Helpful for getting a PhD

I wanted to do a master's in physics and tried my luck in IIT- JAM. The specific reason for choosing NIT Durgapur is that's the best that I could get with a rank below 1000. Besides, low fees also were a factor for me to choose the specific NIT. There were 12 faculties for 13 students. Yes, you heard it right. It's almost a 1:1 ratio. Now there are 3 more faculties but the number of seats is more than 25 now. The Term exams were moderate. You can easily crack those with moderate study.

There is not much internship offer. but you can easily go on a summer internship at a reputed university in India. Most people prefer Iiser Kolkata as it's not far from Durgapur and there is good collaborative research going on. The outcome of the internships are usually conference proceedings which is helpful in getting a Ph.D. abroad. You also have to do a project in the final semester and you can choose any other institution for that.

The placement for masters students is poor for science. It's not a problem with the institute, but it's a national problem. You can take a try in different IT companies and electronics companies, but I've seen anyone getting selected from MSC. There are some coaching institutes like Akash that recruit master's students. Btech students get a higher opportunity for jobs and the average package varies from 1M- 1.5M per annum, where the maximum salary goes up to 5-8M rupees per annum. almost 70-80 % get placed every year, but it's less than 10% for masters students in science. I planned to go for Ph.D. after the degree. The course is helpful for NET/GATE and almost 70-80% crack these exams every year.

It is the cheapest NIT in India do you can expect a lower fee. The fee was around 30k in 2019 and it's 40k-45k now. Hostel fees are cheaper, almost 10k per year and food was 100/day before covid. There are various scholarships available from central and individual state governments. From the West Bengal government, they provide a swami Vivekananda scholarship which is 30k/month. The fees are almost 0 for scheduled cabstand tribal students. The fee hike is nominal.

The annual fest is rectified which is a cultural fest and they invite a number of good bands. There are some student performances as well as performances by famous Bollywood/Bengali singers and stand-up comedians. There are two more fests from which Avishkar is the annual tech fest. Fests happen in Feb-march. The library is huge and all the books that you need for courses are available. They had a good collection of journals also. Classrooms are average and not modern ones. There is a student activity center where all the extracurricular activities happen. You can choose to play a variety of sports. The clubs are run by students and dance club music club, drama club are the most noticeable ones.

Rooms are shared ones for MSC students. I was provided with one triple-sharing room. But they are huge in size, literally huge. One room has 2/3 fans and 3 lights along with 3 beds, 3 chairs, and 3 tables for 3 people. I was lucky as one of my roommates didn't join the course after taking admission. The food is comparatively good. It's better than average hostel food. The breakfast is excellent and they had a special dinner on the last Wednesday of the month. The hostel is automatically provided during admission as it's a fully residential campus and there is no extra registration process. You can't choose to live outside.

Admission takes place through IIT-JAM. You have to give the entrance, quality it and you can choose NITs through a centralized counseling process through the CCMN portal. There are no interviews. Application for JAM usually starts in September and ends in October. The exam is usually at the end of January/first week of February. You can get the details from the official website of JAM which varies each year as different IITs conduct it. The Reservation is applicable as per the central rules. Admission usually takes longer but some students leave if they get into IIT/Top central universities. The free seats should be filled later.