A great college for the self-learners

I applied for all the other government colleges (GCELT, GCETTB, GCETTS) and chose this since better-ranked students joined this college over the previous years. Among the private colleges, I applied to IEM (didn't get CSE there), Heritage (got all), RCC(got all). In our year, the opening WBJEE rank for CSE was around 3000 whereas it closed around 8500 (decentralized counseling included). I attended my counseling rounds at GCELT and the process was pretty smooth.

The course curriculum is more or less the same as that of WBUT. Few of the faculty members are quite good while some are not up to the mark. Most of the permanent faculty members have completed their Ph.D. from prestigious institutions. The term exams were timely held. Passing was not at all tough. Following the class and having a look at the previous year's papers was more than enough to score well.

Students sit for placements from the 7th semester. The detailed placement data can be found at http://gcect.ac.in/placement-data/ I joined Cognizant after college and had a plan to write CAT after few years of experience.

Being a government college, the fees was less than 1/4th of what private colleges charge. The total fees which I paid in 4 years were somewhere around 60k. Frankly, there is not much need for financial assistance for most people although there are various scholarships and financial assistance available for the reserved category and the financially challenged. Also, one can avail of the TFW quota which comes under WBJEE. All the campus drives which happen are pooled ones with other colleges. I got offers from Amazon (non-technical), Infosys, and Cognizant, out of which one was facilitated by the college and the other two were from outside. The salary offered by Amazon was around 2.75 LPA although there were other very good perks and benefits. The roles offered by Cognizant and Infosys were those typically offered to freshers with a CTC of a little over 3 LPA.

Both the annual (Jagriti) and tech fest (KarmaTek) was conducted around March-April. Honestly speaking, the infrastructure is not up to the mark due to a paucity of funds. The computer labs are not in good shape. Classrooms are non-AC with projector facilities. Books and journals for our needs are more or less available. There is a small ground which is used for both football, cricket, sometimes volleyball and badminton. A TT board is present in the canteen but is not well maintained. A lawn with a fountain was made right at the entrance during the 75-year celebrations of the college. It is also used for sports and recreation activities. The official website of the college is run by the students. There are also academic and interest-based clubs run by the students.