STUDYING IN INDIA

 

I have seen a few posts about studying in India and there were many comments that were based on assumptions, so I thought I'll clarify it for newcomers. I will explain the admission process for all Indian universities, and I'll tell you about the pros and cons so that you guys can understand for yourself whether it'll be suitable for you to study in India. I have been studying in VIT for the past 4 years, and I've interacted with students from NIT, IIT and IIM and hence I wanted to clarify some misunderstandings. It is a long post, but I've divided it into 3 sections. You can just skip to the part you're interested in.

All Universities and Medical colleges have a common requirement: 65% overall in 12th Board Examination and 70% exclusively in PCM(Physics, Chemistry, Maths)/PCB(Physics, Chemistry, Biology).

1) Private Universities: 

You can just pay and get admission as an international student. Scholarships are hard to come by. I did not sit for the VITEEE and just got in by applying. You can try, but there is a low chance of getting scholarships. VIT and BITS Pilani are the most reputed private universities. As such, their fees are higher too. Other private universities have lower fees. You do have to sit for the BITSAT to get into any BITS colleges though. BITS accepts SAT results too. It is easy to get in but don't think that it'll be easy as most of your peers will have prepped for JEE Mains/Advanced and have an advantage over you for 1st year. From 2nd year, everything is new for them too. Private universities are a great place to go to if you can afford the top ones. The lower ones don't have very high credibility. You can check the NIST rankings to help you choose private universities.

i)Placements: The Universities won't let you sit for on-campus placements, but you can sit for off-campus placements. Packages depend on the companies you sit for.

ii)Ragging: No ragging at all. You can file a complaint to the International Relations department of your college, and they will rusticate any student involved in ragging.

2) Public Universities:

This includes NITs and other colleges too. There are three ways of getting in: DASA, ICCR and Study In India program.

DASA is a specialized admission program for foreign candidates. This is a guaranteed entry to the top NITs. Previously seats were awarded on the basis of SAT Subject Tests but since subject tests have been discontinued, there may be new revision to the requirements. There is no scholarship though. You will have to pay for tuition rates as a foreign student.

ICCR is a common test held in all countries where there is an Indian Embassy. This is a full paid scholarship by the Indian Government. It is just an English Proficiency exam but quite a gamble. Students choose the universities wherever they want to study according to their preference. The application has to be submitted with the preferred universities of the candidate. Then the HCI forwards the applications to ICCR, consequently ICCR forwards them to respective institutes. HCI just works as a representative of ICCR and does the college's/institute's admission proceedings according to the applicant's application. Earlier it was fruitful when all Bangladeshis would always secure good colleges but in the past few years the number of students getting good colleges from Bangladesh have dwindled because many students were cancelling their admissions after getting the opportunity to go there. I personally know of 5 or 6 Bangladeshis that cancelled their admissions because they got better opportunities elsewhere. There is one more drawback of the ICCR: IF YOU SIT FOR IT AND IF YOU GET OTHER OPPORTUNITIES IN INDIA AFTER SITTING FOR ICCR, THERE'S NO USE. YOU WILL HAVE TO GO TO THE UNIVERSITY ALLOTTED TO YOU BY HCI. You can do the same thing some of my juniors did where you get admitted, stay for a semester and then cancel your admission. This is what is causing lower colleges to be allotted to Bangladeshis in ICCR. I'd suggest you finalize a decision and then sit for the ICCR.

STUDY IN INDIA PROGRAM is a flagship program by the Ministry of Education in India. Scholarships upto 250000 INR are awarded to exemplary students. There are other scholarships that universities themselves offer. You have to sit for IND-SAT to qualify. You will be able to fill up your choices of university and will be allotted a seat according to your merit. Both public and private universities participate in this program. So, this is a good option instead of ICCR since it offers some flexibility in terms of choice if you get better opportunities elsewhere in India. You can find out more details about the program here: https://www.studyinindia.gov.in/home.

i)Placements: The University will let you sit for on-campus placements and you can sit for off-campus placements too. Packages depend on the companies you sit for.

ii)Ragging: I don't know about the current situation but in the past I have met juniors who have left NIT and some other public university due to ragging.

