National Institute of Technology B.Tech Review By Sajan Pawan

'NIT Patna' a few days ago created a record by placing one of its students at a 1.38 crore package. In our time, though, the highest package was 34 lakhs. We were still happy as NIT Patna is ranked lower in NITs but has kept the pace at par with the top-ranked NITs. I did my best to get a berth at IITs but was happy even with NIT, which was in my state. The one negative about NIT Patna is the management over here as they work like snails. Even though Bihar, the College pays heed of attention to co-curricular activities. Many new clubs are formed now and then. Like all residential NITs, NIT Patna doesn't have a compulsion that you have to stay at the campus. The first-year boy's hostel was ultra-small as three to four students were accommodated in a single room. The good thing was that most NITs are on the outskirts while NIT Patna is in the middle of the city.

I wouldn't have said the same things till 4th semester, but after two years, I realized that academics are the core here. I was frustrated at times with the schedule and it was hot and cold in the first two years. Times changed as we were awarded internships from the College from the 3rd year. Internship gave us the feel of engineers as campus learning is not enough to understand the true definition of engineering. From the third year, we were taught on how engineering companies make businesses by providing services. So, a little bit of business management is also learned in the final two years.

The faculty is amazing as they were hired straight from the HRD ministry and only the ones who have a great record are assigned as professors here. This is a huge benefit as students here need strict professors because otherwise, Maithli would have been the national language at the campus. Most of the faculties were South Indian and to communicate with them English was the only language. Now here are two things, as the teaching faculty was as good as anything but the non-teaching staff, as I said before, are snails. The paperwork and even getting the I-Card, it takes ages. So, both aspects of the coin as the teaching faculty are as good as anything, and the non-teaching is as bad as anything.

A few days back, I am sure everyone must have heard the news of a student getting placed with Amazon at a package of 1.3 crores. The campus has been renovated a few years back and with that, it looks like the fortune too have been renovated. Fortune 500 companies like Samsung, Friscon, Siemens, Cognizant, TCS, and Wipro have always seen NIT Patna as a place where they will get the engineers that can take their companies to a level which is beyond reach. Students too have proved it as many passed out students here are serving not in India but top companies abroad. Companies like Amazon were the ones that gave the best offer to a student during our batch in 2016. They have shown more faith in students of NIT Patna than the top tech companies of India.

In 2012, when I joined the College, it wasn't a residential campus as the hostels could only accommodate half the strength. In 2015, the 'Brahmaputra Boys Hostel' was ready and now the capacity is up to date and students can no longer enjoy their stay off-campus. I stayed outside the campus, as it was not necessary to stay at the hostels then; and having said that, the old hostels were filthy. Thankfully, not the residential area but even the other parts of the campus have changed as a drastic change has happened in the last few years.

The College has the 'Holy Ganga' at its back and makes the campus look ever beautiful. The 60 acres of the campus would have been nothing if it wasn't Ganga at its back. The campus is located in such an area that from beer bottles to cricket bats, you will get everything within 500 meters from the College. From inside it is good in patches as the labs are great, but the classroom walls are in dire need of getting painted. It is now, but it wasn't then. The best part was the sports ground as Bihar may not have an International Cricket Stadium but NIT Patna's stadium was adept at hosting International matches.

The faculties at the campus believed in teaching us hard lessons, but I made friends who made my life delightful. In pure words, I can say they were the ones who made life awesome as Nescafe spot was our hideout. There was no ragging as some seniors made us write their assignments, but no harassment was done inside the campus.