BITS Pilani, it's magic!

The college management believes in liberalism but with certain boundaries. They expect the students to grow without any stress and thus give the liberty of non-compulsory attendance. But they also give brutal punishments like semester back and a year back when found guilty for things banned on the institute. Hence, I believe, the college provides its student with a free environment to learn and gain a quality education.

BITSAT was the examination I gave in order to get admission in BITS Pilani. My score was 330. With this score, I had options for 4 years (single degree) and 5 years (dual degree) courses. In single degree, I had choices among Chemical, Civil, and Manufacturing Engineering in Pilani campus of BITS. In dual degree courses (ie: MSc + BE) I had all the options open. I chose Chemical Engg. as my stream because I have a particular interest in thermodynamics.

The course structure is pretty well designed and the curriculum is similar to the one followed by Massachuttes Institute of Technology. Apart from some compulsory subjects, students are provided free choice to choose their disciplinary and humanity electives among a large pool of options. Also, a facility of choosing your desired faculty is given by the administration. For the first years, the seniors organize meets before registration suggesting the best faculty for the given courses. Research facilities are excellent and this is the major reason for BITS being in the elite colleges in the nation.

Yes. BITS Pilani provides internships. There is an option given whether to take thesis or to take the internship. If the student takes the internship as his/her option, there are two internships namely: practice school 1 and practice school 2 PS1: This occurs at the end of a 4th semester and is for nearly 2 months. Stipend amount depends on companies. PS2: This occurs in 7th or 8th sem, if you are a single degree student and in 9th or 10th sem if you are a dual degree student. Here, the amount of stipend is comparatively greater than PS1. The companies providing internship are from various fields. From core to non-core, many national and international elite companies offer internships.

The placements are pretty good here. Many are in the non-core sector while a few are in core engineering. On an average, about 93% of the students appearing for placements get placed. The institute's average package is estimated to be around 10.3 LPA. The scene of internships is quite fascinating here, as, in paid internships, a pretty good number of students get PPOs (pre-placement offers) from the company they're doing the internship in.

The campus has three major festivals: BOSM: BITS Open Sports Meet. This is a sports festival. Colleges from India and foreign countries participate in this. OASIS: This is the cultural festival of BITS Pilani, Pilani campus. This claims to be Asia's second-largest cultural festival in terms of budget and participation. Colleges from various nations participate in this and are really charismatic. APOGEE: This is the tech-fest of BITS PILANI Pilani campus. This fest is majorly constituted by the talks given by the technical experts from around the globe.

The fee structure is slightly above the average line but still, is feasible and accounts for the campus facilities. The total fee, including mess, hostel, tuition and electricity expenses lie around 1,70,000 per semester. Other expenses are dependent on the individual but, things are provided in reasonable prices (less than MRP) in the BITS Co-op society store.

There are multiple scholarships given by the institute. merit scholarship: this is given to the students above 9 cgpa and its amount depends on the exact cgpa. merit cum needs scholarship: This is given to the students with family income less than 8 lac per annum. Only the students above 6 CGPA can avail this. Also, the amount of scholarship depends on the student's CGPA. The loan facility is easily available in the UCO Bank in campus branch and in the various other banks in pilani including SBI and BOI.

When it comes to the campus life, BITS PILANI Pilani campus, in my opinion, is one of the best in the country. The people here are very tolerant and helpful irrespective of your economic status, gender etc. There's absolute freedom of dressing and fashion sense and there's barely anybody who judges based on this. There are various clubs, departments and cultural associations in the college. CLUBS: These are a group of people who have a common interest. To get into these, one has to interact with the seniors and may have to give a recruitment test. DEPARTMENTS: These are the ones who are formally responsible for management of various sections of a fest. Regional Associations: They are the groups of people from same states. People from your city and your state give a feeling like a home away from your home! NOTE: The fests here are completely managed by student bodies.

There are 16 hostels in total and 9 messes. The condition of hostels is excellent, as a majority are recently renewed under project parivartan 2020. The sanitation facilities are very good and there are no problems arising due to garbage and waste products. In the first year, a hostel room is shared by 2 people. From second year onwards, rooms are allocated per student. BITS lies amongst the cleanest engineering colleges of the nation! The mess food appears to be better than other elite colleges and is at par with the daily nutrition requirement. The vegetarian section is kept different from a non-veg section and the utensils are also different for these two. The mess serves 3 meals a day: breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

The college possesses a very strong alumni network and there are various facebook pages and Whatsapp groups linking the alumni with the students. Alumni are readily available for guidance in fields varying geo jobs in the core and non-core sector to entrepreneurship and competitive exams like UPSC and GATE. The alumni also somewhat fund the institute and play a crucial role in building relations with giant international firms.

The examinations are quite evenly distributed throughout the semester. The evaluative components are major of 4 types: TUTORIAL TESTS: These are most surprising in nature. The total number of tests vary from subject to subject but, are given in the subject's handout. These comprise of around 30% of course total. QUIZZES: These are generally announced and are less in number than tutorial tests but are more in weightage (per exam) than tests. They carry around 15% of the course total. ASSIGNMENTS: These are equivalent to quizzes in all aspects, except that they are open book and are relatively difficult. MAIN EXAMS (Midsems and Comprehensive exam): They togetherly carry around 50% to 60% of the course total. They are of both open book and closed book in nature.

ADMISSION PROCESS: Once you are done with BITSAT, you are asked to fill up a form of your preferences of branches among the three campuses (Pilani, Goa and Hyderabad). Now, after filling the preferences, the first iteration results are released. This displays which discipline you may get in the given campus. After the first iteration round, candidate is supposed to pay the admission fee along with first semister fee. After this, SECOND ITERATION is released. Here, you may get an upgradation in your branch according to your filled preferences. The upgradation is because of some candidates failing to pay the fee before the final deadline. Then, the date is given when the candidate is supposed to report to the campus and do rest of the admission formalities (which are nominal). THIRD ITERATION is released in which there are low chances of your upgradation of seat because of some students who failed to report to the campus before the given final deadline. TIMELINE: Last date of submitting application form: around 18th june First iteration: Around 22nd June Second iteration: Around 15th July Third iteration: Around 25th July Reporting to campus: Around 30th July

The quality of faculties in terms of educational qualification and teaching abilities is really very good. Apart from a minor portion (nearly 5%) faculties are genuinely interested in teaching the particular course and are readily available to help the students. Professors give their email ids and chamber consultation hours in the course handout and lecture slides so that students can freely contact them anytime they fall in need.