An Organised Chaos

This might come off as a surprise since many people would not approve of this, but in my opinion, I am GLAD that SNIST has a uniform system. Surprised? No problem, Let me tell you the reason! I don't have to go through the piles and piles of clothes every morning looking for that 'college-appropriate-yet-chic' outfit. I can just throw on my uniform and I'm good to go. It saves a lot of time during exams as well!

I took the TS-EAMCET test on 14th May 2015, it is an entrance examination required for admission to some engineering and medical colleges in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. This is a yearly examination taken by a large number of engineering and medical aspirants, I landed up in Sreenidhi Institute of Science & Technology because my rank was just enough to get me a seat in the branch that I was looking for, i.e, Computer Sciences. Statistics of 2015 for Computer Science enrollment ranged from 1988 to 17038, in terms of ranks. There was no interiew of any sorts, after checking our eligibility to confirm if we meet the norms, we had to fill out an application form online, no offline options were available. After the completion of application form filling process, we had to go for submission of the application form fee via debit card/ credit card/ Mee Seva online centre or AP online center. Again, only online. Later, us, the aspirants, had to submit the application form to the Convener or to the regional coordinator by registered post. The question paper had 160 objective type questions and the test was of 3 hours duration, no negative marking. Each correct answer had been rewarded with one mark. The questions were asked in two languages,English and Telugu. Now those that qualified had to appear for the counselling processes conducted by JNTU, HYD. both document verification and counselling are completed in this stage. After all formalities, I ended up at SNIST! I'm happy I got the branch I wanted. I've always had interest in BigData analytics and Artificial Intelligence. The CS branch at SNIST provides you with an option of choosing professional electives in the 3rd year of engineering and I, ofcourse, went for these subjects.

We have some wonderful electives at SNIST in my opinion. IBM was kind enough to introduce the students of SNIST to some industry-required skills that sell like hot cakes in the market today. Business intelligence, Virtualisation & Cloud Computing, Hadoop & BigData Analytics and Internet of things to name a few. Practical Learning is given quite some preference here, however, I believe SNIST needs to up its game when it comes to it. We've had Microprocessing & Interfacing, Database management Systems, Computer Networking & CASE Tools' Labs to mention a few.

I'll mention a few paid internships that the 2016 graduates were offered. Sno: Company No. Duration Stipend per month 01 Infosys 115 4 Months Rs.18,000/- 02 Wipro 114 4 Months Rs.18,000/- 03 Hyundai 09 3 Months Rs.12,000/- 04 COMMVAULT SYSTEMS 03 6 Months Rs.30,000/- 05 RIKTAM TECH 02 6 Months Rs.8,000/- 06 THINK TANKAR 03 6 Months Rs.15,000/- 07 OSMOSYS SOFTWARE 02 6 Months Rs.12,000/- 08 COGNITIVE SCALE 02 6 Months Rs.10,000/-

Let's talk about 2017's placement scenario; out of all the students, 1080 succesfully got through the final rounds to bag jobs. To be more specific, there were about CSE-294,IT-109, ECE-289,ECM-128,EEE-111,BT-14,MECH-145. Companies that visited SNIST in 2017: Accenture, Wipro, Cognizant, Infosys, TechMahindra, Capgemini, Nalsoft, Mediamint, Deloitte, Darwin Box, Uber India, Mahindra & Mahindra, L&T Technology, Hexagon-Intergraph, Hedgeloop, Inspire Infosol, Cybage Software, Rikhtamtech, VEDAIIT, KONY India, Atlas CopCo, Compassite Software Solutions and Varroc polymers. The average package is around 2.8LPA

Technical Fests: Roboveda Adastra Sreevision Cultural Fests: Sreevision Rigolade These fests are usually week-long. The technical fests attract quite a lot of people from in and out of the college. Roboveda remains to be the most sought after technical event at SNIST. The cultural clubs of SNIST are in no way any lesser than these clubs, The ARTS CLUB of SNIST has it's own Dance crew- Devonyes, that represents SNIST nationally, they have their own photography club, SPD, quite a good platform for the budding photographers at SNIST.

One thing people absolutely dislike about SNIST is their insane fee-structure. However, there are ways a student can get a fee-reimbursement. There are certain terms and conditions that are to be satisfied in order to be eligible for a reimbursement. Students with a fee-reimbursement pay a sum of 19,500 per year. (This apparently might vary depending on your caste) I do not have a fee-reimbursement option because I obviously do not fall under so-and-so categories. Yearly, I pay 99,500 as tuition fee to SNIST. We paid 10,000 for uniforms at the beginning of first year. This includes 6 'Kurtis' and 6 pairs of trousers, for girls. And 6 Shirts and 6 Trousers for boys. There's additional miscellaneous fee that may include additional subjects (IBM Electives, for example) or LAB fee and so on.

SNIST has a reimbursement system as I already mentioned. If you are eligible to have "full" reimbursement, you do not have to pay any tuition fee. Else if you are eligible for a "half" reimbursement, the governement of Telangana pays 35,000/- for you and you will have to bear the remaining amount.

There are quite a few clubs at SNIST. I, myself, am a part of The official dance crew of SNIST- DEVONYES. We represent SNIST at national level dance championships like Terpsichore at BITSPearl, BITS-HYD, NIT Warangal's national level fests, etc. I was fortunate to be a part of the organising team of TEDxSNIST 2017. This happened to be my first ever 'organising' experience and I can say I learnt quite a lot! We get to participate in a lot more activities like Poster-presentations, Paper Presentations, Etc. The sports events are fun to watch, the basketball team of SNIST has always been great! The footballl team and also the VolleyBall team! There's a lot you can do at SNIST provided your attendance allows you to!

Some of my friends stay at the infamous 'Nidhi Hostel'. Guess what? Pay 90,000 a year and get no proper food, no Wi-Fi, no freedom. Sounds inviting, right? I know, I wanted to pack my bags and settle at the hostel. 4 people share a room. Well, you atleast can hope to make some friends, I guess? Well, atleast the rooms are spacious, they said.

As far as Alumni interaction is concerned, We've had an official meet with one of our Ex-Snistians who is now into civil services. Our respected Director had invited him over to the college to have a talk with the young minds to inspire them! A cultural fest of SNIST, Rigolade had seen an Alumni hosting the event, and he was fun! Ex-Devonyes members also frequently catch up with the current members of the crew and it always a good interaction to have.

Exams are quite frequent here at Sreenidhi. There are a minimum of 6 lab exams every semester (Assuming you have only 2 labs- considering both internals and externals). Even the midterms can be a big pain here. Why? That's because we're expected to write content worth 64 marks which they will later on conviniently scale down to 16. (Like why??) Like, Bro what even is a 'chill culture'?

Associate Professors have a minimum qualification of M.Tech. On an average, let's say they have around 13+ years of experience. Some Professors have completed their PhDs and a few are in the process. Teachers are quite interactive. Some of them definitely take that extra step trying to ensure their students take something valuable back home. But it's never the entire staff that's always enthusiastic! Rules are pretty much strict and straightforward. Failing to follow which, students can face quite big issues.