Life as a school student and as a college student are two very different things. I had a feeling that what makes the IITs special would be the placements and the quality of teaching. I think I can vouch that there is much more to IITs than just education based on my observations here at IIT Madras.
Forest in IIT Madras
The campus if filled with greenery and it is literally a few degrees cooler inside. If you are not a fan of plants, the animals here might amuse you. You might know that we have deer, black bucks and monkeys roaming around. But we also have shy wild boars and foxes (or wolves, not sure) that rarely come out of the thick forest. We have swamps and inaccessible areas inside the campus that might give you a cheap adventure if you are brave enough. The students have the sense of responsibility and avoid littering within the campus. Almost all undergrads use bicycles for travel.
Industry in IIT Madras
IIT undertakes many projects from various companies because we have many facilities at a single place. Our campus has the fastest supercomputing facility in the state. Many faculties here undertake a project and use the help of research scholars for testing and optimization. Project proposals are usually prepared by the IIT faculty and forwarded to interested organizations, based on the nature of their research and their interest to fund such projects. Testing for the metro rail was also done here in the structural engineering department. We have a central workshop with welding, machining (various), carpentry, composites layup, carpentry and also foundry (very rare) facilities. Any conventional student project can be completely finished inside the campus with no necessity to contact workshops outside. IIT Research Park is a place where many of the university’s start-ups have their company.
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Hangout spot and Playground in IIT Madras
Our campus has many spots for a group of friends to hangout. We have a lawn in front of the two floored Himalaya (No, it is not covered with snow, Himalaya is the name of our mess.). Every hostel has a TV room and a garden. When it comes to playgrounds, we have the whole lot – basketball, football, volleyball, hockey, tennis, squash, badminton (even ball badminton): you name it, we have it. We also have a skating ground and a well maintained swimming pool. The newly built stadium is an apt place for morning walks or jogs. Apart from this, we also have a playground in almost all hostels. Many hostels have a volleyball court, cricket nets and a badminton court too. Hostels have either a Table tennis table or a foosball table.
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A city within a city
I hope many would agree with me if I call IIT madras as an independent enclosure. This is because we have everything we need inside the campus. We have many canteens, eateries and juice shops (more than 10). Also we have gurunath stores where we get stationary and day to day needs. We also have cycle repair shops, an electronics store, a barber shop, an atm and a departmental store. Who needs to go to ibaco when we have 10 different flavours of icecream in our canteens? And did you know, there is an open air theatre inside the campus, where they screen movies every weekend. :O
So if you are seriously preparing for JEE ,convince yourself that you are not doing it for your far future where you get a good life after graduating, but for the college life that you get here which will make you not want to graduate.
Please do comment your experiences at your respective colleges if you wish to, and contact me if you want to know further.
Thanks for reading! 😀