraries are top notch. There's literally clubs/groups for all kinds of people and one has enough opportunities to pursue his/her sports/hobbies etc given the academic load is managed.

Hostels are good although one needs to be careful of the monkeys. The food quality is very good for breakfast and poor to the average for the rest. There are other eateries available around the campus if one wants to skip mess food. The hostel fees are affordable