My life at NITK

From the second year, the syllabus is relevant to the course at hand. While we are required to do a good chunk of the learning on our own, it does a good job of preparing us with the basics needed, Admittedly, there are a few subjects that have little real world application, the course content is relatively good. Teaching methods vary from professor to professor, but there is generally a course and evaluation plan that all professors follow. Every two months in a four month semester there is one major examination with often little to no gap between subsequent exams. It can be a little hectic at the time, with students often having to stay up late on the days of exams.

Companies like Nvidia come for internships in campus (for electrical engineers). Internships usually take place in your third year of college. There is a minimum credit requirement to enroll for these internships that you fulfill by taking up mini projects, extra courses, etc. While this is enough to qualify for enrollment, there is still a quite exhaustive process to get in to said internships. While I haven't had my internship yet, I've heard that it often is a very eye opening experience as it acts as a student's first step into the real world. A step that is not so small as some very reputable companies recruit from our college for internships.

Students become eligible for campus placements from the seventh semester onwards. There are at least 200 prominent recruiters in our college from Microsoft and Google for software to Mercedes and Volvo for core engineering. For electrical, there are companies like Samsung, Nvidia, Intel, etc. Around 80% of students got placed in the previous year. The highest package offered is 55 LPA. 90% of students apply for placements after college, I will most likely do the same and try to secure a job via campus placement.

I enrolled in college via the Direct Admission of Students Abroad (DASA) scheme. As a part of this scheme, I was able to get a seat in the college via reservation. While I am paying the standard fees as other students in the general quota, this scheme allows for students to enroll with a different cutoff and a subsequent increase (by four times) in fees paid. The institute fees accounts for tuition, campus amenities, health care, student activities, and career development fees. The fees do not increase by the year and stay rather consistent, adding up to 443,360 throughout four years. The hostel fees, accomodating for rent, water, electricity and mess food adds up to 246,080. There are several scholarships available on the basis of merit and income level. The information regarding these are passed to us in a coordinated manner as well. Some scholarships are Post Matric (for students who got in through reservation), Airtel Scholarship (for circuital branches), and OP Jindal Scholarship.

There are several events that take place in the campus throughout the year, 99% of them being completely student run. They can be run by the clubs of the college or by committees formed specially for these events. There are two major events in college. A cultural fest named Incident (held around March), which is the biggest college fest in south India, tracking major footfall every year along with celebrity guest performances, Last year, Shilpa Rao performed at the festival. Then there is the technical fest Engineer, held around October every year. The campus life is pretty good, you'll find that some way or the other everyone will know each other, especially since so many of the students live within campus walls. There are many clubs in campus, all run by students, both for technical and creative purposes.

The hostel buildings are very old. Many of them were built in the 1980s and have barely had any renovations till then. It takes some effort to grab the attention of the authorities even for faulty equipment or other issues. There is an elected student committee to oversee hostel living and act as a point of contact between students and hostel supervisors. There are also newly built buildings that are a huge step up, but these are not open to first year students. So, the shift can be quite hard. The meals are also subpar. Its not realistic to rent accomodation outside campus as the campus is huge and you'd be considerably far away before finding a reasonable place to stay, The hostels are affordable, but even with the price they may not even satisfy minimum criteria for comfort.

One of the main reasons i chose NITK over other colleges is the fees. I joined the college by writing JEE Mains entrance examination. While i qualified for JEE Advanced, i was content enough with the results of JEE Mains to not write it. After giving JEE Mains, I applied for college via DASA quota. Given a choice between any private college and the college i currently study at, along with far lesser fees, there is also a brand value associated with NIT colleges which played a role in my selection process. I had gotten in SRM but eventually declined to pursue my education in NITK.

While the faculty doesn't always teach genuinely, they are often approachable, as far as i can say for my department. Students are required to approach them for various reasons such as extra credits, minor projects, etc as well. One of the faculty members I like are Dr. Prajof P. He has taught me for two semesters and I've found that he tries his best to inculcate real life applications to his classes and ensure that we are following. To add on to this, he is very approachable for projects. There have not been any faculty members that I've had a dislike toward for any reason other than strict correction, and I don't consider that a valid reason for a dislike. There are two quizzes, one midsem and end semester exam for each course. They are much harder than the average engineering course on account of my degree being electrical engineering and my college being an NIT.