National Institute of Technology B.Tech Review By Suraj Dobhal

NIT Goa ranks low; I mean it's in the top 100 engineering Colleges of India, but as per my AIEEE rankings this was the best I could get. I looked into certain characteristics, like how students are getting treated at the University. For me, this was the first characteristic because I am from Rajasthan and was off to a hostel for the first time in my life. The College box is ticked with a marker here because the students are treated the best possible way as there are centers for complaining if any misbehave or ragging has been done to you. The second was the scholarship perks, as I may have low numbers in AIEEE, but I had '96' in PCM and there is a cell to apply for scholarships as the ones with financially unstable backgrounds do get ample scholarships here. So, this box, too, was ticked and I almost made up my mind before checking the placements. The placements were average but since NIT Goa is one of the newly established NITs, I decided to have a go as the other Colleges where I could have had admissions were poorer than NIT Goa in terms of placements.

NIT Goa's academics were fabulous as they got a bank with some of the finest faculties who are always going to make sure that they are never behind the academic schedule. Goa, which many may not know, has more industries than many bigger states of India. Goa is a gem in itself and therefore for projects and industrial training we were never taken off state or city as many consider Goa as a city which it isn't. Academics were all guns blazing here as they chopped and changed the syllabus as per the requirement of the industry. It's the education ministry of India that holds control of all the NITs and so if a change happens in any of the NITs, it happens in all.

Out of syllabus, they were a gem because their delivery was better, or rather as safe as bank interest. My first question that I asked at the top was that outsiders are treated properly here, and the reason I said yes was the faculty because faculty were outsiders, too. They all have been to hostel life in days when ragging was prominent. So, they know the pain of the students coming from other places, and they ensure that no one will suffer or feel homesickness at the campus. They made us learn how to stay intact as there were fights and banter, but nothing lasted for over two days because at the end of the day all the students used to stay together as a family. So, if there's anyone who can be credited for that, it's our esteemed faculty.

Placements were the poorest among all the NITs as even the NITs in north east have better placements then NIT, South Goa. Companies like Siemens, Polaris, Intellect Design, and Virtusa Communication among others. There were four branches in 2016-17 and the total student strength including all 4 branches, was 110. The CSE branch had 27 students and 25 of those had placements. However, the average placements made were of 5 lakhs and I was offered 4 lakhs by Intellect Design. If the same offer was given to me by some other companies that came, I would have taken up that offer because it wasn't meant to be; I had to decline the offer.

While I was studying, we used to stay at the temporary campus as the main campus was getting ready. A portion of GEC, Goa campus was allotted to us and one hostel was awarded as 50% of the students were Goan, so only around 50 students needed hostel facilities. There was an off-campus hostel accommodation provided in 2016 as it was a private hostel; the fees were high but the hostel had facilities that could account for those facilities.

The lush green GEC campus which belonged to us was amazing. It was small as it looked more of a mini campus because the permanent campus of around 300 acres of land was getting ready. The buildings, though, had NIT sign boards as one portion was completely allotted to us. We had no business using GEC, Goa facilities and neither did GEC students enter our campus. The labs were good and even the classrooms were more than sufficient.

Even with 100-odd students, the College organized the annual fest 'RAAG'. Students of GEC were invited and also a competition was held between both the Colleges during the fest. Experimentation was done on a large scale and that made campus life one of the greatest even without seeing the main campus during my College life as it was not ready by then.