BITS, Goa

Submitted by Neil Dhruva:-

Birla Institute of Technology and Science

Birla Institute of Technology and Science is an Institution declared as Deemed to be University under Sec. 3 of the UGC Act. It is currently the No. 1 ranked private institute in India, 7^th overall following the IITs. It is located in Pilani, Rajasthan, with three more campuses, one each in Goa, Hyderabad and Dubai (mainly for overseas students).

Admission:

BITS offers admission to students based on their performance in an all-India Entrance Examination called BITS Admission Test (BITSAT). The exam tests the candidate's knowledge, reasoning and analytical abilities in Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, English and Logical reasoning, and is based broadly on the higher secondary curriculum in India (NCERT curriculum). To be eligible for admissions, prospective students are also required to obtain a minimum aggregate of 80% marks in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics (subject to a minimum of 60% in each of these three subjects) in their 10+2 board exams.

BITSAT differs from the conventional written examination as it is an online exam held at more than 20 places all over India. As it is difficult for all the students (nearly 2 lakhs) to appear on a single day, this exam is conducted over a period of nearly 40 days. A candidate can choose the date of exam and the time-slot. There are around 50 sets of papers and necessary precautions are taken to maintain uniformity in the level of difficulty of all these sets.

Another very important aspect of the BITS admission model, unlike most of the other colleges in India, is that admission is purely on the basis of merit and not through any kind of reservation. Further details regarding BITSAT, admission modality etc. are provided at BITS Admissions (for students pursuing undergraduate studies).

Curriculum:

The Institute has a three-tier academic structure viz. Integrated First Degree, Higher Degree and Doctoral programmes. Each tier offers many degrees and within a degree a number of courses are offered.

Integrated First Degree (undergraduate studies):

BITS offers Integrated First Degree programmes in Bachelor of Engineering (B.E. (Hons.)), Bachelor of Pharmacy (B.Pharm (Hons.)), Master of Science (M.Sc (Hons.)), Master of Science (M.Sc (Technology)), and Master of Arts (M.A (Hons.)). Various programmes are offered with the degrees and these are classified into 3 groups A, B & C.

• Group A: Chemical, Civil, Electrical & Electronics, Mechanical, Pharmacy, Computer Science, Electronics and Instrumentation, Electronics and Communication, Manufacturing.
• Group B: Biological Sciences, Chemistry, Economics, Mathematics, Physics.
• Group C: Information Systems, General Studies, Engineering Technology, Finance.

The unique feature in the BITS education system is the option for dual degree which I am pursuing at the Goa campus. Students who opt for a degree in Group B, are offered a dual degree from Group A at the end of the first year according to their performance in the first year. In my case, I missed out on B.E. (Hons.) Computer Science at the Goa campus by a couple of marks on my BITSAT score. Thus, instead of settling for a B.E. (Hons.) degree I could get at my score, I have opted for MSc. Economics and according to my performance in the first year, I’ll be offered a B.E. (Hons.) course next year onwards, which means I get one more shot at pursuing Computer Science. I thus have a 5-year integrated course instead of 4, that’s the only difference between me and a CS student. For the first year, every student studies the same courses, so I don’t miss out on anything at all. For further details check out “More Details” at: Curriculum.

Campuses and Campus Life:

The campus at Pilani was the first to be established, followed by Goa and recently, Hyderabad. Pilani still holds priority on students’ list for admission, but Goa and Hyderabad are fast catching up.

There is no difference amongst the campuses as far as the curriculum, teaching methods and opportunities are concerned. Even the text books used for each course are the same. The only difference lies in the cut-offs, Pilani being at the top. Well, that would indeed mean the brightest of them all study at Pilani, but the campuses are not far from coming at par with each other.

I study at the Goa campus, and my experience so far has been great. Faculty in the first year hasn’t been what I expected, but for the core courses, we have some of the best teachers in the country. Each of the campuses has three events that take place during the course of the year covering cultural, sports and technical fields. At Goa, these are Waves, Spree and Quark respectively. Students from various technical institutes from all over India including the IITs and NITs participate in these events.

