A thorough guide to IISER Bhopal

I am very passionate towards chemistry, and the institute's reputation and research in the field led me towards choosing this curriculum. As the final year of the course has no coursework, and it is solely for research and writing a master's thesis, which is very relevant to further academic pursuits, it is obvious to say that the curriculum prepares the students well. The frequency of exams already mentioned earlier, their difficulty can vary as per the professor and the course itself. Generally, it is moderate-easy, sometimes towards the harder side.

Generally internships are not offered as such to the BS-MS program students, but it can be secured with some effort. There are availability of internships but generally not as much advertisements done as BTech internships. To secure internships, you can email professors of various institutions or the same institute, with a proper application and CV. if deemed satisfactory, they will enroll you. Internship stipend can be discussed with the professors, there is no given standard.

After taking admission into an IISER, during the first round itself you have to pay an SAF(Seat Acceptance Fee) Amount, regardless of which IISER you have gotten alloted, to participate in further rounds of counselling. You can also freeze within the first round if you already have gotten the IISER and course you had wished for. It is 35000 for GEN/EWS/OBC and 17500 for SC/ST. Many scholarships are available, such as DST-INSPIRE, and some third-party scholarships like from reliance, etc. An amount of 15000 is given to the student with highest cpi in the first semester One time fees at admission: 15000 All amounts are semester wise Tuition fees: 36700 (waived for SC/ST) User Charges(Labs, Activities, etc.): 9700 Hostel fees: 6700

All coursework related books are available in library, among other books for casual reading alsom Magazines are also available. Classroom are taught on a digital board connected to the projector. A large blackboard is also provided in the classrooms. Sports courts are provided for various sports like kabaddi, basketball, tennis, badminton, etc. and grounds are there for football, cricket, and athletics. Equipments are also provided. Student run groups are abundant and even recieve funding. There are movie clubs, quiz clubs, debate club, comics clubs, among amothers.

Hostels provide a 2 person sharing room. It is sufficiently spacious. 2 Almirahs are also provided, beds are provided without mattresses, which can be purchased inside campus itself. Food quality is not too bad, not to great; but manageable. Registration of hostel is mandatory, and is done on the day of admission itself. Process is quite simple, and hostel is also very affordable. Hostel is within campus, around 600-700 metres away from the Lecture Hall Complex.

This was my dream college so I didn't apply for other colleges. I chose specifically IISER Bhopal over other IISERs as I felt it was the best for my probable line of future pursuit, chemistry. Also I liked the campus. Admissions are taken only from IISER Aptitude Test(IAT). Cutoffs for GEN are around 5000-6000 rank. Admission process is pretty smooth, although sometimes bit delayed.

Faculty to student ratio is around 30:1 across all departments. The faculties are generally very friendly to approach and helpful. Personally I liked Dr. Rahul Garg, Dr. Sanjit Konar, Dr. Subhajit Roychowdhury, Dr. Raghuvir Singh Tomar and many others among the best. I liked their teaching style and how easy it is to approach them. There is no faculty that I didn't like as such. There are Mid-semester exams once each semester, and end-semester exams at the ending. There are also generally 1-2 quizzes per course. Generally most students pass the exams and it is quite easy to do so with regular study. The curriculum is very relevant, and not outdated. Professors also occasionally bring in breakthroughs or current developments in that area during the lectures to engage the students more.

Library generally closes at 12AM, and extends till 2AM during exams. The campus gym closes at 10PM. Night canteen is open till 1AM, and there is also an amul outlet in students area which remains open till 10PM. A restaurant in the campus is also open till around 10PM, and CCD is open till 2AM. Hostel entry is allowed 24/7, but you have to do entry in register after 2AM. Campus exit is only allowed till 12AM, after that also you can exit but need to do a register entry. Right outside the campus gate, there are 4-5 eateries where students can have snacks and even lunch/dinner, perfect places for a late-night hangout. Campus is very safe to roam around at night, and guard keeps routinely patrolling to ensure safety of residents.