My Experience at JU

Pros- Great environment, one of the most vibrant campus lives there is and there is a lot of freedom and autonomy about the space. people are encouraged to think freely and pursue their interests beyond academic aspirations. A lot of students have gone on to do wonderful things in completely different fields than their initial association. Great placement facilities ensure that you also pass out with a job.

I entered Jadavpur University through West Bengal JEE in 2009. I ranked 28 in the exam and opted to study Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering. After completing my BE, I wanted to study Cinema and hence, I opted to sit for Film Studies Entrance Examination for the MA degree. I stood 1st in the entrance examination.

The course curriculum in Engineering is not the best. More importance is given towards getting good grades by mugging up the subjects taught and they are mostly outdated topics. Students, being extremely brilliant, opt for self-studying and rely on advice of seniors. While the campus drive for jobs is decent and a good deal of people go abroad or to IITs for further research, the departmental facility is mostly terrible. In Film Studies, the course is designed towards research as well as providing the students a good exposure to the academia. The teachers make it clear from the very beginning that it is an academic department. However, there is ample scope for jobs too since campus drives are there for humanities too.

Internships are not provided by the college in Engineering and Technology. Students look for internships in various companies and abroad through the recommendations of the professors at times. The internships are not always paid internships. In Humanities, the students don't really look for internships. Those who have journalistic aspirations often seek internships in Times of India, Telegraph, and other media houses.

In Engineering and Technology, currently there is plenty of scope in terms of placement as big names like Microsoft, Amazon, Goldman Sachs, TATA Steel etc. come in along with quite a few PSUs. In Arts faculty, the media houses like Zee, Star, and Viacom alongside many other companies come for placement drive. There are IT companies who recruit HR personnel too.

There are three faculty fests known as Sanskriti that occur annually alongside three faculty freshers for each faculty, along with the tech fest Srijan. Arts often has more than one freshers so that's another thing. There was a photo fest recently and the annual MUN also took place. Otherwise, there are quite a few events and gatherings throughout the year.

It is one of the cheapest colleges there is. In engineering, it only costs 1,000/- for four years while in arts, annual fee is 1,200/-. Cheap as you like. For the underprivileged, there are scholarships too in case they cannot pay the minimal fee. There are no other extra costs for library or any other access.

There are quite a few scholarships or fellowships in various faculties including international fellowships in collaboration with foreign universities. There is a scholarship for the scheduled cast students as well as single girl child which can be availed from the office. There is a fellowship in collaboration with Japan for Arts students every year. However, there are new fellowships each year in all faculties according to the collaborations with other universities.

The engineering faculty does not have gender awareness or diversity as such since most of the departments are dominated by a male in good number. The arts faculty, however, is extremely aware of the gender issues and has been demanding for a GSCASH for some time now. Foreign students do come to study here and the behavior towards them is generally amicable, to say the least. There are many sports competitions including Cricket, Football, Table Tennis, Badminton in each faculty. The tech fest holds robotics competition every year too. In short, the campus is extremely vibrant and unlike any other in this state.

The hostel facility is decent enough with varied hostel facilities for the numerous premises. The hostel rooms are shared by 2/3 people with extremely cheap food facility. The average rent is 1100 rupees per month (when I passed out that is) excluding food, so that's an extremely cheap option.

There is an alumni association in the university. However, there is great relation between seniors and juniors which extends into good alumni institutions. Ex-students of the university treat juniors as brothers and sisters and offer help in many situations, especially job switching. The alumni network is huge and quite a few departments have their own reunions to boost this network.

The exam structure follows a semester system where you give two semesters each year. In each semester, there are two internal exams for each subject which comprise a part of the full marks while another percentage comes from the final exam. The division is internal marks+70% of final semester in case of engineering, and in arts, the final exam of each subject is of 30 marks. So, your internal marks+ marks in final exam is what you get out of 50 in each subject. There are lab classes on most days after 3 PM. However, the labs don't have the best of facilities in my erstwhile department so it was mostly chilled out.

I got through the Engineering Entrance exam of West Bengal JEE. I studied in science stream during my 10+2 and hence, opted to study engineering. In Jadavpur University, Faculty of Engineering and Technology, the admission to a certain department is determined by the student's JEE rank. The better the JEE rank, the more freedom you have to choose your department. In the case of MA admission, you need to crack the entrance examination and get a place among the 35 seats offered. Anyone who has a good taste of films can crack it.

In Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering, most of the faculties are old, uninterested or not sure what to teach. However, there are two or three teachers who are really brilliant and the department stands on them mostly. In Film Studies department, the teachers are extremely helpful and brilliant teachers to say the least, except one or two. Some of them are the best teachers in the whole humanities faculty.