Along with these, we have intra-college festivals and activities taking place throughout the year. We also have departments and associations for each course like ASCII for CS, EEE Assoc. for EEE students and so on. Along with these, various clubs are run by student elected representatives and usually coordinated by a faculty member for each. These include Music Society, Dance Club, Drama Society, Literary & Debating Club, English Press Club, Rock Club, Mime Club, BITS & Bytes Computer Club etc. Students can participate in any of these clubs and their events. The representatives manage entire activities and budget of the organization beforehand and plan out events for the entire semester in advance.

There are also a number of research centres developed for students pursuing higher degree programmes. Various student chapters have also been established like Nirmaan’s Goa Chapter. Nirmaan is a non-profit organisation dedicated "To achieving a poverty free, knowledge driven and thus an economically empowered society".

Residence: It is compulsory for all students to reside in the hostels at each of the campuses throughout their time at the campus. These are pretty well maintained. For further details, refer to: BITS-Goa.

Practice School:

A very unique feature of the BITS model of education is Practice School. The Practice School (PS) system of education is essentially an effort to establish institutionalized linkages between the industrial world and the academic world. PS education establishes classrooms in the industrial world (designated as 'Practice School Stations') across the country, and even abroad. Students are drawn from all the disciplines of engineering, science and humanities. They involve themselves in problem-solving activities of direct interest and relevance to Practice Stations. This gives the students a hands-on experience of working for various companies associated with BITS (which includes giants like DreamWorks, Accenture etc.) with the knowledge gained in their college years.

The Practice School programme for the Integrated First Degree has two components, namely Practice School-I of two months duration offered during the summer following the second year of the degree and Practice School-II of five and a half months duration offered during either of the semesters of the final year of the degree. The Practice School programme for Higher Degree has a single component, namely Practice School for Higher Degree which is also of five and a half months duration and is offered in the final semester of the Higher Degree programme. Further details are provided here: Practice Schools.

Alumni Association:

The BITS Alumni Association (BITSAA) over the years has increasingly contributed to its alma mater and is very active in India and abroad. The BITSAA International's primary purpose is to engage in charitable and educational activities by raising funds for setting up endowments, creating scholarships, rewarding teaching and research and generally promoting the development of resources at Birla Institute of Technology & Science at Pilani. It also aims to strengthen the ties, friendship and communications amongst former students, current students, faculty and friends of the Institute. Various initiatives have been taken up by BITS Alumni recently:

Initiative-1: BITSConnect--The Gigabit backbone was a $1.5 Million project jointly led by BITS Alumni and BITS Pilani resulting in a state-of-the-art campus wide network. This initiative provided broadband access, telephones and video conferencing abilities in every room, staff quarters & guest house, as well as wireless access in Sky lawns & the library. It also connects all the students to each other and the institutes’ computers. Instructions, lecture slides etc. are shared by the teachers with students though the intranet. Also, students share up to an average of 50TB of information (incl. sitcoms, movies, e-books etc.) round the clock along this network.

Initiative-2: The Oysters Lab(OLAB) Center for VLSI and Embedded design. In the second initiative, BITS Alumni are working with BITS Pilani to create a state-of-the-art VLSI lab. This is to provide the university with advanced computing infrastructure for Very Large Scale Integration(VLSI) and embedded design.

BITS, as I mentioned earlier, is one of the most prestigious and premier institutes of India. Students studying here belong to the cream of the country and it is an awesome feeling to be a part of this institute. You can also refer to the following website created by two students of BITS-Pilani; the forum consists of all the topics that you may require assistance with or have questions about, answered by BITS students themselves: BITS 360.

Georgia Institute of Technology

There are definitely several other institutions that offer similar or better opportunities than Georgia Tech. But as I’m at Tech here’s what I like about it.

1. The variety of majors that it has to offer. Seven of its schools are ranked in the top five for their discipline. It thus gives you the opportunity to switch a major without compromising on the level of the academic program being offered. You might think you know what you want to do but people usually have second thoughts after they start their major related courses. And its just about keeping your options open I guess. There’s Emory University in Atlanta too, and Georgia Tech shares a program with it where you can take certain classes at Emory. This just enables you to come to Georgia Tech undecided about what you want to do and just explore around. (And there’s always UGA).

