Dineshotham Kumar's Review On Birla Institute Of Technology And Science - [BITS], Hyderabad

The management is extremely helpful. There are no observations to be made, as they are extremely assisting and also they do care about the future of their students.

BITS Higher Degree Exam was the one that we had to take to qualify for the course of M.E. Computer Science. This entrance was common to all campuses. I had graduated in Bachelor of Technology in Computer Science Engineering [B.Tech,C.S.] from a Jawaharlal National Technological University[J.N.T.U] affiliated college from the state of Andhra Pradesh in 2009. I was interested in completing my Post Graduation as well, and had hence, opted for doing my Masters in Engineering, Computer Science from Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani. I had scored 130 in my entrance exam. During the time of application, I had opted for the institute in Hyderabad as it would be easier for me to finish my engineering from my then Home State of Andhra Pradesh. The admission process was a breeze, a standard one where we got counselled and had a formal induction the same day into our Institute.

The course curriculum was particularly rigorous with stress on practicality than rote learning. It was a semester-based curriculum and the last semester was supposed to be either an in-house research or Practice School, that would involve us to be posted to various companies across the country for work experience.The system of grading was relative which used to promote competition amongst the class.There was no attendance requirement. However, that didn't stop us from attending classes every day, as the course required lectures from our experienced faculty to understand the technical aspects of the course.All exams were Open Book, that meant we could get any textbooks to the exam hall. It meant that thorough understanding of the topic would be necessary before we attempt the exam, otherwise nothing can be made from the textbook on the exam day. We had regular practical sessions along with theory for all courses. This meant that we had to be on our toes to understand the subject and we used to work really hard to get the sessions digested. Incidentally all our Computer Science Students were interested in getting Work Experience and hence, had opted for Practice School instead of academic research. But all of us had got a paper published in relevant technical magazines such as IEEE.

Our University has a P.S. (Practice School) for 6 months i.e. the last semester. We would be asked to exercise a sheet with options for prospective places where we could carry out our internship. Depending on our C.G.P.A. till that semester, we would then be assigned to various practice schools for a 6 months stints, that would be graded for our coursework as well. Many students would be offered Pre-Placement Offers during their internships as well. There would be a placement officer who would be regularly meeting the students at all institutes where the students are interned at. This would ensure a conducive environment for the students to take their first steps in Industry.

All our batch were placed within 3 months after our graduation. We had a batch of 11 students. Being the first batch, we were allowed to sit for placements with the Goa Campus, where 2 students were offered around 10 L.P.A package at Morgan Stanley and Sabre Solutions. 1 person was placed in MicroSemi in Hyderabad for 6 L.P.A. Further 3 were placed after the first month of our graduation from the campus at 7L.P.A. 1 person was placed at Siemens for 7 L.P.A in the second month after graduation. I continued my work with the company I had interned. As the curriculum was in tune with what the industry required and as we had the help of general guidelines as to how to prepare for our interviews due to the Alumni, we could crack our interviews.

It started with the OpenDJ we had BITS Sports Day where different campuses used to send teams across we celebrated cultural but mostly as we were higher degree, we were more focussed on the coursework as we were having lesser time on the campus than outside.

The fee was definitely a tad higher, but it wasn't unmanageable. We remember paying around 1 Lakh per year, but I don't really remember how much we paid, thanks to my father who never let me feel any financial crunch. Hence, I was especially not that into understanding what were our fees except for the fact that I used to focus only on why I was there on the campus.

BITS always has scholarships for meritorious students. Plus, I had just as a backup, applied for Loan with a nationalized bank which I didn't avail as luckily our family could manage my expenses.

Campus life was chilled. The Gender ratio was balanced, but it's an educational institution so I wouldn't comment upon the same. Sports competitions, cultural competitions and all were fine. I wasn't much into all. Politics as on the campus is negligible.

Mess Food required improvement. But since we were near to the city, we could always count on our relatives. Plus, many outlets used to deliver to our campus this made it much better. All higher degree students have a room for themselves and hence, it would be much better than the undergraduate students. The internet was extremely slow. We had to sometimes learn how to tunnel through our firewall but it was ok. We had this understanding that during early mornings generally the internet would be pretty fast we used to have a central server and through StrongDC++, we used to upload and download all our data.This lead us to download all anime. I personally found all episodes of some of my favourite shows. So had great fun. I would find technical stuff as well, but we used to care more about the shows. Hostels were well maintained. The campus is too good, a big library has been added recently, which wasn't there at our time and which I had visited after graduating from my college making me all teary, but I guess most of the students wouldn't mind.

There is a network of BITS alumni organised into BITSAA. This organisation is the primary network. Plus regular job postings are done on BITS Mail Groups. Regularly meetups are held, as well as BITS day celebrated per year when all the BITSIANS across various organisations congregate and celebrate.

The labs were frequent. I don't remember about our class exams that used to measure our progress, but they were never direct, all of them were open book. We were not really bothered as to how hard or how important the subject was, we used to be chilled out because it was Hyderabad, there were hotels nearby, my relatives house was an hour journey away making me visit them frequently during my first semester, later on as courses progressed we continued to be chilled, but were a bit more serious towards our coursework.

The notification for BITS Higher Degree Exam Notification was released in April 2009, the examination was conducted in May/June 2009 and the result was declared on 1st July 2009 the Exam Application was performed online including the payment and other details of the candidate. After appearing for the BITS-HD Exam, that was performed in the Online Mode with MCQs provided, and passing out of the same, we had to check our results again from the online portal the administration was standard and straightforward. We had to appear on an scheduled date for Admission. We had to get all our education certificates from Matriculation to Engineering which would include 10th class Marks List 12th class Marks List provisional Marks List for Engineering as the Original Degree would take time mark lists of all Semesters in Engineering and other certificates specified at that point of time we were then allotted subjects for the curriculum that semester.

Our College Faculty was highly experienced. Professors from Pilani College were relocated to our Campus, bringing with them lot of experience and knowledge of the BITS-way. All our professors were extremely helpful in getting us upto speed with the subject and also made us realize the finer aspects of the subjects they were teaching us. The marking especially was particularly strict and extremely unbiased, which was even more helpful for us to understand where we stood.