Opportunities for Seekers

There has been a tremendous amount of growth in past few years due to the efforts by management, placement committee, the student bodies and students. Apart from infrastructure it can compete with most other NITs and prove its mettle. Even the infrastructure has lately improved and is being continuously worked upon by the management.

I appeared for JEE Mains 2013 and after normalization I into got NIT Raipur through state quota. I opted for this college over the few other NITs where I was getting even uncommon branches because it was closer to my home and was on a growth trajectory. I chose Metallurgical Engineering because it's one of the two oldest and most reputed branches in the college, the other being Mining.

Curriculum in the first year includes subjects from all branches and the depth is also quite enough to understand out interests. After the first year there is an option for branch sliding. In second year the course is much deeper and deals in more industry related techniques like Ironmaking, Steelmaking, Polymer Manufacturing etc. rather than theoretical subjects. In the last two years, the course includes a few subjects like Corrosion, Nanotech, Biomaterials etc. with research prospects and the college provides ample opportunities in the same in terms of both equipment and guidance.

The students in third year get internship opportunity with firms like BARC, TATA Steel, NML, UHG, Futures First, Ace Calderys etc. The stipeds ranges from INR 10,000 to INR 35,000 per month. Apart from this, the students can apply for internships in PSUs where the recommendation from faculty and being from an NIT help a lot.

Placements for CSE, IT and Electronics are quite remarkable with average package being over INR 7.5lpa and quite a good number of firms including UHG, OFSS and Infoegde offering INR 9lpa and above. For Mechanical and Electrical also there are quite a few companies offering INR 6lpa and above. These include TATA Motors, Maruti Suzuki, RIL, Hero etc. A few PSUs offer INR 10lpa+, but they do not consistently visit the campus each year. For other branches the core companies are less and include Vedanta, Hindalco, HeidelbergCement etc. There are a lot of analytics companies including AQ, MuSigma, ZS visiting the campus and a few software companies like Infosys and TCS that recruit from all branches. Overall placement in CSE, IT and Electronics is over 75%. In other branches it's around 60%.

Eclectika, techno cultural fest claims to be the largest in central India and it even looks so. It's a three day fest with numerous events and a huge participation from all the colleges of central India, including IIM, AIIMS, HNLU of Raipur, IITs of Indore and Bhubaneswar etc. The celebrities include Mohit Chauhan, Sachin Jigar, Lagori, Underground Authority etc. Aavartan, the tech fest includes a national science exhibition Vigyaan and numerous other attractions like AirShow, Drone Workshop and RoboWars. Numerous other events like Shruti, Music Night, Entrepreneurship-summit etc. are also conducted.

Fees structure follows the central government's directives for NITs. The hostel fees is also optimum and being a central government college here are no hidden payments to be made after admission. The details regarding the same are available on the institute website and also in the central government's notice to NITs. For my batch of 2013-17, the total fees including hostel was around INR 70,000 per year.

There are no loans provided by college. However, the loans by central and state governments for reserved category students can be availed.

The gender ratio is between 1:3 and 1:4. There are a lot of parties including freshers and farewell for each branch, hostel nights and committee parties for every committee. There are also a huge amount of workshops both paid and unpaid. There are many student bodies including cultural committee, technical committee, sports, music, dance and drama committees, quizzing, nature and mentorship clubs etc. There is a high diversity in students and no discrimination based on any of the factors like race, religion, ethnicity etc. exists. There has been no incident in past few years of any behavior untoward any section of students. Students from all regions of country gel in very well through working in committees together and sharing the hostels.

The hostels are available for only 30% of the students and cater to 40% of the applicants. Hostels are well maintained and spacious. The first year hostels are old but recently got renovated. The hostel second year onwards is a new swanky building with great facilities and services. Mess food is of good quality and there would be no problem of taste for students from any part of the country.

Senior students are extremely helpful and building network early in the college helps to a huge extent. Be it in studies, providing books and other amenties or in helping in exam/placement preparation, seniors are easily approachable and help going out of their way. The alumni network is also strong, with an annual alumni meet for silver jubilee and golden jubilee apart from the regular meet ups in various cities of India and abroad.

In each semester there were two class tests and one end term examination. Each class test had a weightage of 15 out of 120 and the end term being 70. 20 remaining for teacher's assessment. The spread of tests is such that there is quite a good amount of time for leisure activities. Curriculum can be called chilled out in phases but hectic near he exams. However, being regular in classes would easily reduce the burden near exams.

Central Seat Allotment Board (CSAB) conducted the counseling, where we were made to fill our preference order where I filled Metallurgical Engineering after Mechanical and Electrical. There were three rounds of counseling and each time we had to report to NIT Raipur. After the final round, admission procedure was finished and we were allotted hostels.

The faculty in first year were well versed with their subject matter and were highly helpful, however with less inclination towards research. The second year faculty were mostly contractual teachers and although knowledgeable and skilled, they lacked teaching experience. The faculty for third year and final year were highly learned and experienced, with sufficient networks in industry. They were all quite approachable and good in nature.