Likes
- Getting to meet students and professors from various diverse places of the country and getting more social exposure. Making some really good friends and bonds with people over the 4 year duration. So many people of similar interests to interact with.
- The eagerness of the college to conduct CIR(Corporate Industry Relations)classes as mandatory from 3rd semester onwards. Classes split into 3 as Verbal, Aptitude and Software Skills. We even had mock interviews in 3rd year for placement preparation.
Dislikes
- The overall quality of curriculum. Traditional, orthodox methods of teaching using theory oriented ppts and professors repeating points off the these. Less emphasis on real world applications and practical work with even written lab exams at times
- The excessively conservative and religious mindset of the institution. They believe it's a crime for boys and girls to interact freely in public spaces. This also applies to dress codes for girls,they aren't supposed to wear anything "too revealing"
Course Curriculum Overview :
Specific aspects of the curriculum such as focus on programming at an abstract level, several important domains like Machine learning,Operating Systems,Design and Analysis of Algorithms..etc discussed on a practical as well as application level. These influenced my decision to choose this course. However I would say the curriculum looks ideal only in paper and is not apt at all in preparing us for real world applications. They follow outdated methods of teaching by giving too much focus on theoretical concepts and the professors even repeat them off the board without even further elaboration. Even during lab session the professors hardly provide any guidance as to how the algorithms are used,how to delve futher into these codes and how functions work. They expect us to figure out everything on our own. These are major areas for improvement. Coming to the frequency and timing of exams as I discussed earlier,they could spread out the exams on a more even basis to avoid stress levels.
Placement Experience :
Placements are average in my campus. Students become eligible for placements from 6th semester onwards. Several companies visited like Cisco, Oracle, Flipkart, Accenture, SAP labs, Arista Networks to name a few prominent names and several smaller ones too. Highest packages offered were by SAP labs and Arista Networks so far around 24 LPA. Average package is much lesser around 6-7 LPA I would say. Currently the placements are still ongoing so I can't accurately point out percentage of students getting placed. My plans after the degree was actually to gain 1 year of work experience and then go abroad, preferably to US for my masters. Then planning to settle over there. Witnessing the extremely stressful corporate life and environment over here during one of my internships, further enhanced this decision of mine.
Fees and Financial Aid :
The year wise fees I paid was 4,00,000 including an additional 1,12,000 for hostel that included the caution fee. Mine was a Management category admission as I had applied through my SAT score. I got a very decent score of 1410 but unfortunately it's not given as much importance in Indian universities as in foreign universities. Few of my batchmates who entered through scholarship had to pay 3,00,000 per year instead.
Campus Life :
Several annual and tech tests are hosted such as Amrita Kalanjali, Amritotsavam, Dastaan..etc. Then regular celebrations along with ethnic wear dress codes are held for cultural festivals like Onam and Deepawali. The library is great with access to a wide range of books of several different categories as well as domains including both technical as well as non technical books. There are several previously published journals and papers also available. Within the classrooms we have a white board for presenting and WiFi which is pretty much unstable in terms of speed. No other extravagant features. Sports features are majorly inside hostels- basketball, football, cricket, tennis, table tennis..etc. Some of these have coaches too and a college team. There are student run clubs both technical,non technical. Non technical like Narthana Club, Raga Club...etc and technical like CodeChef and BIOS(the best) club. They actively involve students in new projects or teaching them advanced concepts.
Hostel Facilities :
Hostel facilities(excluding food) to be frank are terrible. The room has 2 bunker beds to be shared by 4 people. Just 2 tables to be shared by 2 people each and 4 chairs. A balcony attached. Extremely small room size after the luggage and furniture. Washrooms are also pretty bad with hardly any hot water facilities and western type toilets. And a huge rush too during mornings. Meal quality was surprisingly decent, especially the lunch where we got proper meals including Rice,Sambhar,Papd and different vegetables, curries. Breakfast was also kind of fine only Idli, Dosa, Bread Butter Jam..etc . But I just say dinner was really bad with just the menu changing for curries and same gravy repeating every day of the week. Hostel registration process was straightforward,just paying fee. Too much restrictions to go out,only 2 hours per day outing and 4 outings per month with gate pass and lot of strict procedures. Hence moved out to a PG in nearby Owners Court West Layout. Much much better.
Admission :
I applied to a few colleges like VIT, Manipal, Shiv Nadar..etc. I got admission to the 2nd as well. I choose this college due to several factors like senior recommendation, faculty, location, lack of bad influence and habits ..etc. Actually my dad was determined not to make me really stressed by forcing me into entrance and IIT coaching so I did preparing only for SAT exam instead. And most of the colleges consider entrance scores as major criteria for admission. I was planning to go for higher studies abroad but unfortunately the COVID pandemic struck at the time and had to cancel. So yeah I prepared majorly for SAT.
Faculty :
Faculty to student relationship obviously various from one faculty to another. Some were purely interested in finishing off the portions and conducting assessments to take off their load whereas some others were determined to create a holistic environment for learning where everyone felt included and understood the concepts clearly. Personally I liked Kumaran Sir,Sreevidya Mam, Rajesh Sir and Vishwas sir. For several factors like bonding well with students on an individual basis, overall leniency and liberal mindset, illustrating real world examples while teaching and application oriented efforts. There might have been a few others I missed out on too. As of the exams there are mid term exams and end term exams every semester, typically around 6-7 subjects. Usually they are of moderate difficulty level but some out of course CSE subjects like EEE,Engineering Physics and Digital electronics had really tough papers and many people suffered and failed . Had to clear these backlogs later.
Other Applied Colleges
Amrita School of Engineering - [ASE] | Bachelor of Technology [B.Tech] (Computer Science and Engineering)
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