Extremely Satisfied to be a student of IIT Madras. Really good infrastructure and facilities.

To be eligible for the M.Sc. Chemistry course, an aggregate of atleast 55% marks in B.Sc. for General candidates is needed, and atleast 50% for the SC/ST and PwD ones. The JAM is the premier M.Sc. entrance test in India, annually organized by various IITs and IISc. The application typically runs from September to October, the website depending on the organizing institute for that year. The application fees correspond to ? 750 for female candidates and ?1500 for male candidates. The application comprises registration, filling up academic & personal details and finally the application fee payment. While application filling, all the details are to be mentioned correctly besides adhering to the specifications of the photo, signature and other documents. Based on the rank, a candidate is allowed to select different institutes by preference and are allotted an institute after atmost 3 counselling rounds. I think that the application fee needs to be same for male and female applicants.

I chose this course primarily to gain an in-depth knowledge in chemistry. Chemistry is a field of science which is central to today's developing world. There is virtually no area in science which do not have the slightest application of chemistry. Chemistry may be a developing science, but in India, IIT Madras has one of the finest setups in this field. IITM has some of the most qualified and eminent professors (in Chemistry at least; I expect things to be the same in other areas of education). The quality of teaching is one of the best in India. The course composition is ideal for a student to cope up with. The exams are conducted in the semester system, and are moderate to slightly difficult. The majority of the exam contents come from the class teachings, with the view that each and every student passes the examination. In total, there are approximately 550 faculty and 8000 students, making up for an approximately 1:15 ratio between them respectively.

The companies offering internship are Hindustan Unilever, Cognizant, Godrej, Nasscom, Uber, Videocon and many more. In the academic front, students can also intern at institutes like IITs and IISERs. They can also intern as an educator in academies like Byju's and Unacademy. The stipend normally range from 3K/month to 60K/month depending upon the job. In the projects, the students can perform the roles os a data analyst, software developer, academic instructor, research assistant and of many other positions through appropriate jobs. In the future, they can utilize their ideas and learning experience in research projects as well as while working as an employee in companies.

Atleast in the M.Sc. and M.Tech. courses, from the 3rd semester onwards students are eligible for registration to placements. The companies that recruit students are pfizer for the post of a senior associate scientist, HCL technologies, Genesys Telecom Labs India Pvt. Ltd for software engineer, Evertz for Graduate Engineer and the Tata Consultancy Services among many others. The packages typically range from 3K/ month to 1L/month depending on the job and company. Around 70% to 80% of the students get placed in the top companies each and every year. After the completion of my M.Sc. degree, I am personally keen to pursue a PhD in Chemistry and delve deeper into the extensive research carried out in this field of Science.

As per the IIT Council's decision to increase the fee for the academic programmes, IIT Madras has decided to increase the fees particularly to deter students who discontinue their courses mid-way. The IITM study costs comprise the tuition fee of ?3000 (for General students) and an exam fee of ?500 per semester. Many scholarship opportunities are available to students across various academic programmes, mostly for reserved category students. Some scholarships are given to the meritorious students (top 25 to 35%) of a class. The stipend for PhD students normally depend upon the fellowship. They range from ?80000/year for INSPIRE, ?75000/year on average for PMRF, ?31000/month for first 2 years with an annual contingent grant of ?20000, then ?35000/month for later years in JRF/SRF. Every year IITM has numerous students getting placed in top companies corresponding to the pharmaceutical, software and academic sectors, like Zydus-Cadila, Flipkart, Byju's and Trexquant to name a few.

The Shaastra is the annual tech festival, and the Saarang is the annual cultural fest of IITM. The former runs from 13th to 16th of January, while the latter runs from the 6th to the 9th of January. The Central Library at IITM has a collection of numerous books, covering areas of history, geography, language & linguistics apart from the science, engineering & technology textbooks. There is also an e-resource section containing journals, accessed by the usage of institute credentials. Due to COVID-19, almost all classes have been in the online mode. Based on my experience, I can say that the classrooms are well-lit and spacious, and perfect for students to develop academic motivation. There are also excellent facilities for racquet sports, cricket, football, hockey, athletics, swimming etc. Currently due to COVID-19 only racquet sports are permitted. There are many student-managed social groups and clubs, like the Drama, Choreo, Comedy and Analytics Clubs, and the NSS to name a few.

The IITM hostel has an inbuilt LAN port, which can be accessed if you have a LAN cable and it has to be renewed daily. The Department building has a iitmwifi network that can be accessed through institute credentials. Hostels have good facilities, water is supplied by water cans, each and every room has a LAN port for internet connectivity and the rooms are good enough for accomodation. Also, each room has mosquito nets fitted on the windows. The washrooms are cleaned daily. In some hostels students can avail the use of washing machines, refrigerators and other advanced equipments. The mess and the canteen gives good quality food, and the health related problems of students (apart from COVID-19) are typically unheard of. The registration for IITM hostels are doen by filling up a biodata form, followed by the payment of the hostel fees and finally the allotment of hostel by the concerned management. The hostels are typically affordable with a total cost of roughly ?35000 per semester.