Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, follows with what it claims.

The course curriculum is very inclusive of what is needed in the current scenario. They are in touch with industry officials and are updating parts of the course as needed so that students have knowledge on the now-used or now necessary tools. While the course curriculum does prepare us we'll enough for the real-world applications, more extra work is always necessary for actually being able to work on real problems. This is done upto some extent by the faculty and the rest has to be done by us through internships. I don't see anyway where any of the course modules could have been improved. All computer-needed courses are taught with demonstrations and students practicing on spot along with the usage of e-learning resources for all subjects. There are also internal assessment tests done by faculty but the dates for them is fixed with student opinion being taken into consideration. The exams are quite difficult if students don't prepare consistently and thoroughly.

There are various labs in the college that are performing research in different areas. Students interested can approach any of the lab faculty and join their projects based on availability. I have joined the Amrita Mind Brain Centre and am currently in a project simulating algorithms with the use of web tools. The next project is more centred on a Brain model built using Matlab.

Students become eligible from the 3rd semester for campus placement in the 2 year masters course. Many companies like Biocon, Merck, visit the college for campus placement. Profiles offered are: NGS analyst, Bioinformatician, data analytics, data management etc. Amrita holds a 98% placement record and these details came be fetched from the Amrita university webpage. Students who didn't get placed only went ahead for research and to pursue their PhD. The average package offered would be 3-4 LPA and the highest offered would be 6 LPA. My plans after the degree depend on the placement opportunities I get. If I get a decent placement opportunity, I would choose to work and later pursue my PhD. Otherwise, I choose to pursue my PhD and later work.

Tution fees for MSc Bioinformatics - ?60,000 pee semester Tuition fees for MSc Biotechnology/MSc Microbiology - ?72000 per semester Caution fees deposit - ?5000 Scholarship available - Amrita Vidyanidhi Scholarship- covers entire tuition fees as long as student maintains CGPA of 9.0+ and ranks in top 5 of his/her class. Selection process for scholarship- based on admission interview, entrance exam and another selection interview for shortlisted candidates

All annual hindu festivals like Krishna Jayanti, Onam etc are celebrated. The University's affiliation with Amma, Maata Amritanandamayee involves it in the Amrita Ashram's celebration but no one is forced to join and can join based on their choice. Amrita has it's own cultural event called Kalotsav and a sports event called Inter-Amrita Sports meet. The clubs here work under a central committee called Creatome. Which is extremely active and has six wings: Science, arts, sports, literature, mental well-being and singing and dancing. It also has a media team which is actively involved in documentation of events. The events conducted by them actively involve all students and serve as the perfect break amidst the laborious assignments and studious schedule of the college. The teachers are also very understanding and cooperative with the events conducted and ensure there is no clash between the events and assignments or tests as such. The library is well stocked and students have access tobthe main library at the main University as well. There are books covering all aspects of biology, computer science, programming languages and data science available. Every classroom has a projector and screen and e-resources are the way of teaching here. At the same time, faculty also encourage students to study from real books and are thorough in experimental teaching as well. There are two computer labs available for students use and are well equipped technologically. They are also well maintained and any problems are immediately met by the department's dedicated technical support. Amrita actively supports sports and participates in Inter-Amrita Sports meet. Many students get chances to participate based on their excellence in the field. The college takes care of students transport and accomodation for the sports meet and is extremely supportive.

We are given a room with 2 beds and an attached kitchen for our first year. First year students reside in the hostel of the Ashram area to prevent any ragging or bullying by senior students. The food here is tasteless and bizarre at times. Extremely difficult to get adjusted to. However, it's a lot more affordable than most other hostel messes. There are many hotels and home kitchens around the university and the ashram. This way, we can make do with eating out once a week. The meals are monotonous and follow a 7-day course which repeats, every week! Process for hostel registration is very simple and easy. Done at the time of admission.

The eligibility criteria for all the colleges I applied was to score 60% in the graduate course in a relevant area of biology or computer science. I chose Amrita over the other colleges I applied to as I had spoken to alummni from here and heard extremely positive things about the university. Their networking, knowledge and dedication to education and research is admirable and also sparks a fire in us to do the same. A simple example would be the dean teaching about patents by giving an example of his own parenting process for a group project. The admission process for my college involves an online Entrance examination along with an interview. The scores of both of these is taken into consideration to give students two choices for their admission. Apart from Amrita. I had applied to IBAB and Manipal. I got a confirmation from Manipal but rejected it as I was no longer interested in the course they offered. I had talked to some alumni from Manipal and they suggested me to look somewhere else for my course. As for IBAB, it also involves an entrance exam and another interview. I could not clear the entrance exam and thus failed the selection.

Faculty to student ratio would be 2(faculty):15 students. Faculty student relationship is very amicable and encouraging. Students can approach any faculty to discuss any matter or problem, regardless of the time or it's relevance to the course. Dr. Geetha Kumar, who teaches Cellular Biology for Sem1 is extremely knowledgeable and pushes students to think like a researcher and analyse information rather than just blindly accepting it. Dr. Nidheesh, the head of student affairs along with being the faculty for some courses like database engineering, is also someone who pushes students to make the maximum of their course and inform on how to be more accountable for their actions and responsibilities that are soon to be taken. I have not disliked any faculties so far. Since all of them are extremely approachable and very supportive as well. There is a mid-semester exam and another end-semester exam. Both of them are quite tough and students cannot score easily without consistent preparation. The questions are not aimed at the memory power of the student but rather test their understanding of the concept and depth of learning in the subject. Atleast 10% of the students fail the midterms as that is extra hard.

The entrance test was based on knowledge of physics, chemistry, mathematics and computer science upto 12th grade and Biology upto undergraduate level. It consisted of MCQs and was a 2 hour online exam. The interview was with a panel of teachers who each asked different questions pertaining to different fields of the course. For my course, we were asked questions about biological databases, data science, programming languages, current advancements in bioinformatics etc. The admission criteria is based on the candidates performance in both the entrance test and the interview. I prepared for the entrance test with my 2nd PUC books and as for the interview, I just revisited the concepts I'd learnt regarding bioinformatics and programming languages.

The nightlife here is non existent because students are not allowed outside hostel after 9:00 PM for boys and 5:00 PM for girls. The are around the university is lively and has most of the needed essentials for students. The canteens are affordable and serve decent to tasty food. For unwinding, most students head near the beach and just spend time listening to the calm soothing waves. The university also offers a gym facility but due to the humongous interested crowd, it's difficult to get a preferred time slot in the gym. The locality is quite safe but is not encouraged to roam around in at night.