My review about IIT Guwahati after 3 yrs of experience

IIT Guwahati is a very beautiful campus, there are many lakes, hills etc in the campus. It makes me happy to think that I got an opportunity to be part of something so great and sad knowing that it is (hopefully) the last year of my life here.

Admission in an IIT is through JEE. I scored 218/360 in the JEE Advanced exam and my AIR was 1130. There was no particular reason for opting this specific college, I wanted to do my major in computer science and IIT Guwahati was the first college from the top ranked ones that I could get at this rank. I had an interest in computers and mathematics therefore opted for this particular branch.

Curriculum overall is good, varied range of topics are covered in the field of Computer Science and we get a good experience of various areas in this field. The curriculum is integrated with many lab courses to complement the theory, which makes the process more interesting and give a good feel of the topic through practical implementation. However the curriculum is less flexible as the courses are fixed for the first three years and elective courses are given only in the final year. In terms of research options, Computer Science is a complex field and the courses in the sophomore and pre final year are mostly to develop the base knowledge of different areas. If someone is interested in a particular topic, they always have the option of working with the professor in that field for some research work.

College has an internship program for the third year students in which many good companies(like Microsoft, Goldman Sachs, Flipkart, LinkedIn, ITC, Shlumberger etc) participate. Stipend varies from company to company, average would be around 45 k-50 k monthly with other benefits like travel, stay etc. These companies have well defined internship programs which provides a very good experience for the students. Also there are MoU's with foreign universities for a research intern.

More than 100 companies visit campus during the placement season, for varying profiles. For the Btech Course, overall placement percentage was around 60 percent last year. Packages vary from company to company, generally more packages are given for software development roles. Average package vary from department to department. The overall college average if around 10 lacks CTC. Computer science department has an average CTC of around 23 lacks.

Events in an IIT are a very big deal. There are many festivals held over the year by different departments, clubs and societies in the college. The biggest event is the three day cultural fest Alcheringa which is the biggest college fest of North-East with a foot fall of around 60000. People from entire country come to participate in this event and there are many cultural events and performances from renowned artists from around the globe during the fest.

Fee is decent compared to other private colleges. There are two semesters in a year and fee for each is about 60 k which includes the payment for tuition, hostel, mess and all the other facilities. We are expected to pay the entire amount in the start of the semester itself in lump-sum.

There are many scholarships offered like McM scholarship, scholarship for the department toppers, category students etc. Apart from these there are other scholarships provided by public or private firms for the students.

Campus life is exiting, there are fields and equipment's for a wide range of sports activities. There are many technical and non-technical clubs in the college and most of them are very active with good people. Competitions are conducted from time to time for many fields by the respective clubs. There are also inter hostel tech, sports, cultural etc fests which are a very big deal with tough competition between the hostels for the trophy. For the enthusiasts there are many labs in all the departments with good equipment for research. The institute also provide funding for projects. Gender ratio is pretty messed up, in the 2013 batch, there were only 40 girls compared to 600 boys. Hostel life is the most awesome part of anyone, overnight CS competitions, hostel spirit during inter hostels, movies, trips, treats, GPL's, discussions, festivals etc. It has been the most beautiful chapter of life till now, something that I will cherish whenever I look back at it.

Hostel facility is good at IIT Guwahati, there are 10 boys hostel and two girls hostel. Individual rooms are provided for all the students. Hostels are very well maintained and each hostel has a personal library, stationary, fruit and juice center, canteen, gym, sports equipment and mess facility. Quality of mess food however is substandard but there are other options like restaurants, sub way, CCD etc for occasional good food and drinks.

IIT Guwahati is relatively a young college with only about 18 years since its establishment. Hence the alumni network is not very strong for the present situation. Seniors are very helping and always willing to help. Though current restrictions due to anti ragging rules have created a small barrier but they are always there to help those who take the initiative to ask.

Two rounds of major examinations are conducted(mid semester and end semester). Apart from these there may be quizzes, term paper, projects or other assignments in a particular course. This is decided by the particular faculty taking that course. Lab courses are generally separate and can vary in the structure from regular lab sessions to projects.

I cannot comment about the faculty in other departments but the faculty in CSE department are good, they have good experience in teaching and are very well qualified for the courses. Classes are regularly conducted and course curriculum and structure is pre-decided by the instructors and is strictly followed.