Signing off – IIT – R!

Many of you might be aware – but in case you aren’t – my son just completed his B.Tech (Engineering Physics) from IIT-R(Class of 2023) As 4 years of his undergraduate education have rolled by(2 years of which became online due to Covid), here is my perception of IIT-R in hindsight:

Disclaimer – My thoughts are just based on my son’s experiences and my understanding and cannot be held true for everybody there! 🙂

1. IIT-R is very balanced in its curriculum. I have never seen him extremely stressed in any semester(maybe because it was all online) IITs overall might have lowered the academic pressure due to a lot of stress reported by many students.
2. Though he was never totally stressed, some courses did require super human effort to understand and work through them. But you could balance these tough subjects with some moderate ones. Seventh and eighth semesters are going to be having some of the toughest courses since you will be dealing with most of core topics by then.
3. He never had classes any day continuously from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. The classes were always scattered all day around. For example, he might have one class from 8-9, another from11-1 and the third one from 2-3.
4. In addition to the tutorials and surprise quizzes that were conducted on a regular basis, there was a MTE or ‘Mid term exam’ during the middle of the semester. This was followed by a mid-semester break of about a week(this is true for all semesters)
5. The other holidays that came in between were for just a day(Diwali for a day, Dusshera for a day and so on)
6. The ETE or ‘End Term Exam’ happens at the end of the semester after which there is a big semester break(1 1/2 months) during the summer. The winter break in December is only for a month.
7. IITs also admit students from under privileged backgrounds. They are given a fee concession where ever possible – for example their mess fees might be waived off, tuition fees might be reduced drastically. All in all, IITs do try and make higher education a possibility for many from all financial backgrounds.
8. IITs also admit girls through a special cutoff during the JEE advanced exam. This may raise eyebrows as to why girls need a special cut off, but this might be the only way there will be gender diversity in engineering institutions like IIT(motivating girls and their parents ;))

9. There are numerous cultural events and sporting events that happens all around the year. This is so that the students do not just drown themselves in academics alone but experiment with different talents as well. The cultural event is called ‘Thomso’ and the technical fest is called ‘Cognizance’.

10. The hostels are called bhawans and they are named after the freedom fighters of India. There is Radhakrishnan Bhavan, Rajendra Bhawan, Jawahar Bhawan, Ravindra Bhawan and more. There are inter bhawan tournaments, inter year tournaments, industrial trips and many other activities.

11. The placement session is hard. You have to live through it to feel it. Read all about the placement season on my personal blog:

a. Part 1 – https://jayanthiweb.wordpress.com/2022/12/17/iit-placements-a-mothers-perspective-part-1/

2. Part 2 – https://jayanthiweb.wordpress.com/2022/12/18/iit-placements-graveyard-sessions-part-2/

3. Part 3 –

12. The silent competition is fierce. After all – all these kids have cleared one of the toughest exams in India if not the world!

13. There is an academic slow paced program if your CGPA drops below a certain level for a couple of semesters, so it is a good idea to always keep on top of that

13. What is the fees for the IIT tag? 1.35L/semester! 🙂 (10 lakhs for the entire B.Tech degree with an IIT tag that is world renowned? – we will take it any day! :)) This is inclusive of the hostel, food and electricity charges. In this day of private colleges/schools jacking the price of education to sky high levels, it is a blessing to see education trying to be accessible to the underprivileged of India.

I have had a good experience living the IIT experience vicariously through my son these 4 years! Again, these are only our experiences and might not reflect everybody’s thoughts! 🙂

ADIEU, IIT – R….It was good knowing you…hope we meet again!! 🙂