SSN College Of Engineering- What insiders say!

Hi all! Here’s a look at one of Chennai’s better known engineering institutes- SSN College of Engineering!

 

For a brief intro, SSN College is affiliated to the Anna University, and is certified by the AICTE.

What better way to get to know about a college than to learn from it’s students? Hence we were out interviewing random SSN College students. Here we have a look at what two students from the insti have to say:

STUDENT SPEAK:
 

Student 1: Having aimed for the NITs and other top govt. institutes, it was a definite let-down for me and my parents, when it was decided that I would have to pursue my UG course in a private institute ( though ranked , no.1 in the city ) .

“Be prepared for four years of hell. It is going to be school all over again.”

That was the constant ‘advice’ I got from ‘well-wishers’. My ears ringing with such dire warnings, I thus embarked upon my journey, cursing fate.

      The lush greenery which would be any artist’s dream, did little to lift my spirits. I deposited my luggage and checked out my room-it was clean and seemed to be equipped with all basic requirements -so far, so good. I scanned every face on my floor with curiosity.
 

     “Orientation at 8:00 tomorrow”, announced a girl to collective groans.

“A real pain “, I thought, expecting dull speeches (probably even on “Rules to be followed within the campus”, as my friend from another private institute had warned”).

 But what followed came as a complete surprise - a fun-filled Ice-breaker and inspirational talks by renowned speakers! Classes kicked off to a start 3 days post the orientation, and the facilities and faculty again exceeded expectations. I learnt that the college had adopted advanced wireless technology for learning through e-learning initiative wherein pre-class notes and lectures are uploaded on our very own intranet, the entire campus wifi enabled for the purpose :-)

The staff turned out to be professional and competent  (contrary to my expectations of “school teacher-material “ :-P).

    Today, 5 months into college, and first semester exams fast approaching, I’m glad to say that I made an intelligent choice.

Agreed, we do have some downs - The food in the mess is inedible; and report cards and attendance records are sent home to parents (I know, a student’s worst night-mare  :-P ).

But the pros outweigh the cons. ours is one among the few private institutes that gives importance to academics, sports and extra-curricular alike. Sprawling over 250 acres, it has the finest campus (in fact, if it wasn’t for the board at the entrance claiming it to be an educational institute, people might mistake it for a picnic spot, given the scenic beauty :-D). The library is very well equipped with books on every subject. Not to forget the canteen, which is always crowded!  And yes, 5 months, 10 days, 11 hrs later, I’m proud to call myself an SSNite and look forward to a rewarding next four years.  

Student 2:

COLLEGE- A WHOLE NEW WORLD...OR IS IT?

“BE ON TIME! EVEN IF YOU FORGET TO EAT, DONT FORGET YOUR ID CARD! BE IN THE GOOD BOOKS OF ALL FACULTY MEMBERS! BASIC SEM IS VERY IMPORTANT! DON'T BUNK...” and so it went on.

I remember it as if it were yesterday, that my mother sent me off on a crowded college bus to ‘explore a whole new world’, not forgetting to give me last minute advice. Earlier, I had also heard from many people, right from never-ever-seen-before aunts to we-love-to-gossip neighbors, that college life holds unexplainable opportunities and though it may take some time getting used to it, the college experience would turn out to be unforgettable.

4 months into the ‘rigorously scheduled’ college life, I don’t find much of a change from school. Coming from P.S.B.B, my college SSN seems to be the ideal foil, with the environment and expectations being nearly the same. I was actually surprised that it didn’t take me much time to get settled in college and to make friends, because frankly, I did not know what to expect!

From the horror tales told to me by my friends, I realized that there are many colleges which are essentially a cross between Mordor from Middle Earth and the cellular prisons in the Andaman - Hell to begin with which then gets worse; a bottomless vortex that swallows us as its new victim, making us nothing but a new clog in the machine.... and then there is SSN.

:-D

 From my short stay at SSN, I can say that the faculty here are pretty good and are not exceptionally strict, not unlike school. The chemical department can give u a glimpse of hell, but hey! No college is perfect, and at the end of the day, it’s only one department and they do produce results!

The use of technology here is exceptional, something I’ll always remember my school for. Another similarity I can find between school and college is the unparalleled encouragement given for co-curricular activities. The freedom given here is also something any student would hope for. One thing we had to get used to, though, was the HUGE campus that made us walk a lot!

And as each week goes by, I am slowly realizing what the aunties and neighbors said - the opportunities college provides.