3) Premier Institutes:

a) JEE Advanced: Finally, the cream of Indian universities - The IITs. First I'd like to mention that I sat for the JEE Advanced in 2017, although I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have qualified for it if I had to sit for JEE Mains. JEE Mains is like a qualifying exam. Clearing cutoff in JEE Mains secures you a seat in NITs or other Government colleges and allows you to sit for the JEE Advanced. The exam is split into 2 parts: each being 3 hours long. You get a break of 1 hour in between. The 1st part deals with 1st Paper of PCM while the 2nd part deals with 2nd Paper of PCM. You need to train to last that long. 6 hours may not seem long but 2nd paper becomes a nightmare after the 1st hour. Do try to give continuous papers while practicing so that you can build up your tolerance.

The syllabus is issued on the IIT website when the dates are announced for JEE Advanced. You will need to prepare as if IIT is your target. Most of you are planning to sit for it as a secondary exam. Understand this, you will be competing with students who have been preparing for JEE Advanced since 5th grade/10th grade onwards. Since the requirements to sit for competitive exams are low, students focus on JEE preparations more than their board examinations. FOREIGNERS DO NOT HAVE A SEPARATE CATEGORY. YOU ARE COMPETING IN THE GENERAL CATEGORY WITH THE MAJORITY OF STUDENTS THAT DO NOT FALL IN SPECIAL QUOTAS LIKE SC/OBC. Even if you don't get the subject you want or the IIT you want, good JEE Advanced scores are still considered as an additional benefit in your profile in universities abroad. I have listed some books that I had bought for IIT preparation back then.

Getting into IIT is half the challenge. I had a really hard time coping up in VIT in my 1st year. My peers were all prepared for the 1st semester courses since most of it is covered in JEE Advanced preparation. I cannot even comprehend the pressure in IITs. IITs also have the highest dropout rate in India. I'm a mediocre student as I mentioned before, so I definitely know there are students that can crack the JEE Advnaced and ace within IIT from Bangladesh. You just have to take it seriously and not as a secondary option. Is it worth it? If you care about money a lot and want to ensure a well paid job after you graduate, then sure. If you're in for research, then sure. But if you only plan to pursue studies in Engineering, you will get better opportunities with the same effort you will be putting in for the JEE Advanced. Tuition is not waived for foreign students. I don't know if there is provision for scholarship for foreign students. Tuition is 6 lakh INR/year for foreign undergraduate students. Hostel and mess fees are charged separately, but it is cheap.

i)Placements: IIT Graduates get the highest packages among all the colleges of India. Most are from Multinational corporations, so they do not care if you are a foreign national or not. Packages range from 20 lakhs per annum to north of 1 crore per annum(Yes, more than a crore in a year). The prospect of MS for IIT students is also very lucrative. Western universities hold IIT students in high regards and so do their professors.

ii)Ragging: There used to be ragging earlier, but it has stopped now. The IITs have taken a very strong stance against ragging now.

b) NEET: Most of these things apply for NEET too. It is not conducted in foreign countries. You will have to travel to India to sit for the exam. One more thing that differs is that instead of PCM, you require PCB here. It is the admission exam for Medical colleges in India. There is only one exam. Getting a high rank would mean getting the opportunity to study in one of the AIIMS institutes. 

