Ditam Chakraborty's Review On Jadavpur University - [JU], Kolkata

I was always fascinated by the cultural diversity, inclusiveness and the open mindedness prevalent in the Jadavpur University campus. The campus gives you freedom to pursue whatever you have a passion for, and at the end of the few years in the campus, one would be left with a sense of belonging to the JU family. Also, it's one of the few universities in West Bengal offering handsome placement packages to MSc graduates.

Course curriculum at JU is really advanced and at par with the requirements for high paying industrial jobs as well as national level competitive exams like CSIR UGC NET, IIT JAM, CEEB, GATE, DBT JRF etc. Faculties are highly qualified and always available for approach. Also, they've excellent connections in institutes abroad which is highly beneficial for getting letters of recommendation.

I did my summer internship at Dr. Reddy's Laboratories, Hyderabad, one of the leaders of the Indian pharma and biotechnology industries. Stipend was Rs 10000 per month for two months.

JU alumni is present in almost every institutions around the world. The placement in engineering is top notch, with companies like Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Cognizant, Accenture and others returning each year for recruitment and internships. Placement rates in science is lower. In our course biotechnology, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories come every year for recruitment and internships.

JU campus witnesses three cultural fests every year, organized by the faculties of Arts, Science and Engineering. These fests are full of euphoria, cultural diversity and usually end with a lot of dancing by the students in the auditorium to grooves of rock bands. Numerous sports events are organized, also a number of seminars, photography contests, excursions are organized frequently. In short, JU campus is one of the most happening campuses around the country.

The WB govt offers Swami Vivekananda Merit cum means Scholarship(SVMCM) for only freshers who are residents of WB. It's about Rs 30,000 per year for PG students and Rs 20,000 per year for UG. Also, one needs to renew the scholarship each year.

The campus is covered by 24*7 high speed Wi-Fi, the central library in JU is the second largest in Kolkata, not to mention millions of books and journal in the online library and departmental libraries are also well stocked. There's no dearth of sports infrastructures too, with sprawling grounds, basketball courts and an open air theatre. However, some of the instruments in my department require upgradations and the labs are small too.

Hostel rooms are generally shared by three inmates, however the quality of your experience depends entirely upon the hostel allocated. In the newer ones, the rooms are squanky clean, with separate study tables, chairs, beds and wardrobes for every person while in the older ones, as much as 6 people maybe sharing one room. A better alternative would be renting PG accommodations, there are plenty around the univeristy, with rents ranging from Rs 2000-8000 per month.