 It’s not every day that one wakes up to the prospect of attending a seminar on uses of ultrasonic s or a program on open source software conducted by Mozilla and wiki! The opportunities are there for the taking and it’s the students’ prerogative to reach out. I did not expect such opportunities to come my way any time soon.  :-)

I was also told that SSN practices e-learning. I thought it was no big deal and was just a fancy gimmick they threw up to impress parents and students. But as it turned out, it’s perhaps the most important aspect of SSN. Books in colleges are not made ‘semester’ specific, unlike school. The intranet is really helpful in tackling this problem. Everything, right from animations to current college news to dates of symposiums is updated frequently on the intranet.

On the whole, SSN seems to be very student friendly, just like PSBB. With more similarities rather than differences (but the differences being huge) between school and college, is college a whole new world? Well... the jury is still out on that one!

That said, SSN College seems to have a pretty good place in the students hearts :-)  The college website mentioned should be able to satisfy all your college related enquiries. Nevertheless, we do have a short section on Admission! Read on, but first the facts and stats :

College  website      : http://www.ssn.edu.in/

Email id                   : salivahanans@ssn.edu.in

Phone                       : 044 32909138

Fax                           : 044 24986474

                                                                       

Groups offered            Seats available

Civil	60
Bio Med	60
Chemical	30
CSC	120
ECE	120
EEE	120
IT	120
Mech	60

How to get in:

1.     Anna University counseling  (Option chosen mostly by the state board students with a high cut-off).

2.     Management: (Option chosen mostly by the CBSE students)

·        Normalization of cut-off is done (for e.g. last year +5 marks were added to the cut off).

·        Comprises of an entrance examination and a personal interview.

·        Entrance examination is purely based on IQ and not textual matter.

Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham : An Incisive Review

Hey Readers! Hope you've been finding our blog both entertaining and informative.

As promised, we will now be beginning a string of reviews on various colleges around India, starting with the ones in the south, for three reasons-

•  We have to start from somewhere.
•  Most people have a tendency to flock to the south.
•  Much of our knowledge is concentrated about south-Indian colleges. But North Indian people need not worry; we’ll get you an exhaustive list of resources soon!

First, the university’s link…

www.amrita.edu

Coimbatore Campus Engineering Block-1

So, a bit of background information first.  

I’ll be mainly dealing with the University campus at Coimbatore, since even though the heading says “University”, and the institute has five campuses in all; most of my knowledge is centered around the Coimbatore campus.

The Coimbatore campus is the headquarters, so it’s the biggest and has all the facilities you look forward to in a college. It was started by the Mata Amritanandamayi Math, a foundation which runs under the famous hugging saint, Amma.

(For more details about Amma, visit,  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mata_Amritanandamayi    )

The following courses are offered under the Bachelor of Technology course:

1. Aerospace engineering.
2. Chemical engineering.
3. Civil engineering.
4. Computer science and engineering.
5. Electronics and communication engineering.
6. Electrical and electronics engineering.
7. Electrical and instrumentation engineering.    
8. Mechanical engineering.

For most of the academic part, the institute’s performance has been commendable (albeit being a deemed private university). But nevertheless, from the people’s viewpoint, the reputation of the college gets a mixed reaction. Some haven’t even heard of it. Some feel it’s not a very good college. And then there are ones who believe it’s supposed to be as good as the Birla Institutes of Technology (which even I, a student, feel is an exaggeration).

But trust me, there’s nothing wrong at all with the academics. In fact, I would say it is great. There have been many wonderful placements in the past, and I’m sure will continue to be, especially for fields like mechanical and computer engineering.

Even though it’s not an institute of national importance (like the NITs, IITs, or IIITs), you can’t overlook the various achievements the engineering school has had.

Overall reasons why children who actually “choose” this college, do so, are:

• Its placements. For a deemed private university, the placements are exceptionally noteworthy. Companies like Caterpillar, Microsoft, L&T and the like ACTUALLY recruit quite a number of students. And I’m not spreading rumors, or boasting of my college. I’m stating plain facts.
• Cultural education. Something whose value even I haven’t understood yet, but something important nevertheless. Some of the alumni from Amrita were quoted as saying the cultural education given to them was very useful to them during their career. And again, there have been instances of some renowned CEOs and top-level executives telling positive things about the general behavior and attitude of Amrita students, and their distinction in cultural knowledge, and that of the country in general J.
• The lovely campus. It’s very green, aesthetic and user-friendly J. It has most of the required amenities, and is very eco-friendly.
• The amount of protection they offer to the girls. They are pretty strict about them going out of hostel/campus, and the way they interact; something the parents are generally happy about, and the girls not. (Girls, don’t worry, most of it is just for the first years)

A typical Hostel room in Amrita

Now, the reasons why people (students, for most of the part) do not prefer/are against amrita: 

• The strictness they maintain. Well, I agree with that. In a college, you kinda expect some more freedom. Not allowing students to go out of the main gate without a pass, not letting them possess a smartphone- all that really pisses me off, and other students at Amrita. But then one thing is for sure, all this strictness is only for the first year. After that, it’s more like any other college. Lots of freedom J.
• Again, cultural education. While this is a good thing to the recruiters and the parents of the students, not many students are happy about it. Students in class 11-12 who have heard about Amrita are very scared about how they have to wake up early in the morning and go for yoga, and meditate regularly! Others are not very apprehensive of the un-coolness factor associated with the cultural education classes.

