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.