Beautiful memories and Good academics!

I have had a great three years in Baselius. There was fun and there were disappointments. We have faced some discrimination as girls in the campus. There was an incident of an infuriation class conducted by the Women's Forum in college. It was a great shock to all of us. But overall there were great facilities and the staff were otherwise supportive. It is not mere academics that is practiced. We have opportunities to pursue all kinds of interests. There is music, dance, sports and literary writing for us. Ample opportunities are there.

There was no entrance examination and no interview. We have this application system in MGU through which I applied to all the courses I want and the corresponding colleges of my preference through one application. It was all done online and the allotments are also published on pre announced days. I reported at Baselius on the day after the allotment and joined. I liked the campus and the location of the college. We also have a great library. It is a really old college which is known throughout Kottayam for its academic excellence. They have a. NAAC accreditation of 3.5 something.It is good. I wanted to learn English Literature so I had only applied for B A English. I was happy when I joined .

The whole syllabus is great. Only last year they upgraded it. I am a little disappointed that I didn't get to study that updated syllabus. But ours was also really good too.There was all the basics that need to be a covered in a graduate course on literature. Practical learning for us means practicing writing and speaking in English. There were opportunities but I wouldn't say it was good enough. We were given some writing tasks from time to time but then again the best of it was answering questions from the textbook and the assignments. Speaking was not practiced. Another was the library hour given to us every week. We were asked to read atleast one book every month. There was also only one semester in which we practiced critical appreciation of literary works. Even then we did only poems and short stories and no big works. It wasn't really bad but there was less focus on practical learning. Yes, there are research works in the departments. Electives options were actually given only in 5th semester. We could choose one from a wide range of courses. Every department provided one elective to the list. I chose Physical Education as my elective.

The college does not provide internships in the campus. Most of the students do not try to do them in the first place. Only those who are serious about studies try. We are provided recommendation letter and all from the college. Other than than the isn't much help. We have to find them on our own. Most of the internships we get here are unpaid too.

There was a poor placement cell college. Mostly we were never informed about these through announcements or anything. Only commerce students had placements. That too were put up on notice boards. The placements are for companies like Wipro and D C Books. Average packages are unknown. Usually any such information is not given to students other than the applicants. It could be better.

Events in college include our 'Festivelita' the annual fest of English department, the commerce fest by department of commerce and so on. Every department in college organises a two day fest which includes various competitions and talks by dignitaries. These are the liveliest of days in campus because there is an inflow of students from various other colleges during these days. They ll come and participate in the programs we organise. It is a great time for socialising. We also get a certain amount as fund from the college for these events. But it does not cover the whole cost and we have to work to find funding sources if the program should be really good.

Fee is affordable. I pay about 1000 rupees per semester. So the whole cost for three years graduate study is only 6000 rupees. There is a donation of 2000 rupees made during admissions. I think the fee is nothing information. We are provided all facilities. But it is so low because our is a government aided college. Those who get admission through the community quota have to pay much higher than this. The self financing colleges also have greater fee than this.

There are scholarships, I am sure. But I have never received one myself so I really don't know about the particulars. There is a kind of scholarship that benefits the students who do not have a known and steady source of income at home. I know some who received this. Then other scholarships are based on merit. The class toppers usually receive some at the end of every academic year. The, there is a honorary function and memento distribution organised for those who pass out of Baselius as toppers in the whole University. No, no loan facilities are arranged. Bit some teachers are so good they personally help students. It has got nothing to do with the college or its management.

There is a lot of extra curricular activities in college. The inter collegiate tournaments of Football and Basketball are grand. I joined the Choreography Club in the second year. We go for various dance competitions apart from performing in college during College Day. Then there is the Nature Club, the Photography Club which all actively conducts programs through out the year. There is a great gym in campus too. Cricket matches are organised between departments every year. Between the departments , there are lots of programs going on in the college almost every day. The NSS, NCC, MGOCSM all organise programs too. The Scholars program organises study tours for toppers.

I do not live in the hostel but yes, there is a hostel. It is just behind the Department of Politics. It is girls hostel. I have not seen the boys' hostel because it is a little far away. From my friend, I heard the fee is 4000 per month including mess fee. The food is provided from the college canteen. They say it is good but it lacks variety. It is the same menu most of the days. Also, timings ate really strict. They don't allow them out of the hostel for much long after classes. There are several hostels and PGs outside of college but I don't kNow in detail about them.

Alumni are not very helpful towards us students. I have never known anybody among the students of my own department who studied there before I joined. The interaction in such cases is very poor. We do not get to know about what they are doing or what all chances we have in future after our course. The only time we meet some of them is when the celebrities among the alumni come to college for any function of inauguration. There are some illustrious writers of Malayalam and technicians in film field among them.

Examinations are not chill. There are three exams, two of which are out of 80 marks each and the other one is out of 40 marks. They all together determine our marks in a semester. I've noticed that we get a good score in internals as long as we perform really well I'm the first internal examinations. Apart from this our assignments, seminars and attendance is also considered for a semester. It is really tough to maintain a 90 percent above attendance in all semesters so we usually lose a mark or two there which sometimes makes us miss a better grade eventually. I wish they would lower the attendance bar a little.

The faculty are all good. We have three senior teachers who have PhDs and the rest of the permanent staff have MPhil. degrees or so. The guest lecturers are often there to fill in for FIP leaves. They are all really good and learned. We can have interactions with them on all topics at any times. They are all approachable and supportive. We get a lot of support to participate in programs, both inside and outside the college. I like the college because it supports us whole heartedly to participate in extra curricular but always wants us to perform well in exams too. The right balance between them is what they seek. Teaching standards are really good over all.