Symbiosis Centre for Media & Communication BJMC Review By Siddhi Mehta

Symbiosis Centre for Media and Communication is one of the best colleges for media studied. I did my specialization in advertising and now work in the same Industry. The college makes you ready for the real world out there with its course structure, faculty actually working in the industry, mid-semester internships and of course placements. It's ranked the No.1 college for media and communication since the past 3-4 years and affiliated with SIU (Symbiosis International University).

The admission process is simple, there is an entrance test called the SET followed by a Group Discussion or a creative round along with a personal interview. Based on the overall score you get admission in the college. You can choose from the 4 specializations it offers - Advertising, Audio Video Communication, Journalism & Public Relations.

The course offered by Symbiosis Centre for Media and Communication is a professional course. It's not only theory, but the assignments, midterm internships make this a very practical course with real learning. You get to apply whatever you learn in the term/semester during the internship. I applied for the advertising course and I learnt a lot during that course from traditional advertising approaches like radio advertising to new and advanced advertising avenues like digital marketing.

The course gave me a clear picture of what options I have in the field of advertising & what I would like to pick up & pursue. The course also gave me a chance to try and intern at various agencies in different departments & see where I fit perfectly. The internships prepare you and make you ready for any job you might want to do. The course was over and above my expectations.

The faculty at SCMC is one of the best you will come across. Each semester has around 15 modules each with 2 credits & each module has a different faculty expert in that particular field. The faculty comes with actual industry experience e.g. Digital marketing course was taught by a top management employee from Ogilvy to give the students an actual feel of how the industry works & what each course' true essence is.

Most faculty members have been teaching for over 10+ years and are very well versed with the course and topics related to it. Faculty is very promising and more than happy to help clear doubts and even provide/discuss other doubts a student might have. The college has in-house faculty & also calls industry specialists for different modules so the students can get the best education.

The placement & internship cell is very good. They have a strong database of alumni & the organizations they work at & are able to get internship/placement for every student who applies for it. Students get an opportunity to work at the best of agencies/organizations like Google, The Republic, Ogilvy, Yashraj Studios, MSL Group etc. to name a few top ones.

They conduct placement interviews & students get a chance to apply even before college is over. The pay package as per industry standards. Most of the students also receive offers from their internship companies, so they can join those organizations after the course is over. The college has a close to 95% placement success ratio of students to apply for placements.

The hostel is a common hostel between students from various Symbiosis Institutes in Viman Nagar. The hostel comes with various room options which a student can select from (2 sharing/ 3 sharing etc). The hostel has around 6 wings, 4 for women and 2 for men. All rooms in the hostel have an attached bathroom & each student gets a bed, mattress, cupboard, table and chair.

Each hostel has a mess with vegetarian, non-vegetarian and eggetarian options available. The accommodation is given first come, first serve basis. The hostel follows strict laws and has its own code of conduct. The students have a very comfortable stay at the hostel & it's very close to the college. Moreover there are many shuttle buses for students to go to- fro from campus to hostel.

SCMC shares its building space with Symbiosis Institute of Design. The 5th & 6th floors are reserved for SCMC. Each floor has screening rooms and seminar halls for the best learning experience. Apart from that the college also has a dark room (photography lab), editing studio, audio visual room, library, audio recording room, computer lab etc. for holistic theoretical and practical learning for students.

The college has an auditorium, mess, cafeteria, CCD, gym, medical room, play ground etc. all shared among the 3 Symbiosis Institutes present on the same campus. The campus is very well designed and provides areas to just relax and mingle with students from different courses & also a calm and tranquil environment to learn and grow.

Campus life on SCMC is extremely popular. From various educations clubs like Journalism, Advertising, PR clubs etc. the college also has extracurricular clubs like Drama, Debate, Dance, Music clubs. The students can opt for these clubs and mostly conducted by the 3rd year students are a great way to exchange knowledge and also build good relationship with the seniors.

The college has fests, when I was studying it TISS which a film making competition and other was DZMA which we organize together with the Symbiosis Design College. The fests have various activities and also fun events like DJ night, music concerts and other acts like stand up to name a few. The fest is not so great but it's a 3 day fun event to be a part of. One can join the organization committee and learn to lead as well.