The Agriculture University dream, worth it?

The course curriculum is very diversified including field subjects like agronomy, forestry, horticulture etcetera, to concerning assisting subjects of field operations like plant pathology, entomology, genetics and even technical courses like engineering, meteorology and food processing. Also, economics and extension to help you take your inventions and research to the common people. All of these subjects are to be studied in the same course. The course curriculum provides a very varied opportunities to students even after completing graduation on what they want to do next in their life and not just tread the same lane.

The college has a placement cell but the students are not interested in college placements as the packages offered by companies that come for college placements are very low par. Othe career opportunities like a government job, administration, banking a specialised MBA in agriculture, or pursuing masters are more luring for the students as they provide better opportunities bothe financially and also in terms of personal growth.

The year wise fees of the course is 25000 for tuitions along with other additional compulsory charges for library and sports facilities etcetera that also need to be paid. There is also an option to opt for a self financed seat in which one has to pay an additional 80000 every year along with the fees. There are two separate scholarship programs, one for the students nominated by ICAR and other is a merit based scholarship for the top 10 highest scorers in the entrance exam. The difference in the fees of reservation students is also barely 6-7 thousand a year and no other relaxations are otherwise provided A recent fees hike was protested against and challenged by the students and was thus taken back so no fees hike is expected in the near future.

The annual fest called the agri night mostly happens in the month of December January or sometimes even February every year. Many cultural programs are held during this event with the college students showcasing their great talents and big names like ICAR chief are also invited. The range of Books in the library is enormous, it is a heaven for literature enthusiasts and curious minds. You can find books on any subjects you want, even books that you might not find anywhere else. Anyone with the library card, that you get for free for being a university student here, can have access to these books. Modern technologies like projector and screens are available in lecture halls. Sports is prominent and even more so during the annual sports meet between different colleges of the university. There are many different cultural groups run by students and even the agro club which is officially under authorities is also run by students.

As the mess is co-operative, hence the menu and quality of food can vary hugely every month but the food is good and tasty and you have access to anything you would like to eat. The hostel consists of water coolers, table tennis room and washing machines for laundry. All utensils are provided by hostel and cleaned by the workers. There is also a tv in the common room. The rooms are big and clean and can afford about 2-3 people easily. There are wooden attached cupboards in every room. One can register for hostel from the Student Welfare Office by checking if accomodation is available. The fees is to be paid along with registration and a separate mess bill is to be paid in the hostel every month

I mostly preferd this university because they were offering a professional degree and the course curriculum was very vast and offering many different subjects that might interest me to proceed with individually after graduation. I had opportunities to study in other colleges but the courses in question only offered one or two subjects that would leave me with no choice but to continue only with them after graduation. For taking admission in this university, I had appeared for the ICAR exam but now the exam has been scraped and the government have introduced the CUET exam which all wishing to study here must take as it is a government institute. For ormal seats the cut off is very high and does not go below 90 percentile but students also have the option for opting self financed seats which are more important number whose cut off can go as low as 65 percentile.

The faculty, though knowledgeable and very well versed in their subjects, are still scientists and researchers and are more focused on their own work and lack the distinct art of teaching. The strength of the faculty is varied depending from department to department and none of the subjects have a genuine professor whose job is only to teach. The best faculties are of Agronomy, Economics, Entomology and Genetics department who are very open and helpful to students. Mostly faculties of other colleges in the university that have some subjects with us prefer their own students and are slightly biased. The exam pattern is varied according to the credit strength of a subject. The exams happen in 3 phases, the mid terms, the practicals and the finals put of which the final exam comes from outside the university. The course curriculum is great considering how varied opportunities are open to students even after graduation and do not have to stick to a lane.

I had appeared for the official ICAR exam for taking admission in this university but now the government has combined all these exams with CUET and admission process requires your CUET score. The counselling round is held in different phases after the results are announced for CUET. If one has prepared for NEET or JEE then this exam should not be very difficult as the same subjects are to be studied for this exam.