Haridwar University B.Tech Review By Aaryan Sakuja

'RCOE' is quite an impressive College. For students who are from Roorkee, there are two of the best Engineering Colleges present. IIT Roorkee is of course the most sought after and after that it's RCOE. Both the Colleges are similar in a lot of ways as the education pattern, the semester exam timings, and more or less the syllabus are entirely the same. We were taught from the leaf taken out of their syllabus as RCOE management left no stone unturned in making sure that students here get as much as the students of IIT Roorkee get. For me, RCOE is a long-term candidate because the College has started showing signs of progress recently. Almost all the Top IT Companies like Microsoft, Google, Adobe, and Amazon have started coming to RCOE and we were trained and prepared to crack jobs in such companies. Many students did and I got placed through RCOE and have no regrets in saying that it was RCOE that has helped us with many green shoots that it has to offer.

On the evidence of what I have seen in academics, every year, the College has progressed with its system. Some years it went slow, while on some it went too fast. Things moved up and down, but what was fixed was the academics at RCOE. Any College or University can't fire constantly, but whatever RCOE has, they have ensured that the maximum fire they have is invested in academics. In the shopping list of RCOE, they have hunted for some of the best faculties, as they are the ones who can get academics going. Overall, academics need an entire show of their own because explaining everything in detail is not possible. So, in short, the academics at RCOE are as fixed as anything, and there's no scope for any changes that are required at RCOE.

If not faculties the education here has been dismal. I am saying so because facilities here are less. Also, the exposure that we get after the management trying their best is a little below par, and to cover all the dismal parts there are faculties of RCOE who have done tremendously well in covering up things. Practicals happen almost every alternate day. Even if someone needs the same practical sessions to go on for a while, the faculty has hardly denied it. So, the faculties are in a true sense the backbone of RCOE.

I have already mentioned the companies that have visited the RCOE campus. The placements were much better in our year than the previous two years as I saw them live, and I knew that it will only scale when our time comes. Students become eligible for placements here from the 7th semester as we can give interviews from there on. Fair opportunities are provided to all and complaints will always be there; but in my books, the College has done its bit. I am not saying this because I got placed, but overall placements were over 70% and that's a great achievement for any College or University.

Not just academics, but even the hostel pattern of RCOE is copied from IITs. In IITs, every hostel is called 'Bhawan' and at RCOE too. The two boys' hostels were called 'KD' and 'ML Bhawan'. Both the hostels looked good to me, but because I didn't stay at the hostel, commenting on the facilities won't be fair on my part. I hardly care though, because having hostels is important as the College is on Haridwar Road and there are no PGs around. They are at a distance and commuting can be an issue. However, the hostels were not sufficient because the seats have been increased for CSE, but the hostels aren't.

There are too many questions regarding Infrastructure because the campus is big but still lacks some of the facilities. Firstly, the classrooms didn't have ACs, but the canteen did. It should be either way round as we used to spend more time in classrooms. They started getting installed and the open lecture theater did have it, but couldn't reach the classrooms till I was there. In terms of sporting facilities, the outdoor facilities are unquestionable, but in the scorching heat of Roorkee, we needed great indoor sporting facilities which were lacking. So, hot and cold or sweet and sour is how I can sum up the Infrastructure of RCOE.

The College's best strength is its academics, so campus life will feel a little low to those who had other plans in their mind. The College was not short of activities, but they haven't copied this part with IIT; otherwise, campus life too would have been the best. The annual fest and all saw a good crowd as students who didn't even participate made sure they were at least present to witness the events. Not just the annual fest, but even the summer fest where international DJs were called was also one of the best moments that I had at RCOE.