2. It has a wonderful cooperative education program and a great career services department that is willing to help you find a suitable internship or co-op if you show the necessary interest.

3. Georgia Tech has fabulous study abroad programs. They offer programs in the UK, France, South America, China, Singapore, Australia-New Zealand, the Pacific Ocean (its called A Semester at the Seas or something like that), and several other places. What’s amazing about these programs is that the professors are from Georgia Tech’s Atlanta campus and the whole program is tailored keeping in mind that the students shall be traveling while they are there. So it’s a wonderful way to get through a couple credits and see beautiful places. I can personally vouch for the fact that studying abroad is a very interesting experience. Let me put it this way, you’re going to travel so much, that you’re going to look forward to a weekend where you can just laze around. Study abroad programs are an awesome way to spend a meaningful summer semester. And they usually turn out to be cheaper than actually studying at Georgia Tech’s Atlanta campus.

4. Atlanta being a huge commercial center and home to several companies, leads to several work related opportunities for Georgia Tech students too. I see a lot of students interning with Coca Cola and Delta airlines, two huge companies based in Atlanta.

I’ll try to keep updating this thing with more information but feel free to email (patelsaagar@gmail.com) me with any specific questions.

Saagar Patel

Industrial and Systems Engineering

Georgia Institute of Technology

Addendum:

Hey guys/gals,

I know Saagar has already written about Georgia Institute of Technology, but I wanted to add some more stuff to it. Something about me, I was always into biology and wanted to do something related to it. But I did not want to be a Doctor, I therefore chose Biomedical Engineering as my major. There are not many schools for Biomedical Engineering in India, so if you wanna pursue this major that you might have to travel abroad to US, Europe or Australia for the same. For some of you who don't exactly know what Biomedical Engineering is; A career in the field of Biomedical Engineering(BME) is to be of service to people; for the excitement of working with living systems; and to apply advanced technology to the complex problems of medical care. You work with marvelous devices like Body Fat Monitors, Heart Valves, Pacemakers, Pedometers, MRI Scanning Machines and all those devices that work to provide a better health and life for us humans.

Here are some of the benefits you would have if you come to Tech (most of them are related to Biomedical Engineering):-

1. Georgia Tech is ranked the second best in the United States for Biomedical Engineering.
2. We collaborate with Emory University with all our research programs.
3. THE-QS World University Rankings ranked Georgia Tech as the No.8 university in technology in 2008, which fell to No. 12 in 2009
4. Georgia Tech has been No. 8 public school in USA and ranked in the top-ten since the last ten years.
5. Georgia Tech's BME Program is very different from many other BME Programs out there. We here at Tech have a Program in which we rarely use textbooks and are supposed to gain knowledge by digging out information from the net. For example, we have many classes in our curriculum, where we meet in Personal Based Learning (PBL) Rooms. In these rooms we have 8 students and 1 facilitator. The facilitator provides us with a real problem faced by the world. Our group was given a problem about Diagnosing Lung Cancer. We had to read articles, perform experiments, and find out ways by which it would be easier to diagnose and treat Lung Cancer. If the groups research was really good than we could also patent it. Overall I personally think that’s awesome.
6. As Saagar mentioned earlier, we have some great study abroad programs. I, Saagar and Chirag did a study abroad in France in the summer of 2009. It was a great experience and I visited countries like Belgium, Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Vatican, Luxembourg and Holland.
7. Atlanta is a growing commercial center and it shelters many fortune 500 companies, like Home Depot, UPS, Coca-Cola, Delta Airlines(Saagar is a co-op here), Mohawk Industries Inc.(Chirag is an intern here) Southern Company, SunTrust Banks, Genuine Parts, AGCO, Newell-Rubbermaid, Asbury Automotive Groups, Aflac Inc., and many more.
8. One more benefit is that the university is situated in the center of the city, which helps out a lot as you would not be isolated from the outside world.
9. There is so much more ....... log on to www.gatech.edu for more.

