My thoughts on IISERB

Since I am just in my first year right now, the courses I have are fairly introductory. But since we have to study PCMB, Earth Science, Programming and a Humanities course just in the first year, it's fairly hard to manage. we have 2 quizzes, a mid sem exam and an end sem exam in each semester typically at the end of each consecutive month (4 month semester). The marking scheme, syllabus, paper pattern, time, difficulty etc are all subject to change according to the professor.

> one time fee paid at the beginning of the entire course: 15,000/- > per year fee (excluding mess fee): ~110,000/- > mess fee per year (8 months): 30,000/- > mandatory health insurance: 2500/- per year

There's a huge load of clubs that keep something constantly going on in terms of social events like fests, competitions, cultural events, national events, parties, etc so you'll never feel bored (if you get involved that is). overall infrastructure and lab facilities are also highly developed, considering that a lot of research output goes out of here each year.

I was interested in Physics from the very beginning of my JEE prep but had no idea that IISERs even exist and thought that if I want to study physics at the best possible level in India, IIT was the way. So I naturally aimed for it but I guess I didn't work hard enough and in the end, I failed to make it there. I only started exploring other options after my JEE attempt when I came accross IAT 2024 registration form. I then researched about IISERs and concluded that this is also a good option for my goal and decided to study properly for then next 20 days (amount of time that was left for my IAT attempt). Finally, I got in.

The student faculty ratio is pretty bad, especially in the first few years (although there's a lot of TAs, but they can only help you so much). I won't name any faculties but I can assure that whoever there is might not always be one of the best teachers at teaching but they sure are extremely qualified individuals having earned their PhDs and multiple Post Docs from prestigious foreign universities.

a lot of facilities shut down in the night but some things don't, like vending machines, campus lights, gym, etc. But the campus is huge and beautiful enough to satisfy your craving for a midnight walk. you can get out and return to hostel anytime you want. There's a lot of restaurants open all night right outside the campus gate but, you can't go outside campus maingate after midnight. (you can always enter into the campus though ; ?) )