Annual hostel fee of IIT Madras is around Rs. 50,000/-, yearly

It was 2024, when I cleared JEE Advanced with a decent rank of around 2.5k. In JOSAA Counselling, I chose this Institute. That's when I found out that I had made one of the best decisions in my life. 1 year had already passed but I still feel like a fresher enjoying the life. From late night gossips to morning 8 AM classes, IIT Madras has given me everything which I needed as a student. It has got all the resources through which one can develop in any field he/she wants.

I have chosen Chemical Engineering and it became another of my best life decisions. This is a course with medium difficulty level. The best feature of this course is that you can opt for both core and non-core fields through this course. Since this course is of moderate difficulty, you get ample time for preparing for Tech, Quant, Finance and other profiles in which you are intereste. To get into this course, you need to crack JEE Advanced with a decent rank, which is sometimes said as one of the toughest exams of India. For admission, you need to register through JOSAA Counseling portal through which you will be redirected to the Institute. In each semester, there are many frequent exams happening. For each course in this branch, we have 3 exams in each semester - Quiz 1, Quiz 2 and End Semester. For some courses, we have only mid-semester and end-semester.

The fee of my chosen course was around Rs. 1,50,000/- per semester. Special discounts were provided to category students. Student loans are also available for the students coming from a weaker economic section. Scholarships are not directly available for the students from the Institute, but for applying into scholarships, the Institute can help by attesting the scholarship form of the student by the respective person in charge.

The faculty members are excellent, to say in one word. I am now in my 3rd semester and all the professors teaching core subjects are good and friendly. Most of the faculty members have done their Ph.D and Post-Doc from Foreign Universities and after that, they became a faculty member here. The teachers teach us mostly on projectors through presentation of slides in the projector. Regular tutorials are conducted which are discussed in the class by the faculties or the teaching assistants. The approximate teacher-student ratio in the Institute is about 1:20. Faculty members are very also very approachable.

Placement Cell is an Independent Student Body in our Institute. The placement cell outreaches to companies and reaches the previous recruiters too. We have an Internship and a Placement season in our campus in which various companies come and recruit students from our campus. Tests, GDs, resume short-listing and interviews are generally conducted by the companies for hiring students. Some renowned companies visiting our Institute are Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Adobe and many more. Average package offered by the recruiters is around 15 LPA and the highest package offered last year was 4.5 Crore Per Annum. I am still in my 2nd year, so I don't know much about the placement experience.

The Institute has residential facilities. Total rooms for 2nd year students are around 300 and total students in our batch are around 900. Girls and boys hostels are separate. Mess quality is very well-maintained with food served 4 times a day. Annual hostel fee is around Rs. 50,000/-. Hostel rules and timings are not applicable for us. 1st year hostel was actually great. It was a 3 star hostel and the quality of the rooms was also great. Now in 2nd year, my hostel has been changed but still it is better than I expected. So, my overall hostel experience was great.

There are academic blocks for each department. The campus is huge. Most of the classrooms are air-conditioned. The seating capacity of the main classroom halls are around 200. There is 1 central library and various other reading places which are open 24X7. Labs, seminar halls, auditorium, and conference halls are also present. There are numerous canteens with some being open all night long. There is sports facility for every type of sports and we have Inter IIT Competitions for all the sports. My favorite place is the Gajendra Circle, which is a great place to visit during night and it refreshes your mind. The library is one of the place which properly complements my overall learning experience.

Overall campus is eco-friendly with deer and monkeys roaming around. The Institute is not at all crowded since the campus is very big, so it does not feel suffocating. There are many clubs in our Institute and I am currently a part of the Music Club. Numerous extracurricular activities are organized by our Institute, primary ones being ‘Saarang’, which is the cultural Fest of IIT Madras. Renowned artists like Amit Trivedi and Ritviz came last year. ‘Shaastra’ is the technical fest of the Institute. All these fests are held for over 10 days in January, before the start of the semester. According to me, the campus life is outstanding and I wish that I can stay in this campus all my life.