VIT - Reality Check

I love this place. I am what I am because of the platform this college provided me. It shaped me into what I am today with its amazing environment and top class education. I met a lot of people who literally were great inputs for my career.

Course Curriculum is very beautifully designed in VIT with a special focus on project-based learning. VIT follows a credit-based system and normally you have to earn around 180 credits to get your degree. A particular subject normally can have credits between 1-5. The exam structure is quite hectic and engaging. You have two Continuous Assessment Tests (CATs) and one Final Assessment Test (FAT). Each CAT accounts for 15% weightage and the FAT has a 40% weightage, so, that makes a total of 70%. The rest 30% is divided into the form of 3 digital assignments(DA) with 10% weightage each to be submitted within specific deadlines, these DAs can be quizzes or some assignments, etc. If the course has a project or 'J' component as we call it in VIT, you have three project reviews. Review1 - 20 marks, Review2 - 30 marks, Review3 - 50 marks. Your grades are calculated relative to how all other students performed in your class. This is a very special feature you have here as it ensures a fair and comprehensive judgment.

Placements are really good, especially for the CSE and IT branches. In a given academic year, more than 600 companies (including almost all major MNCs) come for offering jobs/internships. Yes, college does provides internships for pre-final and final year students and the stipend depends on the company varying from 10k to 100k.

There are two major events annual events in VIT - 1. Riviera - Riviera is the Annual International Sports and Cultural Carnival of the Vellore Institute of Technology. It is an international 4-day event that consists of sports competitions, social and cultural events along with concerts. The 2016 edition of Riviera witnessed a footfall of more than 30,000 students from over 650 colleges from across the country. It is organized primarily by the students of the college. It has a wide variety of competitions and events, which range from dramatic, literary, musical, dance, debate events all the way to informal events. It is usually held in the month of February every year. 2. Gravitas - VIT has always been at the forefront in technological developments, has contributed to societal transformation, and achieved several accolades across the globe. VIT strongly believes that a societal transformation is possible only when the technologies developed by young innovators reach the common woman and man. This is the central thrust of our annual techno-management knowledge carnival “graVITas’.

The fee structure in the merit or category 1 is comparable to that of NITs and IITs. You have the option to go for AC rooms and special messes that adds up to the cost. The facilities you get at VIT whether it is clean and furnished hostels, classrooms and labs are world-class. The campus is highly secure with no nuisance. You will never find dirty surroundings n VIT, so, yeah, if they cost you they provide you as well. While if you are in other categories you obviously have to pay more and that's expensive and it is completely fair as you had a bad rank so it justifies.

Every year, VIT does bring some scholarship programs based on your VITEEE performance. It also offers some scholarships to the locals and those in need. You can also avail of loans easily from the campus branch of Indian bank.

There is a plethora of technical and non technical extracurricular activities, labs, sports, etc. going on in VIT. VIT has more than 100 clubs and chapters which regularly conduct these kind of activities. There is something for everyone here at VIT. You will love this aspect, especially when you can meet students from all states of India and abroad through all these activities. A lot of hackathons are regularly conducted.

Hostel infrastructure is one of the best you can get in India and is comparable to foreign schools as well. You get all time cleaning facility with proper and clean mess. There are like 40 different mess to choose from. You can opt for AC or non-AC rooms, very few colleges in India provide AC rooms. If you have a problem at any point, the authorities always come forward to help you out at the earliest, there is no delaying and lagging of solving issues. Hostels are over watched by security guards 24 hours and unlike other Indian engineering colleges, drugs do not come into scene in VIT. VIT keeps a very tight security check for anything like that. So, to summarize, I will say, don't worry, hostel facilities are the best.

VIT has a strong alumni network and it remains in constant contact with them. VIT also has alumni chapters in the US etc. The alumni and senior students come and interact with the students quite oftenly.

Every year the Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) conducts its own entrance exam called VITEEE for admissions into the various branches on its four different campus - Vellore, Chennai, Bhopal, and Amravati. The details to which can also be found on their official website www.vit.ac.in. The VITEEE exam usually happens in the month of April (around 10-21 April), there are multiple exams being held based on the exam cities and even has multiple slots in a single day so the scenario can be like you can opt for one of the offered exam dates and slot on that as per your convenience. The exam is completely online (computer-based test or CBT). The results are declared by the last week of April. After the declaration of results, counseling invitations are rolled out. VIT offers admission to its programs in various categories. The better the rank the better the category. For example, I got a VITEEE rank of around 5k and I got CSE in the merit category. A student who could not do well somehow still has a chance to go for his/her branch option in other categories, for example, if someone has 22k rank and CSE in merit category finishes by 6k rank, then he can have a chance to get into CSE in 2nd or 3rd category. The category defines your fees for the program with merit or category 1 being the least and it successively increases till category 5.

Most of the faculties you meet here will be either PhD or enrolled in a PhD course but like every other college, we have good teachers and bad teachers. VIT is huge and boasts of its 1500 around faculties across all schools. You can choose your own faculty based on the FFCS system offered in VIT. So, you can be with YOUR type of faculty. Most of the faculties are based out of South India. They teach well and some teachers really do teach well. Everyone at VIT promotes research and motivates students to engage in research projects as well. There is a little communication gap among students and faculties because of the fact that most of the students are from north and faculties from south which makes it quite obvious. I must say, few of the faculties only have a theoretical hold of subject and it is the case of most of the colleges in India, they can teach only what is in their slides with no practical knowledge at all.