VIT University - A Review

Every year once the admission season for the various universities across India sets off, I get many calls from my relatives, my friends and strangers. The conversation starts with a wee inquiry and ends up with a through interrogation.
There are critics for reviewing movies, books, cafés and almost everything from mobile phones to hair pins. Just log into google and type nokia 6600+review.you will find a slew of pages matching your query explaining you the pros and cons of owning that mobile.

Now try the keyword VIT university review. How many results did you find….?

If your answer is zilch and you are in a desperate need to find one, then this is an attempt to wane your curiosity. Here it goes.

The first question that ppl usually shoot at me is “How’s VIT…?”

I usually start answering it this way
It was in the year 2004 that I came to know about some college called Vellore institute of technology .it was in the same year that I gave the VITEEE entrance exam and finally landed in this place. There was little competition in those days and getting through was a cake walk. Though I had a lot of options to opt for other well established colleges I never gave a second thought.(may be that’s because of the glitzy page 3 kind of prospectus that attracts lot of test takers even today).the four year journey was remarkable and I have no regrets.

Within a blink the Next question props up “is it better than so and so university or college…?”

Before asking this question one must understand that VIT is still nascent. By saying nascent what I mean to say is that it’s still young. It will be completing 25 years by 2009 and 7 or 8 years as a university by 2009.so u just can’t compare them with IIT’s and places like Anna university, BITS Pilani etc., which were established way back in 1940-50’s.for an institution to gain high reputation such as IIT’s it needs to produce some of the distinguished alums .VIT still being juvenile has no such alum to its credit. There is huge demarcation between VIT and these institutes and it will be of no surprise if VIT surpasses these stalwarts in the near future. As a matter of fact VIT is the fastest growing institute in India.

And the next question “howz the faculty…?”

FACT: A person who fails miserably in his academic life and has no other place to work usually ends up working as a lecturer in an engineering college. There are a few exceptions here and there. But, this fact holds well in all the institutions including IIT’s.
You can never find a university which boasts of highly intellectual faculty. I was able to meet some of the best in the Embedded Systems as far as my area of interest is concerned.

“Do you think this place suits my ward….?”

VIT isn’t tailor made for someone. It’s a readymade product with definite attributes. Skimming through the attributes if you feel like ‘this is what I was looking for’ then this is the right place for you
PRO’S
• Only institute in India to be accredited by IEEE,UK
• Likely to be accredited by ABET,USA by 2009
• Diversity; you will find ppl from almost all the states in India and 15 other countries
• Semester abroad programme
• The best Labs for research.
• Good placements; the placement record has been good from a long time now but the core companies,non IT firms, financial institutes and the top notch IT firms such as Microsoft,google have just started pouring in and with the looming recession we can expect a surge in non IT placements few years down the line. Right now placements are not so good in core companies, I fell that management is not working hard to get NOT IT companies for placements.
• Lot of club activities (but difficult to find an active and useful club)
• Good hostels
CON’S
• High population density
• No proper communication and relationship between the seniors and juniors; this is because of the over precautions taken by the management to prevent ragging.
• Inflexible class hours and hostel timings
• Horrid climate
• The worst administrative staff
• You will be writing exams the whole year
• You will get very little time for extra curricular ( If u can manage u can get lots of time)

Note: this is completely a personal view and opinions may vary depending on individual circumstances