School of Planning and Architecture B.Arch Review By Prerit Kumar

To begin with, I have been a part of a NIT, and I switched to this institute knowing it's going to be worth it, so I attempted JEE exam again and got a decent rank to get into the second-best institute of the nation. The campus is very clean and well organized. The sports infrastructure is great here, and the students go to play for roughly 2-3 hours every day after classes. The seniors are here to guide you through everything. The academic blocks are well maintained and neat. The faculty is supportive and is available to guide you through all your academic problems. Every state group is responsible for conducting their regional events and it’s celebrated by everyone irrespective of their nativity.

To break the ice for you, we don't have mid semester exams. Unlike other institutes here, in SPA, we don't have mid semester exams. There’s only an end semester exam conducted which is either a written or a viva exam. The main subject you'll have to study is AD i.e., Architecture Design. It’s the root subject and we learn the most out of this subject. It has its implementation from all the other subjects, be it Structural Mechanics, Building Material Construction or Architectural Graphics.

I'm an Architecture student and to compare with other institutes, SPA has a much unbiased faculty. They're highly trained in their respective fields and can introduce you to many practical-life problems to find a solution for. Everyone has their own way of teaching; some focus on time problems while some focus on quality of the work. Most of the faculty members are friendly. Everyone is provided with a faculty mentor to whom they can approach anytime about anything, be it academically related or not, they're here to guide you through everything.

We have a Placement Cell in our institute which has industrial tie-ups with major companies like L&T, Asian Paints, etc. to offer placement opportunities to the well-trained students. Though on the negative side, a handful of students don't sit in the placements because they have to pursue Masters or they're getting a better placement off-campus or are eager to even start their own firm.

We have 4 hostels. There’s one boy's hostel and one girl's hostel for freshers. Rest of one boy’s hostel and one girl’s hostel for all the seniors. Since we have on-campus courses, all the outstation students are required to live in the hostel. The rooms are spacious with a provision of double sharing with 2 tables, 2 beds, 2 almirah, mirror, table lamps and a balcony shared by two rooms. It’s well maintained as the staff comes to clean it every Saturday.

There are 2 Academic Blocks, one is called the Old Academic Block or OAB and the other is called the New Academic Block or NAB. The Postgraduate students have their classes at OAB while the Undergraduate students have their classes at NAB. We have a kirana store, juice shop, chaat shop, Amul parlor, and a Nescafe kiosk on campus. We have a basketball court, a cricket ground, a football ground, and 3 badminton courts. Also, we have a print shop and stationary shop on campus.

Campus life is amazing at first but gets monotonous after a while. The only fun then is enjoying with our batch mates and seniors. We have a dedicated club for everything; be it dance, music, food, animal welfare, art, design, photography, movies, sports, pottery, fashion, etc. We have a gym, a dance room and a music room too. Talking about the fests, we're always packed; there are festivals every now and then because we celebrate all cultures. We definitely have a Fresher’s Event, a Music Fest and a Dance Fest.