Indian Institute of Technology M.Tech Review By Harsh Upadhyay

'IIT Kanpur' stays in business from the start to give students an interesting finish with some of the top placements. Admissions are tough here as IIT Kanpur needs the top rankers in GATE to enter the gates of IIT Kanpur. In IITK there can never be a case of do I nudge or whether I should be positive. At IITK you have to stay positive at all costs because studies at M. Tech are tough and B. Tech students will take most of the limelight. Students who come from average Colleges always feel left out because they have already missed a beautiful campus life previously, and at IITK, they are left with minimal time to give themselves any chance of indulging in extracurricular activities. Everyday, we have to take it on as life can never be as simple as it seems at IITK. All the things about fests and projects that you hear are from B. Tech. People hardly know about the life of M. Tech students at IITK as their placement figures are never discussed in general discussions and nor do many people know about the M. Tech program as most students give up after doing B. Tech.

Academics were never this way or that way at IITK. The Institute was clear that this is the method and this is the schedule, and we are going to go that way. After the orientation program got over, we had to be right up there with the classes because missing even a single class was a huge loss. It was impossible to cover the topics and the practical if unfortunately; they are missed due to any circumstances. Yes, all the classes were recorded, but practicals were impossible to cover beyond the labs. Seeking help from fellow students would be the last nail in the coffin, as students doing M. Tech hardly had time to spend extra time and explain it to the ones who have missed it. So, never skip a single practical no matter what or else you will be left behind. I have felt that pain and I know what it takes to be behind the 8th ball at IITK or any IITs for that matter.

Faculties were a big heave-ho as they thought we were as genius as they were. They would give us time to get back, but they thought we were smart enough to clear, but it wasn't the case with everyone. I am not being critical at all but because due to a death in the family I missed 2 weeks of College; because of that I lagged, and that made me unhappy with my faculty, who kept on teaching, and me kept running on the things that I have missed. Their experience, their knowledge and reading the line and length of what they taught was easy.

Placement's part doesn't need much of a discussion. If ever there's a 100 placement than that is at M. Tech programs at IITs. Top companies in the IT sector, which tops the chart in market capitalization were there and they built some of their brand-building by boosting up their portfolio by bringing on some of the best engineers. They offered B. Tech students a juicy cheque and were ready to spend double of that on M. Tech students. So, placements without an iota of doubt were the best at IITK.

I will only be discussing Hall 12 as I stayed there both the years. It is one of the most expensive residence halls of IITK, but the facilities and rooms were much better than that of other halls. I saw Hall 5 and saw that there was hardly any space to move, and without looking at any other halls, I decided to stay at Hall 12 because it looks like a different complex on campus.

There's no point discussing the area of the campus as I thought LPU was the biggest campus in India, but IITK was much bigger than that. Development-wise too, IITK has been developed as the latest incubation center and it is the best incubation center in the country. The library was one of the biggest as I have been to many libraries, but have never seen such a huge library in my entire life. The cafés on the campus were the best as I have tried a few restaurants in Kanpur and they were not even close to what the cafes at IITK were.

Most of those two years were spent at the campus. There were a considerable amount of things to do academically so to take time out for 'Antaragini' and tons of events that the campus of IITK hosted were not meant for students like us. The entrepreneurship and technical fest at the campus 'Techkriti' saw students from various IITs coming and showing their projects. IIT Delhi was the winner both the years during my time but IIT Kanpur was not the last either.