Why Azim Premji University?

The course curriculum is strucutred in a way to build up on to the knowledge of each previous semester. It is not limited to the conventional textbooks but urges students to think beyond the classroom and find real life applications. The readings given are also not old textbooks but contemporary research work being currently discussed in the outside world. The curriculum is strucutured in a way to encourage discussion among peers and faculty and not limited to mechanical learning. Many of the courses also makes students the exposure to get to the area around the university and help people around the university. Apart from this, the course prepares one to either go for work directly after your undergradutation, prepared through the occupational track that ends with an internship, or one can pursure higher studies extremely good universities abroad like the ivy leagues and field bests and the country's best like IIM's. The course prepares you both practically and academically to be ready to pursure which ever path you choose. For me, the economics course offered here was attractive as it did not follow just the main stream economics concepts, further the course allowed me to choose inter - disciplinary electives and even pursue my interests in breakdance alongside getting taught by some of the experts in their respective fields of economics. However, the exams and assignments can get a lot hectic and leave you with no time for anything else. As much as intellectually stimulating the course is, it is also tiring and rigrous. Certain courses would require extra practice and maybe be difficult to follow but you will always find the help to navigate through it.

The internship opportunties are mostly available towards the end of the course in your fourth year. The offers are from NGOs like Azim Premji foundation, Reliance foundation, Antara foundation, CSR, Teach for India etc. The internship comes as part of your occupational track that prepares you for the job. The stipend varies from INR 5000 to 20000 per month. I have not yet reached the stage of getting an internship, but have already done two internships by applying indivitually, not via the university.

The university does have a placement team which faculy and student led. Studnets become eligible for placements towards the end of their fourth year - last semeter. Approximately 100-150 NGO's come to campus for recruiting. The university does not promote private firms for placement but students can apply indivitually. The average pay is 20 Lakh per year. Many students after undergraduation opt for higher studies, so is my plan. But most of the master's students opt for placement and 98% - 99% get placed into NGO in top positions. I plan to pursure a masters degree after my undergraduation, preferably in economics.

The fee structure per year from batch of 2025 onwards is INR 3,18,000 as tuition fees plus Accomodation fees of 80,000. This fee is subject to nominal inflation and will increase in the subsequent years. The accomodation fee is compulsory for bachelors students as all the undergraduate programes are strictly residential. The registration form for application was INR 1000 in 2023 when I applied, it certainly has increased now. All courses have the same fee structure. Food charges are payable at actuals in the canteen. It is not pre paid. Per month one will spend INR 5000-6000 for food. The fee is payable at the beginning of each semester in July and January of each year. The tuition fee mentioned includes developement fee and other miscellaneous fees and there is no additional charge for components like library, internet. Scholarship is available for deseving candidates based on family income not based on merit. It is a need based financial assistance. The financila assistance will be given in the form of fee waivers and not in the form of cash to cover the accomodation an tuition expenditures. In some cases, after evaluation financial assistance towards food expenses is also provided. Students with an annual family income of less than INR 12 Lakh will be eligible for different levels of scholarship. To apply for the scholarship, one must mention it in the application form where it is asked, after which the University's financial assistance team will get in touch with you.

The campus life is comparitively dry than other universities and colleges around bangalore, but not null. There are plenty of clubs like dance, chess, music, theatre, debate, reading, sustainability etc, that are inclusive and diverse. There is the annual college fest 'Unmukt' which is the best part of the year, it is typically a 3 day long event of games, cultural events, concerts and DJ. The university has a very well equipped gym and sports centre with basket ball and football courts and frisbee grounds. The library has a very good collection of books and online and offline archives. The campus also have goegraphy, chemistry, physics, math, computer labs and all classrooms have projectors. Students are supposed to use laptops.

The unergraduate programme is compulsorly residential. The residence building is a 40 floor tower that is separated into girls, boys and gender neutral floors. The rooms are shared between two people and come with cupboards, tables, chairs etc. The meal quality is average as the quantitiy served is a little low for university students who eat considerably well.

I applied to other universities like KREA, and Delhi University. I got confirmed admission from KREA University and partial from DU. The main reasons for choosing Azim Premji University over KREA and DU, was 1. The faculty present in the university for economics was good. 2. KREA did not offer me the kind of concepts I was interested to study and did not seem to have the same approach in teaching methodlogy. 3. APU had an inclusive, inter-disciplinary approach that DU and KREA could not offer 4. I am in the Bangalore campus, which also attracted me to the university. I applied to Ashoka University as well and got rejected, the main reason was I messed up my interview as it was my first ever interview and I got really stressed and blanked out. Their admission required me to write a statement of purpose and few essays, which I got through. The admission process of APU is through an entrance test conducted by the university itself. It also asks for essays and statement of purpose. Having a good score at the entrance test and good and unbiased essays, and a good grasp of my hifh school concepts clearly especially in the subject I wanted to pursure helped me get in. Further the admission commitee gives great importance to any kind of impact that you were able to make for people around you through volunteering, leadership etc.

The courses are of four years. The fourth year can be opted to be research or internship. Each semseter is academically packed with lot of readings to do and graded assignments that might even ask students to go on field and work to get data. The course will overall give very good exposure and allow people to move grow immensely as a person apart from the academic gains. The faculty to student ratio is good. The class strength is approximately 40 per class. The faculty is generally very helpful and approachable. Many of the facutly are graduates of the nation's top universities and world's best departments like JNU, Delhi University, Cornell, Univerisity of Massachusetts etc. To name a few faculty currently part of the University would be Amit Basole, Rajendran Narayan, Zico Dasgupta, Tamoghna Halder, Kedar Kulkarni, who are part of the Economics department. Amit Kishtwari, Samira Junaid of History department. The mode of assesment in not only through exams, infact exams are only a small part of the assesment. There are regular graded assignments that require critical thinking and application. The difficulty of the exam is dependent on your depth of understanding the concepts and one is never tested for your ability to memorise here, rather to apply and intitutively think through problems. Students generally clear the tests, but to get really good grades, one has to put in great effort. The course curriculum is well structured and by the end of the course would make you ready for both the private and public sector jobs, the addition of 'Occupational track' to the course has also made students improve their job skills that make them ready to be hired right after their undergraduation.

There was a written application with essays and a statement of purpose to be submitted first, after which there is an entrance test that tests ones logical ability and reasoning. On getting a good score, you would be called for an interview where one would be tested on your prefered course selected and your personality and extra curriculars to evaluate how well you would mould with the rest of the cohort. My preperation was mainly done through revising my high school economics, getting hold of mathematics concepts right and being unbiased, willing to learn and confident and cheerful in my interview. There is no GD

Within the campus, it is safe to hang around. The gym and sports closes at 9pm, library closes at midnight and the canteens close by 9:30. However, the classrooms are always open for students to sit and study in. One can at any time roam around within the campus. There are very few hangout spots outside of campus, late night is not so safe as well outside of campus.