There is also a self-financing scheme under which foreigners can go to study at AIIMS New Delhi only and it is also the best one. Other AIIMS institutes do not provide this opportunity. You have to get in touch with the HCI to see if you're eligible for a nomination. The tuition is 75000 USD in total for the whole MBBS program which has to be paid in 3 installments.

i)Placements: Insane wads of cash flow for doctors that graduate for AIIMS. Although you won't be sidelined if you study in other public medical colleges too.

ii)Ragging: Same like the IITs. They have taken a strong stance against ragging in recent years.

c) IIM-IPM: IIM is like an IIT for Business Studies. IIMs are famous for their graduate program. Most IIMs don't even have undergraduate programs. Their IPM program is an integrated program(BBA+MBA). You can check out the websites for IIM Indore and IIM Bodh Gaya for more details on the program. However, they have the best campuses. Period. IIM Bangalore was even the shooting location for 3 idiots and I had the opportunity to visit it since my cousin's husband was a student there at that time. There were hardly 300-400 students in that huge campus. I can assure you that an MBA from IIM is totally worth it.

i)Placements: Top notch like the other premier institutes of India.

ii)Ragging: IIM has very few students. I haven't heard of ragging in IIM till now. Maybe there have been few cases in the past, but I have not heard of cases in recent years. Even then, the administration has a strong policy against ragging.

Apart from books you can also subscribe to Unacademy for all the competitive exams in India.

The environment and people of India are very friendly. I wouldn't have been able to pass all the courses of college without the help of my friends. In terms of the supposed 'hate' you assume you will receive, I can assure you, you will not. The only friction I've had been with people from West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh. Even then I did not have to deal with any sort of issues for being a Bangladeshi. The only comments or taunts I've received for studying in India were from my teachers in school and college in Bangladesh. Muslim students may face some issues with beef availability and Namaz timings. There are no specified breaks for any religions. You will either get holidays or not. Colleges do allow special leaves for religious occasions including Islamic ones.

India is an amazing place to go for studies, but you need to be able to handle a lot of pressure. I've had semesters with 5 labs and 3 projects and vice versa. I can tell you the burnout is real. Likewise, I'm pretty sure universities everywhere put a lot of pressure on their students. So, it's just something you will have to get used to. I've had the most amazing 4 years of my life in VIT. It wasn't due to the university or studies but the people there. I'm sure you will have a similar experience if you go for studies in India.

You can surely text me or comment for any other information regarding studying in India. I will try to help you out in any way I can. Please forgive any mistake in the post. Let me know if there is any information I’ve missed or if I made a mistake, and I’ll edit it in.

And Eid Mubarak Everyone!

BOOKS FOR JEE ADVANCED PREPARATION:

PHYSICS

1. Concepts of Physics – Vol. 1 by H. C. Verma

2. Concepts of Physics – Vol. 2 by H. C. Verma

3. Physics for IIT JEE by Resnick, Halliday, Walker

4. Problems in General Physics by IE Irodov

5. Understanding Physics by DC Pandey

6. NCERT book for Physics (Available for free: https://ncert.nic.in/textbook.php)

CHEMISTRY

1. Organic Chemistry by OP Tandon

2. Inorganic Chemistry by OP Tandon

3. Organic Chemistry by Morrison Boyd

4. Modern Approach to Chemical Calculations – R. C. Mukherjee

5. NCERT book for Chemistry (Available for free: https://ncert.nic.in/textbook.php)

MATHEMATICS

1. Maths XI & XII by R.D. Sharma

2. Objective Mathematics for JEE Main & Advanced and Other Engineering Entrance Examinations by R.D. Sharma

3. Trigonometry & Geometry: – Plane Trigonometry Part 1 by S.L. Loney

4. Co-ordinate Geometry: – Plane Co-ordinate Geometry by S.L. Loney

5. Algebra: – Higher Algebra by Hall and Knight

6. Calculus: – Problems in Calculus of One Variable by I.A. Maron

7. Differential Calculus by A. Das Gupta

8. NCERT book for Mathematics (Available for free: https://ncert.nic.in/textbook.php)

QUESTION PAPERS

1. 38 Years Chapterwise Topicwise Solved Papers (2016-1979) IIT JEE Physics by Arihant

2. 38 Years Chapterwise Topicwise Solved Papers (2016-1979) IIT JEE Chemistry by Arihant

3. 38 Years Chapterwise Topicwise Solved Papers (2016-1979) IIT JEE Mathematics by Arihant