My Viewpoint:   

• Yoga shouldn't be a problem at all. All you have to do is 20 days of yoga. That too for 12 days in the evenings, for an hour each; and 8 days in the morning (quite bearable, if you ask me).
• Cultural classes are fun actually. They tell quite a few interesting facts. And those who don’t find it interesting can be seen sleeping in the last rows J.
• Many people have a feeling that people are supposed to switch off the lights by 12pm. Actually, in a way that’s true. That’s something they are really strict about for the initial couple of months, but after that, they’re pretty loose. And those who wanna study late night can always go to the mess hall downstairs, which is not very inconvenient.
• Something even I hate: No non-vegetarian food. You’ll have to bear with this. There’s no non-veg food. I have no answer why, but that’s the fact. We have to face it. The only time you get non-veg is when you go out to eat, or when you go home.

Well, on the whole, if you think you can sacrifice the ultimate pleasures of college life (Booze, Partying all day, hanging out to the mall daily) for a nice career (provided you also don’t mind working a little hard), then you’re in the right place. Amrita is a very secure place given you work hardJ.

That is a real helicopter, courtesy Aerospace Department.

Getting in:

Though like in most private colleges, seats are also allotted through management quota, Amrita conducts it’s own entrance examination. Keep an eye on the website for more details J. 

The resources you need!

This post is primarily aimed at students in their XI/XII, but maybe helpful for a very enthusiastic 10th grader too.

Now, the most important resource you have at hand is your NCERT book. Yes, the same ones you bought at the start of the year. NCERT books have a fairly good acceptance, both for CBSE Board exams and for most entrance exams. They cover a great deal of your syllabus and they have a fairly nice grouping of ideas and concepts. Many times when a question was labeled ambiguous in IIT-JEE, it happened so that the final answer was decided by referring to the latest NCERT textbooks. Having seen our fair share of students preparing for IIT-JEE and other similar exams, its very likely that its been quite a while since you wiped the dust off it’s cover, so we'd suggest that you get to it right now.

NCERT books are the bread and butter of your preparation. But just bread and butter won't get you far. Assuming that you are preparing for an Engineering entrance examination, lets get specific.

For Mathematics, your NCERT book is way too basic. Try to get a hold of Arihant's "New Pattern IIT-JEE Mathematics" by S.K.Goyal. We'll give you a detailed post soon dedicated to Mathematics books.

For Physics, your NCERT book is only one piece of the puzzle. Every lesson is to be approached in a systematic manner, starting from the bare basics, and slowly advancing up the ladder. Paul will write an in-depth post later on how to handle Physics. Click Here to follow our blog, so that we can notify you when Paul's post arrives.

  

For Chemistry, keep your NCERT book close, but your reference books closer. You'll need a lot of books for chemistry, because each book is written only for one part of chemistry, and that corresponds to a third of your syllabus. Organic Chemistry, Inorganic Chemistry and Physical Chemistry. Each will require different reference books. Stay tuned, as we'll release a post on Chemistry too.

The Internet is a very useful tool if used properly. The same YouTube that you use to watch "Shiela Ki Jawani" can also be used to watch MIT lectures on radioactivity. Considering the fact that you are reading our blog, its for sure that you are making good use of the internet.

As mentioned before, we'll be releasing posts specific to each subject soon. So, STAY TUNED!!!

An insight on today's competition

Everyone will tell you that the competition is really tough these days, and it gets tougher day by day. They are right, but they don't give you the complete story. Things sure ARE tough. Come on.... ! What state would this country be in if every Tom, Dick and Harry got into the best colleges of India?

We will give you an idea of how tough it really is, and in what sense it is tough. Just one example should be enough.

Let's look at the most talked about exam - IIT-JEE

IIT-JEE : Indian Institutes of Technology Joint Entrance Examination.

It's said to be the world's toughest examination. If you qualify, people around you will respect you so much that you'll start feeling -  "I wish every day of my life was like the day I cleared IIT-JEE!". If you don't qualify, you'll think, "This exam sucks. The examiners don't know what they're saying. THREE questions were wrong, man!. THREE. Can you believe that? In JEE? 3? I wasted like one hour each and so i lost all my time and didn't get to read all questions..."

If you don't qualify IIT-JEE, people won't consider you a fool. Simply because MOST don't. But smart work can save you from being in that "most". You've got to believe this because the guy who authored this post,  failed IIT-JEE. And he knows why.

