Toughening, Eye-opener experience

The management across all the colleges are only interested in increasing their sources of income. In addition to the tuition fees & hostel fees; the college may levy additional fees from time to time on pretext of cultural events, industrial tours etc...

The reasons for opting to this college are as follows: (1) Distance of the college from city is less than 30 kms. (2) Multiple transport options from city to college like APSRTC bus, Shared autos, nearest railway station at Ghatkesar. (3) A decent option to study electrical engineering with an alright faculty & above average lab facilities. (4) The HODs of the above mentioned department had a very good pedigree. (5) College infrastructure if not greater than competing colleges at least on par with them. The building quality, area of the college (spread in acres), quality & quantity of labs per specialization & last bust not the least... sports facilities.

My assessment of the course curriculum is as follows: (1) Generally speaking about the no. of subjects/ structure based on semester structure & the subjects are evenly spread across the semesters. The specialized subjects start from 2 semester & choice of electives starts off from 7 semester. (2) JNTU's curriculum is a little bit out of sync if you compare with other universities & more emphasis on the theory than practicals.

Internship opportunities provide by the college are few & far between & accessible only to those who may have a very good grasp of subject or ones with good presentation skills. The stipends associated with the same will be in tune of Rs 5000 - Rs 10000. My two cents on internships is that it's better to look out on our own through sources/ contacts for a decent internship. For a long turn learning perspective, it's better to do an internship with a mid-size core electrical company.

With regards to a majority of such mid-level colleges affiliated to JNTU & keeping in mind the current hiring scenario in IT companies: (1) Majority of the placement opportunities for the average crowd are with the BPOs as technical support staff. (2) Core sector electrical/ power/ heavy industries are seen rarely & they would need people with > 70% in a majority of the cases. Gone are the days of bulk hiring done by big 5 Indian software companies like TCS, Infosys, HCL etc...

The celebrations in this college can be broadly divided into (1) Festivals/ National holidays (On Independence day & Republic day). (2) College annual day (earlier used to done in hired auditoriums at prominent locations of Hyderabad; Now is done in college premises auditoriums). (3) A all -India level technical symposium that is held once a year (participants from colleges in neighboring states of AP, Maharashtra primarily). Events held include paper presentations & live projects.

Considering the Four year course with a vast no. of subjects, decent lab facilities & experienced HODs managing the department. The fee structure can be commented upon as neither expensive nor feasible. it's something in between. Majority of the fee payments need to be done upfront & their are not too many deferred payment options.

Facility of loan/ scholarship would be provided to following categories: (1) students from economically weaker tensions of the society. (2) Religious minorities (Especially Christian minority). (3) For SCs/ STs

The college is continuously evolving with the nature & type of activities they conduct every year. However, the following are generally the norm: (1) Sports activity once a year (Limited to Cricket, Football, Indoor games). (2) Freshers party provided by the Seniors to juniors through ice-breaking chance (1-year students). (3) Annual day once a year (includes cultural events like dance, skits & prize distribution). They are generally done in a open & transparent manner.

Hostel facilities are manageable. Honestly speaking, no college going student feels their hostel facilities are adequate. The insides of the hostel rooms may be a little cramped but during exams time this may be a blessing in disguise as this makes the atmosphere like studies. Mess food at times is the only food option for students irrespective of the taste !

The alumni network of a typical engineering college in South India would be predominantly into the following buckets: (1) > 50 % of the passing out graduates would opt for higher education in USA, Australia, UK through student visa route. (2) 2 biggest chunk of students would opt for jobs in IT companies as newbie software/hardware engineers etc... (3) 3 Biggest chunk of students with not so good grades would take up unrelated jobs in unrelated sectors primarily in sales. (4) Balance would go for a non-technical higher education route like thorugh CAT, MAT, XAT or Indian Master s degree through GATE, PSU exams.

The exam structure is designed in such a way that the gap between multiple subjects is not much, at the max 1 day gap & God forbid, if you have a backlog or two you would be let without a rest day between exams. For folks with more than 1 backlog & of a semester prior to the latest one, i have seen cases where folks have written back to back exams on the same day. On the flip side, this exam structure gives up to 4 chances to pass in any subject which is a big positive. The weight age of internal exams & labs are maximum up 30 % of the overall marks.

There are 3 ways to get admission in to this college: (1) Through the Telangana EAMCET exam (formerly AP EAMCET exam), depending on your rank & category, you may be eligible for Payment seat or merit seat. (2) For the students who haven't got a very good rank (<20,000) in TS EAMCET exam, but want to study in this college, then depending on the stream u want & the money you can fork out, Management quota is open to Indian nationals only (Management quota) (3) Same category of students as above but for NRIs (NRI Quota)

My assessment of the faculty would be as follows: (1) Since majority if the faculty are fresh out of college or maximum pass-outs of the last 4 years, they tend to have a decent grasp on the subject & can be very helpful with anticipating the exam patterns. (2) With regards to their practical knowledge, they would be found wanting on many aspects & they are barely OK with practical subjects. (3) With reference to their motivation levels, they are kinda alright as their salaries are close to UGC pay scale but some of the faculties have chosen this career not out of choice but out of compulsion.