IIT BOMBAY: FROM THE EYES OF A STUDENT

I am in my first year right now, and basically, the core courses are the same for everyone except some branch-specific courses. We must study maths ( everything about calculus), chemistry, and physics. We also have a computer science course that provides basic programming knowledge. Personally, I don't find it important to teach someone who has specifically chosen economics, chemistry, or physics. But from the second year onwards, you start having branch-specific courses, which is good. In my opinion, the college should introduce more elective courses which will provide us with more options to select and make our interests much more stronger. The exam frequency is good, like after 2 weeks from starting of semester you start getting a quiz every week.

There are many internship opportunities in my college, many of the students start applying for internships from the second year itself and they get it too. MICROSOFT, ADOBE , GOOGLE type companies are open for internships. One of my seniors got internship in BANE and COMPANIES and from there he got a PPO and now he is working full time there. You just have to be consistent with your academics and keep waiting for that one right moment and you will definitely get the chance because the tag of the college also helps a lot in these cases.

The campus is one of the factors why the IITs are hyped this much. The placements are good with the average placements clocking somewhere around 23.5 LPA. Students become eligible for placements from the third year, where they can complete an internship, and if they get a PPO, they are good to go. Companies like JANE STREET, BANE AND COMPANY, NVIDIA, and FANG visit the campus for placements, providing offers as high as four crores per annum. The 4 cr was offered by JANE STREET for HIGH-FREQUENCY TRADING. The percentage of students graduating is close to 80% , the remaining are students going for higher studies or preping for some government exams, there is rarely an unemployed graduating student.

I joined IIT Bombay this academic year on the 25th of July; the tuition fee for a semester for non-SC-ST students is 1 lakh per semester. Hostels + mess fees cost 40 thousand per semester. There are many scholarship opportunities for people who have difficulty paying the fees, especially female students

The social life here is over the top. In the first year, there are uncountable orientations, and after that, you become a permanent member of a club. There are clubs for basically everything. in sync for dance, a symphony for music, style-up for fashion, and many others. The most significant cultural fest in Asia, the MOOD INDIGO, usually happens at the end of the year. It used to be 4 days, but this time, it is three days. The sports facilities are also great, there are indoor cricket, volleyball, basketball, khokho, kabaddi and many other games spaces.

The hostels are okay. The rooms are small; you are provided with 2 beds, 2 almiras and 2 chairs. They didn't have tables at the start, so I had to bring them myself from the ground floor(which was abandoned and broken). The toilets are good (only the renovated ones). the cleanliness is okay; they clean the halls, etc., every day, but they rarely clean the rooms. The mess food is good (at least in my hostel H1), and you are provided 4 meals a day. breakfast, lunch, evening snacks, and finally, dinner. The food is good, but it starts to get very repetitive after some time. The registration process was simple, fill the form and pay the fee.

I chose IIT Bombay mainly because of its location. It's, of course, the most metropolitan city in the country. I also was quite inclined toward economics from the start of my preparation, and IITB was offering a 4-year course, so that's why I chose it. I think IIT Bombay outruns all other IITs mainly because of its brand value and the alumni network it has, Being situated in a city like Mumbai also helps. I personally didn't apply to any college externally because I wasn't aware about the processes. I was only trusting my JEE prep to get me somewhere. The admission process was quite long, there were 2 mock seat allocation and then there were 5 rounds of seat allocation, I got my seat in first round itself, after that you have to report to the college with all the valid documents they have mentioned on their website. and then they do all the fomalities and you're good to go.

The faculty is good but not great. most students don't get anything significant in the lecture, and they self-study by themselves(me too). But some teachers are approachable and helpful. There are tutorial sessions once a week, which are held by teaching assistants(TAs). You get a practice sheet, and you have to solve it before coming to the class, and then they discuss the doubts in the session. Generally, 35-40 students are in a tutorial class, so you get more 1-to-1 interaction. The student-to-faculty ratio is somewhere around 15-16. I personally loved the organic chemistry professor Nandita Madhavan. She was actually trying to teach everyone rather than just coming to class and repeating what was written in the slides. She used to hold Menti for overall participation in the class. Usually, there is a quiz with 8-10 percent weightage, and then there are midterms with 25-30 percent weightage and then a quiz again with similar weightage and finally the endsems with highest weightage.