Anand D. Nimkar's Review On Vidyalankar Institute Of Technology - [VIT], Mumbai

I really hate to talk bad about anything/anyone. Though there were some problems which the students faced because of the college management, and frequent changes in faculty, keeping those things aside, the 4 years which I spent in completing my bachelors will always be the best 4 years of my life. These 4 years having been the formative years for me, it had helped me meet new people, make great friends, gather knowledge and a tons of memories which always bring a smile to my face whenever I reflect on them.

I undertook MH-CET examination, which is a common entrance exam for all aspiring engineering students in the state of Maharashtra. The exam comprises of Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics sections, each of 50, 50 and 100 marks respectively, which makes the total of 200 marks in all. My score in this exam was 148/200. The reason for which I opted this institute is that at that time, the college faculty was quite reputed and hence I thought it would be a good exposure for me to be thought by people who are excellent in this field.

The course curriculum is set by University of Mumbai, and is rigorous with as much as 6 subjects/courses in each semester. A total of 8 semesters spanning for the length of 4 years. So you end up with as much as 50 courses before you graduate. The courses in the first 2 semesters are common to all the students. So you get a taste of all the fields such as Computer Science, Mechanical,etc. In the later years, you have a focus on the courses in your respective fields. So for me, telecommunication courses such as Wireless Communication, Digital Communication, Communication Networks, etc were introduced in the 3rd and 4th years of Engineering.

The college did not provide any internship. As a student, it would have been great for us to have an internship opportunity provided by the college. But this did not happen.

During the 3rd year of college, we were entitled for placement process. There were certain criteria put forth by the institute such as only students above 60% can appear for placements in certain companies. So students with lower percentages were affected. The companies that visited our campus were Infosys, HCL, Tech Mahindra and a few others. The other criteria placed by the institute was that once you have been placed in a certain company, then you were ineligible to appear for placements in the companies coming to the campus thereafter. So, Infosys visited the campus first, and students who got placed in Infosys settled for that job. HCL was to follow after that. I got placed in HCL and my placement story ended right there.

All the technical, cultural,management events are conducted in a span of one week. This week we had only a few lectures and rest of the time we were free to attend these events. There was not much backing from the college management for these events and students had to face difficulty in accumulating funds to manage these events. The crowd participation was average and the events were not that large scale overall, but the cultural fest was much awaited event as they had events such as Fashion shows, DJ night, Marathi Gondhal and other such events which the students generally loved.

There were different criteria for fees. Students belonging to Scheduled Caste/NT/OBC etc, were giving concession in their fees as rightly given by the Government of India. The average fees during my first year was 70,000/year for Open caste. Approximately 40-50% concession was given to OBC, and even more to SC/NT. From numbers perspective, a friend of mine who belonged to SC, had to pay only Rs. 8000/- in comparison to 70000 paid by open caste. Also every year there was a rise in the fee structure. By the final year, the fees for Open caste was greater than 1lakh/year. This was back in 2012. Presently it may be even more.

There were no loan facility provided by the college that I know of. Students belong to particular caste were eligible to avail the scholarship for that particular caste. Also there were scholarships provided by Tata research for Merit students. But these were not provided by our college.

The campus of the college was small yet beautifully maintained. Travelling late night from college to home was not an issue as there were bus services and cab services available right outside the college main gate. The diversity in terms of gender was properly maintained in the college and cases such as eve teasing or ragging of students was not tolerated which was really good. Every Friday there used to be an event called "Friday KI Paathshaala" where they used to conduct a new event every week which was refeshing, Also, there used to be sporting events such as Cricket, Football, Volleyball, Kabaddi conducted once every year. Cultural and Technical events were conducted in one week at particular time every year and had decent participation from students.

There was no hostel provided by the college. The campus was small, with only 1 college building and a ground surrounding it. So people who were visiting college had to rent an apartment nearby. Also there were 2 canteens. The menu there mostly consisted of snacks and few items for lunch. The sanitation in the cafeteria was quite decent but the food prices were a bit too high considering we were students surviving on pocket money.

Though I am a part of the college alumni network, there is not much activity conducted that could interest me. I would really want the college management to invite alumni's to the institute and talk to students more often. It would be really helpful if the past students could mingle with the current students and help them in shaping their future. Also, in the industry, it really helps if we have contacts and references. So it would be great for students if they start building their network, right when they are students. This would really help them later in their work life.

Each semester, there were an average of 6 subjects/ courses. So the exams were based on these courses. There were both practical and theoretical exams. The practical exams were conducted first and the theory exams followed after that. The theory exams were difficult but we were given enough time to prepare for these exams. There were sufficient time to prepare for these exams as each exam had a break of 3 to 4 days in between. The exams were approximately 3 o 4 hours long and consisted of objective, short answers and long answer question. So one had to be thoroughly prepared for these exams.

Based upon the marks you receive in MH-CET exam, you have to go through a common application process that involves you shortlisting 20 colleges and listing them in the priority you want. Then after submitting the form and reviewing you application and marks in the fields, you get a response which college you are eligible to get admission into based on the cut off criteria for the colleges.

The reason why I chose this college were because at the time of admission, this college had one of the best faculty. My experience in this college with regards to the faculty has been both sweet and sour. During the initial years, we were taught by best professors who were highly experience. When i was in my 4th semester, there were abrupt changes in the management of the institute and many senior faculty resigned. The college replaced the professors with recently graduated students who had no industry experience or teaching experience. As a result of which many students suffered. Though not all of these professors were bad, but on a personal note, the idea of change in the faculty was something which was hard to digest as the faculty back then was one of the important reason for me to choose this college.