IIT Roorkee - The complete story

I was unsure of whether I should take up Physics research or electronics engineering, so I choose my course which was the middle ground between the two The current course structure is good, but for me, not the most relevant to secure a job, as engineering physics is primarily a research oriented branch. However, it is easy to acquire skills to land intern or a job by self-learning or through tech clubs. If the curriculum allowed for a bit more freedom on coursework selection, then it would allow students to pursue their interests. The exams are held twice in a semester which lasts 4 months. The end terms are more diffucult than the mid sems, and require more preparation. If you study a week for midsem, and 2 weeks for end sem, you can easily score well.

It is more difficult to get an intern as compared to a job, a CGPA criteria is more strict for an internship. However, the internship offers are very highly paid ones, with quant interns getting upto 5 lakhs per month. Of course, these are exceptional offers. The average offer is around Rs.50000 monthly, with mostly companies coming for SDE roles. There are some companies like Google and Samsung, which directly convert these internship offers to PPO (Pre placement offer), and do not further come for placements. Around 30 to 40% students get internships, but this figure is much higher for the circuital branches, being close to 80%.

Being an IIT, the campus placements are pretty good. Over 90% of the batch gets placed, with a median of 20LPA. All major tech, financial and management companies come for placements. Highest package generally goes up to 2 crores each year, though this is an international offer. The highest domestic package is around 80LPA. These offers are generally for the quant offered by HFTs (High frequency trading), which refers to quantitative analysis in stock trading. The placement season is in first sem of 4th year, and if you have a good resume with 8+ CGPA, you are all set to go. I plan on sitting for AI-ML placements.

Basic course fee is 2 Lakhs, which includes all the registration and tuition fees. The hostel and mess fees are charged seperately, which comes out to Rs.50000 per semester. This is the fees for General and OBC categories. For OBC-NCL (familial income of less than 8 Lakhs per annum), the fees is one-third, and for SC/ST, their course fees is pardoned, but they have to pay the hostel and mess charges. On need basis, several scholarships are available, for students with income less than 3 Lakhs per annum.

The campus life is excellent. The campus is vast and green, with a lot of places to roam around. Unlike IIT Delhi, or other new IITs, it does not feel crowded at all, with a lot of open areas. People take part in social events, held round the year, and become especially active in Thomso, the cultural festival and Cognizance, the tech festival, held in October and March respectively. We dont lack anything, a you can find all you will need inside the campus itself, including restaurants, daily needs stores, laundary rooms, gyms, etc. You can find all types of academic books in the central library, which is air conditioned, and also borrow books through the book lending scheme for free, for an entire sem.

The rooms wil dissappoint you, as compared to private colleges, they look really old and worn down. But we quickly get used to it, so it never becomes an issue. The food is good tastewise, and most people find it better than what they expect from hostel food.

I had 4 main options in hand after JEE - BSc Physics in IISC Bangalore (I had cleared KVPY), Electrical engineering in IIT Indore, EPH in IIT Roorkee, and Computer Science in Nit Trichy. I did not choose IISC, as I wasnt sure whether I wanted my career to be in research. My coaching faculties advised me not to take an NIT when I was getting a top 7 IIT. It was a tough choice choosing between EE in IITI, and EPH in IITR. However, at the end, I choose Roorkee because of its legacy, better facilities, and a calmer environment. Admissions to the colleges happen through Jee mains and Jee Advanced.

The faculty student ratio is around 1 to 50, and most professors readily help students who ask for help. Proff. Anjani Tiwari is one of the faculties who keeps grading leanient, so most students find him likeable. A couple of proffs do exists who lack the necessary teaching skills, and hence their classes are mostly empty. The exams are much easier than JEE, and it is easy to pass them if you study for a single night. However to score good grades, you need to study for a couple of weeks in advance. @ sets of examinations are held - mid sem and end sem. Around 5% of students fail, but most of them pass in the re-examination. The coursework has been updated last year, so it is pretty relevant to market requirements.

The campus seems to be more active after midnight as compared to before that. People roam around all night with their friends inside the campus, as it is pretty safe. Girls will find no issues regarding safety or comfort as long as they remain inside the campus. Also, we have night cantains which run from 2AM to 2PM, so you can get food at all times. In jawahar hostel, where I am currently residing, even the gym is open 24x7.