An overview of IISER Kolkata: academics, research, hostel, mess, etc

Courses at IISER Kolkata are not like usual curriculum in state or central Universities in India. IISER Kolkata 's academic curriculum is quite similar to that of US and European Universities. The focus of the curriculum is to teach and train us to make us researchers. So the courses are quite relevant if someone wants a career in research. Exams are very frequent in iiser Kolkata, apart from the mid semester and end semester exams, there are regular quizzes/class tests/surprisetests/assignments/grades tutorial problems every week.

Internship opportunities are good. Students can do internships on campus in different labs in their respective departments. They can also apply for internships in other institutions. Students generally do research internships. Very few students go for internships in companies, so there is no official data about the companies offering internship to IISER-K students.

Per semester fees is around 50k(including academic and hostel) (excluding mess fees). One can complete the course in (50×10)k +(50k to 60k)×5= 7.5 to 8 lacs (college fees+other expenses) (There is academic fees relaxation for SC/ST students so they can complete the course in 3.5lacs to 4 lac Rs. There are scholarships available: 1. Inspire scholarship, 60k per year +20k(for summer internship) 2. State government scholarships(if provided by the respective domicile State government) 3.private scholarships : Relaance scholarship, 200k (one time) etc.

Annual fest of IISER Kolkata is Inquivesta, generally takes place between March and April. Library is well equipped with all necessary books of different fields of science. There is a good collection of journals too, college also provides access to lots of science journals through the Myloft app. Sports facilities are also very good but yes we cannot compare it with old IITs. The cultural clubs of IISER Kolkata are awesome, IISER Kolkata has been the champion of interest IISER -niser-iisc cultural meet in 2022, 2023 consecutively. There are different clubs like, music club, coding club, drama club, astronomy club, dance club, cricket club, tennis club badminton club, and a lot of other clubs. There is a club called "Ek pehal" , it helps underprivileged children thought different outreach programs like providing them free tuitions in weekends and vacations, organising different cultural and training programs for them, etc .

Hostel rooms are equipped with bed, chair, table, almirah,etc. Rooms are either double sharing or tripple sharing for, BS-MS, MS students. Mess food is excellent. Registration fees and hostel fees are including the semester fees i.e. PhD students generally don't get hostel rooms, so they get a good amount of HRA, rented rooms are easily available just outsi6the campus.

One needs 60% minimum marks in 12th, (55% for SC/ ST)to appear in IISER aptitude test. Every year the application forms release in the month of April at the official website of IISER aptitude test (IAT). There are reservations for OBC, EWS, SC, ST, PWD, Kashmiri migrant. The difficulty level may vary, it is more or less similar to jee mains( some questions asked are of jee advanced level, some are very easy especially in biology and chemistry).

Faculties are really top notch in their respective fields. All of them joined the institute with years of PhD and post doctoral experience with very strong research profile. Most of them teach really good, some are not very good in teaching although they are great scientists. Interaction with faculty is very common here, we can approach them with doubts in their office hours, right after the class, or we can mail them to schedule a meet. They are very flexible and supportive about interacting with students.