Loyola Collage - An iconic educational institution

No bad remarks. Only good. This is probably the best college out there. It has been around for over 100 years. Education, discipline and competence are above par.

Loyola college has, for decades, been known to offer quality education. The courses on offer were plenty. I chose mathematics. Regardless of a students course, there is constant interaction with other departments for earning credits to graduate. Educational, vocational, library and sports facilitoes were a plenty. Apart from my major, which was mathematics, I also studied physics, chemistry, scientific french and played cricket.

Course curriculum As a mathematics under grad, I had to earn 109 credits over three years. That is six semesters. Apart from my major in maths, I studied allied subjects like physics and chemistry. English language and Hindi for 4 and 2 semesters respectively. Also involved in sports (cricket). I also studied the scriptures for a semester and scientific french. A great curriculum.

At the time of my course there were interns at the computer lab and the library and certain science departments. Salary would have been 3-5 thousand in those days. I suspect it would be much higher now.

There are campus placements for most departments. I was interviewed by GE and Juno online. A lot of my colleagues were placed at GE and Juno and other reputed companies like Ranbaxy. Certain companies like pharmaceutical companies will only interview candidates from certain departments like chemistry. Or Juno online would interview candidates from math, computers and physics. But most departments would have one or more companies interviewing and placing students.

There are sports festivals where each department competes in various sports like cricket, hockey, basketball, football etc. There are cultural festivals especially music festivals where students from other colleges would visit our college and participate and compete. It was great fun.

Very feasible. For my three years from 1997 to 2000 I only paid about ? 30000 for my course in mathematics. The most expensive course would have been computer science but even that was quite affordable. I suspect the fees might be higher now, but certainly not expensive.

I had not availed of any loan. As stated earlier, the course fee was very nominal. And we only had to pay once every six months. So it was not difficult. However many banks offer educational loans at low interest rates.

Campus life was phenomenal. During my batch very few courses had coeducation. Hence the gender ration was quite low. Say 1:10. Extracurricular activities were plenty. Sports, languages, cultural programmes etc. While robotics was not intrinsic to the college curriculum, any interested student was free to participate in events outside the college. The physics, computer science and chemistry departments etc had high quality labs.

I was a day scholar. But most of my colleagues were boarders. The hostel facilities were excellent. Each student had the individual room about 8ft by 6ft with a bed and study table. There were communal toilets. Hygiene and general ambiance were great. Mess food was nutritious and there was variety. But students also had the option to eat from the college canteen too.

There is an alumni department which sends out newsletters to college alumnus from time to time. College alumnus are also active on social networks. But anyone is free to walk into the college and request information.

There are six semesters. Each semester has a semester exam at the end of the semester. While the course curriculum was designed by the college, the exams were conducted and corrected by Madras University professors. Being a math graduate I would usually have 5 to 6 exams every semester. During the first four semesters I would have 2 math papers and during the last two semesters I had four math papers because during the final year there were no allied subjects.

I had to submit the application a couple of months in advance Since I had earned 81% in my class 12 board exams, I was in the merit list. I was interviewed by the principal and asked to choose between computer science and mathematics. I chose mathematics. There was another interview with the Dean. Post which we were told the joining date and were asked to assemble at Bertram hall on the said date.

The faculty included a Dean, ahead of the department and several professors teaching various advanced subjects like modular algebra, dynamics, statistics, mathematical computing etc. There were also guest lecturers from other departments like physics and chemistry etc. A faculty was of the highest standard. They were very qualified and very intellectual.