Masters during Lockdown in Chandigarh University

We opted for Data Science from chandigarh University because it had all the facilities one needs at one place. Be it theoritical knowledge or practical. We were given specific 2-3 hours of lab lectures on alternate days related to Python, R, SQL, Data visualization, etc. And we were also asked to create projects of our own which were then discussed in the forthcoming lectures. All of this made us better presenters and helped us be job ready.

Students become eligible for sitting in campus placements from the third semester. There was a strict attendance policy which were to be followed by every student if they wanted to sit for placements. We received emails from the placement coordinators regarding all the opportunities coming our way and the details of the different roles offered by the companies. In my class, almost all the students were eligible to sit for the placements, and 70-80% of them got placed as well. Most of them are still working with those companies. The main demographic location from which the companies came were Chandigarh, Bangalore, Gurugram, Mohali.

I started my Masters in Data Science in the year 2020. At that time, the semester wise fee I paid was INR 30000, which sums up to INR 120000 for the full 2 year course. There are multiple scholarships provided by CU: - Through CUCET - Merit based scholarship - Scholarship for AFEWS - Sports based scholarships Although, the fees now has increased to 53400 INR per semester, examination fees of 2500 INR, and security amount of 2000 INR is also deposited.

Although, I didn't get to visit campus during my tenure of study due to lockdown, I did visit the university for getting some documentation done and for getting my degree as well. And I know now, how big of a campus it is and it is also famous for different celebrities visiting for different cultural events as well. For everyone who wanted to opt for being in different clubs like, sports, drama, and writing, etc, they were free to do so.

I did research for about 5-6 months before finally opting for Chandigarh University. The pros I found in this course were: - Focusing on practical knowledge. - The course fees was affordable, the other colleges I looked into had their fee more than 1-1.5 Lakh per semester which I couldn't afford that too when everything was shut down due to COVID. CU really made a big impact due to this one reason. - There were good placement opportunities that were listed on their website. I got selected on MERIT basis, and then direct addmission procedures were completed online.

The faculty was very understanding, and had good knowledge about the subjects they were teaching, despite M.Sc Data Science being the first course that was started in 2020, we were the first batch of students. We used to study mathematics from Dr. Shiv Sharma, he had a good grasp over his subject. One of the other teachers were Mr. Niket Kumar, a soft skills teacher, who did a great job in making the students prepare for their placement sessions. There were different examinations held over a period of time, and there were multiple assessment submissions as well. We were even asked to write research papers in every subject for us to understand the different topics deeply.