Exploring excellence in architecture from the hilly region of vagamon , DC school of architecture and design

Since it's barch the college provides each semester study trips to different parts of the country, this gives quiet an exposure to the students which is actually an attractive feature . These trips is based on the curriculum itself. There were also student exchange program to Thailand which gave a good experience. In our curriculum thefourth year the even semester that is S8 is for internship. This 6 months gave us the opportunity to work in real architecture firms and gave us an insight to our real architecture life after college, site experiences which made us prepared for our future as an architect. There are some subjects like professional ethics practice which is quite boring as it should not be based on theory but had to have real onsite experiences and in real experiences. Except the engineering subjects the theory exams are quite easy. The design exams is all about consistency and hardwork , it keeps getting more challenging through the years

Since we are architecture students it is must in our curriculum to go for internship in our five year architecture course and in our university it is in the fourth year semester 8. The students have to apply to architecture firms and have to complete 100 days of internship. Usually it is done applying to firms with our portfolio which contains our best projects that we have done over the years. The teachers also recommend us to firms with their connection, some teachers also has their own firms in which we are given opportunities. The stipend varies from offices . It depends on the offices you get your internship in. Sometimes you even may not have a stipend.

The year wise fees for general category as I'm in that category is paid in two semesters with 95000 per semester including semester and hostel fees. The yearly merit fees for general is 80000 and special fees of 25000 per year. The 25000 contains all registration,exam fees , development fees etc. When joining an amount of 10000 is taken as caution fees for merit people. The caution fees for management fees is 100000. For SC, ST, OEC they have no special fees and their college fees also has reduction ,their annual fees is 60000. For management students the fees is 300000 per annum excluding first yr as an additional 1 L is paid as caution. There are no scholarship provided from the college.

Our campus has held zonal nasa convenvention as well as the biggest architecture fest called ANC in our college. We have great reputation for that as only selected colleges get that opportunity. There are various cultural programmes which our students participate like onam, christmas halloween, exhibitions etc . There are also sports activities but there are no club activities in which barch students are active in.

All students studying here have to cumpolsary live in the hostel provided by the college including our faculties. The girls hostel provides a 3 sharing room for the students. The beds are bunker beds in such a way that the bed is on top and your table is below and an extra cupboard is provided if you have more storage. Usually 2 common toilets with 7-8 bathrooms are there within each wing except ground floor as there are only few students there . There are no outside allotment allowed all students live in the hostels they take during admissions.

I applied to the four government colleges as in CET, TKM, GEC, RIT and few private colleges like SCMS, Mngalam college, and Avani from Kerala. Usually there are 3 allotments but since due to covide the third allotment was cancelled in this year 2020 during my enrollment as due to my marks I would get a higher college that is SCMS during the next allotment if it was there. To enroll in college in Kerala you should apply for keam and nata , both nata and 12 th exams are considered in selecting students to college for merit seats. Nata is the eligible exam for entering the college , a minimum of 80 marks should be attained in the exam for qualification to get even management seats. Usually half the seats are filled by management and the rest by merit through government sites. The admission experience is ok as for management students the fees structure is quite high and they have better options as compared to our college.

The faculty to student ratio if considered the teachers are less compared to the students. The campus is residential so all the teachers and students live inside the campus. So all the teachers are approachable at any time till 9:30 pm which is the hostel closing time. One good thing is that in our college if you are not satisfied with any teacher's teaching style then the students have an authority to change them based on the reviews we give at the end of the year. So any teacher's teaching style is unsatisfactory they are replaced or removed from the batch teacher's list . Usually engineering subjects like theory of structure are the subjects, students fail most. The other subjects are quite easy there are semester university exams as well as periodic test for gathering internals for semester exams.

The night life , if you say this is a residential college, the campus itself has a hotel and two cafeteria inside. There is also a gym inside the campus itself. The college is located in pullikanam a hilly region so the nearest city that is thodupuzha is one and half hour far . Students go for evening walks which is kind of trekking to pullikanam junction which is a 15 min walk from the college. There is tea plantations and estates near where students visit. The college is always alive with students maximum enjoying in the center of the college the activity area or spend time in the basket ball ground. The architecture department has a glass lounge where students also sit and relax in the evenings. The curfew in hostels is 9:30 pm . The students who went out from the college should be back by 8 . The locality is ok for roaming at night.