Life at NIT Trichy: “Facilities At Par With Foreign Institutes” Says Final Year Chemical Engineering Student

Shubham Patel at NIT Trichy campus!

Located in Tamil Nadu, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli (NIT Trichy) is counted amongst the top engineering institutes of the country. Offering one of the best educational experiences to its students, the college has been continuously ranked among the best of the lot.

NIT Tiruchirappalli admits students’ to its B.Tech programmes via JEE Mains. Getting into this institute is a dream for many. However, only a few lucky ones get selected out of the lakhs of students who take JEE Main every year. And one such lucky lad is Shubham Patel from Vadodara, Gujrat, who joined NIT Trichy in the year 2012 to pursue chemical engineering.

In an exclusive interview to Shiksha, Shubham talks about this journey at NIT, Tiruchirrapalli. Read on to know more about what attracted him to premier engineering institute, which caters to the growing need of technological manpower in the country.

Journey from Vadodara to NIT Tiruchirapalli

Before joining NIT Trichy, Shubham had no idea about how and what the institute would be like. He says, “I had no idea about the college I was going to join, but as soon as I got my result for JEE, I started researching about different institutes and decided to join NIT Trichy, whose overall ranking in NITs is number one,”. Shubham prepared for JEE Mains by joining a coaching institute in Vadodara, Gujarat.  He is currently in his final year of B.Tech.

According to Shubham, NIT Trichy has everything - from huge campus to great infrastructure to facilities at par with foreign institutes.

NIT Trichy Campus

Shubham shares that on the very first day of College, he saw the college director himself helping parents through the admission process. “I was surprised to see the Director of NIT Trichy helping students and their parents in the admission process. As days went by, my perception about the college, its campus, and professors changed completely. All the facilities offered at NIT Trichy are at par with foreign institutes. The senior students here are extremely helpful and generous at giving their books and notes too,” adds Shubham.

On asking about the first thing one would notice when they would set step into NIT Tiruchirappalli campus, Shubham says, “There is this magnificent Clock tower, which represents NIT Trichy in its logo, in the entrance area of the college. It is one of the prominent thing every student would notice upon entering the institute.”

What makes NIT Trichy exceptionally good?

The institute is spread over 888 acres of land, offering plenty of hangout spots to students to have a good time with friends. “According to me the infrastructure of NIT Trichy is way beyond any normal college. The food is great, especially the breakfast. I love the Dosas served there. Then, there are messes for people from different regions like Kerela, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and North India,” defines Shubham.

He also added, “The food is pretty cheap here as we have a lot of private canteens and messes in and around the campus. I like going to the Dhabas, just outside our campus to try different varieties of food.

Giving an insight of college activities, Shubham asserts, “We have three National level fests which include Festember- Our cultural fest, Pragyan- Our technical fest, and NIT TRICHYFEST – our inter departmental cultural and sports fest. All departments have their own symposiums and students from different regions are constantly found celebrating their regional festivals.”

Things that NIT Trichy lacks

According to Shubham, there is sense of regionalism in some parts of the college. Then there is this “roll call” for girls in which they are supposed to be inside their hostel main gate by 9 and give attendance. He feels that there is no need for the institute to do this. He also feels that Tiruchirapalli, as a city needs to have some more Malls and recreational places.

Daily affair at NIT Trichy

The classes at NIT Trichy start at 8:30 in the morning and continue till 12:10 in the afternoon. Students get their lunch break between 12:10 and 1:30 followed by lab session, which runs till evening 4:30. As mentioned by Shubham, the Saturdays and Sundays are holidays.

The Industrial visits are managed by students and it’s them who decide when and where to go for an Industrial tour. “Having a Brand name of NIT Trichy gives us ease of access to all major industries,” added Shubham.

Talking about the attendance in class, Shubham told Shiksha that they need minimum 75% attendance in all subjects to appear for the exam, or else students have to attend extra mandatory classes. “The College people are pretty strict about the attendance thing so we make sure that we complete 75% attendance per year,” said Shubham.

He added further, “I generally maintain attendance of 87% on an average, but there are students with 100% attendance and also those with an attendance lag.” Narrating how students are evaluated at NIT Trichy, Shubham adds, “We have a 10 point grading system, wherein students are evaluated on the basis of relative grading. It’s a normal average grade point system, in which top 10% of students will get ‘S’ grade while next 20% gets ‘A’, and other next 20% gets ‘B’ and it goes on.”

A quick glance at hostel life

NIT Trichy has 22 boy’s hostels and 7 girl’s hostels, all of which are well maintained. Shubham asserted, “In spite of few issues such as water shortage because of less rainfall in the area, one would definitely won’t feel like going home after staying here. Hostels are always clean and all rooms are properly equipped. We even sleep on the terrace sometimes with friends or talk whole night. The WIFI connection of our hostel is really good.”

Shubham believes that NIT Trichy is one of the best colleges to be in for under graduation. “My life here is superb and believe me when I tell you, I really don’t feel like going home for my vacations,” he adds.

The fun factor at NIT Trichy

“We have a Shopping Centre in the campus, an IIM canteen, a fighter plane outside architecture department, student’s activity center, a Helipad, and a CCD, to hang out with friends after the classes,” said Shubham. He continues, “Students here are really fun loving, we like to enjoy sports activities together, plan trips, and participate in cultural fest to get connected with each other. We have some geniuses too in the college, some of whom are going to MIT for higher studies and some have secured 100 percentile in CAT. It’s always good to have so much talent around.”

Shubham was the part of Volleyball team for first two years. He likes reading books and play carom and watch English TV series in his free time. “I am a manager at Pragyan, Festember and a few more clubs that keep organizing some or the other events in the college. I participate in group activities to keep myself engaged with other students,” Said Shubham.

Message to engineering aspirants preparing for JEE Mains

According to Shubham, getting into a college like NIT Trichy is not easy, he says, “It’s pretty hard to get into this college, especially if you are an ‘other state’ student. So, one really needs to score high in JEE Mains to get into NIT Trichy or any other top engineering institute.” He further added, “Anyone joining NIT Trichy should try to have a little knowledge of Tamil as it will help them in communicating with people who doesn’t know Hindi.”

After completing engineering studies, Shubham wants to pursue management course for which he has already started his preparations, “I will be appearing for CAT this November and going for MBA as soon as I get out. Currently, I am doing a research project in Institute of Chemical Engineering, Mumbai. I also did a Summer Research Project on topic Integrated Membrane separation processes for Food and Beverage Industries under Dr. S. Sridhar, Scientist, IICT Hyderabad,” explained Shubham.