Just type IIT-JEE in Google - and probably after the official sites, the next thing that would pop up would be,
"JOIN OUR COURSE. 3497 SELECTIONS SO FAR". Coaching Institutes. So many of them. I went to one too.

Do you really need them? This a question that you should answer for yourself, but we will certainly help you in arriving at an answer.

First let me brush up with the stats.

IIT-JEE is written by approximately 5,00,000 students every year, and only about 10,000 qualify.

Your next reaction can be one of these.
1.  FIVE LAKHS??!! what the hell?? There are so many students?? and just 10,000 seats?
2.  10, 000 seats? Oh! that's a lot! I've topped my school since class 5. I'm there for sure!

For people who just underwent Reaction 1, please note this.

There are two things to know.

First of all, only 2 % qualify.Therefore, it's tough alright, but tough because of the competition, not because of the question paper. Second, many of these people who attempt IIT-JEE get NEGATIVE marks as their total.   So its safe to say that these people don't even count as competition.

Now, for the people who underwent 2, we have something to say.

There are more than 10,000 CBSE schools itself, in India. And we haven't even said anything about state boards. So, even if you top your school, that is no criterion for considering yourself an IITian-to-be.

Now, how does it sound? I just gave this as an example. This is just one exam. In India, there are a million others!

Now, the big question is, When do I start preparing? We would say, the right age to get a briefing about all this would be class 8/9. Because kids are becoming smarter by the day. Coaching may help, but is not necessary. But resources are. If you can manage to get some of the titles we'll mention in the next few posts,  or better still have access to internet(and that doesn't mean a Facebook tab at the corner),  then we personally believe that with a little bit of guidance from schoolteachers and a few YouTube videos and lots of practice,  it's not hard.

Kids who go for coaching aren't doing anything special. Only that they get all the resources, and teachers push around at them, asking them to practice. That's the only recipe. All this the Internet can provide too. So you decide whether to enroll for coaching or not. You should know how self disciplined you are. If you know for sure that you'll stick to your plan for 2 years, then fine!
.
If you're interested in pursuing a career in Engineering -  in most cases, more than your Board exam marks, your entrance exam results will count. Not that you'll be neglecting boards, but you've got to get your priorities set.

Slog, mug, write...do whatever, but improve your marks.

Basically, every exam is tough till you know how to crack it. Each exam has it's own scoring methods. What works for IIT-JEE will not work for AIEEE, or PMT! Even though the content and learning methods are practically the same.

In the next few posts, expect some real important stuff you need to know, before you take up some of the important decisions in life. What decisions? How are they important?

All this...you'll know in the next posts.

So KEEP WATCHING.

What am I doing here??

Hello everyone, Welcome to Indian College for Dummies. Doesn't matter how you reached here. Maybe through a friend, through our facebook page.... What matters, is that you ARE here.

Because, here, we have something for everyone. Whether you are a Baccha or Buddha, it doesn't really matter. Yes, one thing is for sure. Since this blog is all about colleges, you can't(hopefully) find any other topic being covered. Like we may not cover how to do a bridal make-up, or at what rate the universe is expanding.(Too much? Yeah, I thought so too)

Now, let's jump right to the mainstream. We'll tell you what to look for, in here. We will cover everything right from what is the right stream for you once you jump to 11th grade(Assuming you have good enough scores to get your desired stream).And then we'll move further, with tips on how to survive those 2 years(class 11/12).
Tips, that no one else will tell you.

One fact: People who contribute resources to our blog include IITians, NITians, Students from various private universities....you know what I mean. You CAN trust us. We DO know what we're talking about.

We'll tell you there are N number of questions in the JEE examination. And we'll also tell you, that unless your Dad set the paper, you cannot finish the full thing.

We can't prepare for you, but we can help you work smarter. And produce sharper.

We'll tell you if Mechanical in a new IIT suits your needs best, or should it be Computer Science in an established NIT. It's not IIT's and NIT's all the way, so we'll research on a number of universities, just for you.

And guess what, it's all free.

Please do note that only two people are actually working on the blog, so you know how hard it can get for us. We are also college students and time is precious. We need your support. That you can extend by donating, should you like our work. But yes, NO ZABARDASTI !!!

To keep us on our toes, another thing we will need is your valuable feedback.Feel free to comment, and express your views on our articles.

Any personal queries, feel free to contact! We will reply back to you as soon as possble.

One more thing.
We all know how big and diverse India is.
So, probably we cannot cover ALL the institutes and courses.
But as far as we can stretch our knowledge and resources, we are willing to help!

Once again, congratulations on resting your faith on us.
We can assure you, you have come to the right place!
So, CHEERS!