My Sastra Review

The couse curriculum is very relevant to the current job market. I chose B.Tech Information Technology as it delves into topics related to/ regarding data handling. Nowadays data is the most important and sought out thing in the world. Data would consist of people's photos, videos, document and many other things. So studying about this can help me in future to develop something which would make it more accessible. The curriculum prepares me for the real world applications very well. It all starts with the exam time table itself. There are 2 exam for continuous 3 days so that it helps us to maintain our stress / develops our stress management. Regarding academic pursuits, our college has research buildings so that we can learn about our subject even more in detail and would make us more knowledgeable in the outside world. The areas of improvements are that, for science related subjects, teachers can bring and put up a demonstration about a particular topic for in-depth understanding. This also helps the students to be more attentive and interact more. As I said before, the frequency of exam is very hectic (but not difficult) but it is needed for us to maintain our stress management and also time management so that we study for the exams way ahead of the time-table.

Campus placements in our college are pretty good. Here the employability rate 85% I think, if not its definitely more that 90%. In our college students become eligible for campus placements from the 6th semester. The placements in our college include TCS, IBM, Accenture, Capgemini, ZOHO, Hyundai Motors, Ashok Leyland, Asian Paints, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Airtel, Reliance, Samsung, Sain Gobain etc. Here at sastra, the average package is around 8L per year. The highest package is Amazon - 28L per year. Here the percentage of students getting placements is around 85%. My plans right now after getting a degree is to get into a job and side by side continue to work for my passion.

Our college has nominal fees and is affordable to people who are studying here. The annual/year-wise tuition fee I paid this year was Rs. 85000 Caution Fees (not for course) (for hostel) - Rs.2000 Registration fee - Rs 500 Admission Fee - Rs 500 Development fee - Rs 10000 Now here there are various compulsory charges here like; Breakage fee (amount to be paid for any breakage happened inside the campus/for any damaged possession which belongs to the Sastra Management) - Rs 825 Mess fees (this fees must be paid on a monthly basis) - Rs 3000 to Rs 4600 (the amount ranges according to the amount of days the hostel is active,ie) not on any holiday) Books fees - Rs 6250 (this must be paid annually) Examination fees - Rs 1800 (for end semester exam) Mark verivifaction fee & others - Rs 1000 Department Association fees - Rs 500 Unit test fee - Rs 500 Sports and games - Rs 500. I have friends who have joined this college in NRI quota and their annual fees / yearly fees - Rs 417000. There are many scholarships present in the college like; Dean Merit Scholarship , Hostel Scholarship, Tata housing scholarship (for civil engineering students), scholarships for wards of IAF personel.

My overall experience with campus life is pretty good. There are events happening every year like Kuruksastra, Carpediem, Colosseum and Daksh. Here Kuruksastra and Carpediem are annual fests which happen in April month during the even semester and in October month in odd semester. Colosseum is a sports fest which happens in Febuary month in even semester and students from many colleges come and participate in it. Daksh is a technical festival which is very unique and different and it happens during March. The range and accessibility of books and journals available in the library is very huge. Even the infrastructure of the library is beautiful. In our classrooms we have projectors through which teachers teach their topics and use laptops to teach us. The sports and extracurricular activities offered in our campus is relatively low when compared to its academic prowess. But our college has conquered the arenas of various colleges and have emerged victorious so hence it is fine to say that there is no shortage of sports and extracurricular activities. There are 22 clubs present in our college and each of them are different and enjoyable. This invokes the creative side of the students and makes them excel in it.

My room is spacious and I'm living in a shared room (3 in 1). It big windows for proper ventilation, a loft to keep our luggage bags and cupboards to keep our daily items in it and its spacious too. Here we get wifi easily too. But the only thing which is not up to the mark is the food / meal quality and menu. I mean the menu is pretty good but the maintenance is very bad as sometimes we find some insects present inside the food. The registration process for hostel is very easy and it is on first come first serve basis. Also the hostel rooms are affordable too. For 3 in 1 rooms the amount is Rs. 16000 and for single rooms Rs. 25000. The locality of our hostel is right opposite to the college campus. The hostel is maintained by the Sastra management.

I chose this college because this college was the only college which had 'nominal' fees with proer education when compared to other colleges. When compared to other colleges, my college is very academic oriented. Very minimal amount of fests / events take place so that we can cope up with our academics. But when compared to other colleges, we have proper education and also got high amount of placement percentage. I got SRM, Katangalathur, Chennai but I chose this college over that college due to its high fees structure. I got rejected from SSN, Amritha, VIT, MAHE due to the low ranking in their entrance exams. In SNU, I got till the interview round, but thats where I didn't pass through. Our admission process in our college is by getting our JEE and Board marks. And there are 2 divisions in admission. In stream 1, which included both JEE and board marks and in stream 2, it included only the board marks. So this made the probability of the students to get into this college increase. The cutoff is usually 80% and above to get into this college so its entirely merit based. And we get to select our preffered course but with relative low cutoff means our preferred course would change.

The faculty to student ratio in our college is 1:20 (minimum). Many faculties are very approachable and friendly and can be easily talked to. But there are few teachers who are quite rash/rough by nature, so some students find it annoying to attend classes with that faculty. One of the faculties I liked was Soumya Mam (Chemisty) and Senthilselvan Sir (CS). First I'll tell about Soumya mam; our chem mam is very friendly in nature and she teaches up to the point and not too draggy. If she finishes her topic of the day early she would let us do whatever we want but would adhere to the decorum of the class. And she also is reasonable while giving marks, she is not being lenient nor stingent at the same time. Now about Snethilselvan Sir, he is the best teacher in my opinion. He teaches CS and is ready to explain any topic how many ever times we ask for. He would be very strict if any of us behave wrong and also mingles with just like a best friend. Our sir too is very proper in paper correction. Not being lenient nor stingent as well. Here I would not like to talk about the teachers I don't like. They still might have not got the hang of teaching so its not their fault. So all teachers are in my good books. There are 4 exams each semester CIA1, CIA2, CIA3 and End semester exams. Subjects like CS, Engg. Graphics, Engg. Design (Project), Chemistry, Physics, EEE and EIE are all practical oriented in end semester exams. These exams are moderate enough so that we get enough marks and also understand our concepts as well. There are a majority of students who fail exams but it is all in theri fault of not studying properly. And the course curriculum is relevant to the current job market. So students can get jobs somehow on the other.

Our college closes everything by 9 30 so we are not allowed to go outside anywhere without permission. But that does not stop us from enjoying with my friends. We usually roam around the corridors of the hostel and even won't sleep at all and go outside at 5 30 (the time when they open the gates) and drink tea. Here the gym hours are from 5 in the moring till 9 in the night. Library remiains open until 7 30 and public area closes by 9 30 as I said before. We usually go to Thanjavur Big Temple during Sundays or go to Trichy and watch any movies in theaters or roam around the town. Inside the campus there are various caffeterias and students hang out if they are too lazy to go out of town.