Harit Patel
Biomedical Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology

DDIT, Nadiad

The author wishes to remain anonymous:

You all may hav read somethin or the other abt doin engineerin in colleges abroad so let me give u all a brief insight into the education in india especially gujarat.

i hav had 2 years of experience in engineerin in DDIT which is counted as the second best college in gujarat after Nirma. but let me tell u all frankly, even if u r studyin in d best college in gujarat just dnt expect tht u'l be gettin d best education.

i hav studied in Snk for 15 years n according to me if a person has these many years of experience in SNK, then he/she should not opt for admission for graduation in engineering in gujarat n tht implies to all colleges in gujarat. The standard of colleges here is really not comparable to our school's level.

The students of SNK's calibre just dont deserve to be in gujarat. Im not saying tht these colleges are bad or anything but if one wants to excel then he/she cant do tht while he's here.

The best choice would be to go abroad after 12th for higher education coz the students here just dont get the enough exposure in these colleges though d syllabi or courses are similar to tht taught abroad.

Another major advantage of going outside India or for tht matter to US is tht we can choose our courses n classes according to our will i.e. they hav the credits system whereas in india once u choose a course u dnt hv d freedom of choosin different classes. u hav to go for the classes pre-decided by the college n u hav no other option.

One of the main drawbacks which atleast i hav faced while studyin in my college is tht we tend to lose tht touch over d english language, we just dnt hav enough control of it as we used to hav earlier. Tht is coz we'l be among Gujarat board students n teachers as well. Im sure after 4 yrs in DDIT i'd hav forgotten all the grammar n vocabulary n d basics.

Let me share my experience of the first few months after comin to DDIT. Being among gujrat board students i just didnt fit here. For the most part of the 1st yr i felt very uncomfortable n constantly felt like running away from this place. This was mainly coz d teachers over here are nothing compared to those of our school. Only a few of them are very good, others are just the pass outs/ freshers n thus hav no experience in teaching. Constantly bein under this type of guidance suppresses one's curiosity as tht teacher is not able to answer our questions satisfactorily. And im not sayin tht there r no good teachers. Some of them hav so vast a knowledge but they are hard to find.

Another disadvantage of studyin in gujarat is tht there are very few seats of CBSE/ISC Boards in all colleges. Only 4 out 120 seats is just too scarce a ratio!! This further downs our chances of getting admission into best colleges.

Now lets look at some positives abt studyin in gujarat....

• here once u hav made good friends group which is very easy over here, one can hav quite a good social life n can enjoy life to its fullest.
• there's very less work load or u can say no workload at all, no pressure from d teachers to study, no tension of submittin assignments. Thus u can be very carefree.
• Sometimes u may hav heard tht a student has gone into depression or he may hav been harassed beyond limits during ragging. U needn't worry abt stuffs lik tht while u r in gujarat especially in DDIT. Its not at all severe unlike other states for eg maharashtra where sometimes students leave d college just coz of ragging.

So in all i'd lik to say tht you get to enjoy with ur friends here in guj very much unlike US where one can enjoy only on weekends but if you give preference to ur EDUCATION rather than other factors lik good social life, the best choice would be to go to US.

And I’d be glad of course to answer any queries which may arise.

Always wanted to study abroad in another country? Here's your chance....

Before I came to college, I had heard of exchange programs and some other opportunities to study in other countries. I guess being in a diverse country like India my whole life has made me an admirer of different languages and cultural traditions. Coming to a college with a great deal of diversity and students from tens of countries around the world has made me even more of a sucker for linguistics and variety in culture.

Study abroad programs are specialised programs in which a student goes to another country for a specific time period to study language, and/or experience the culture and society. Many US colleges have mutually beneficial affiliations with many colleges abroad and also a ton of scholarships for study abroad programs. One may have options like :

1) Work in an African country like Tanzania with an NGO and study part time with that. This combines studying and an internship. Reason for stating Tanzania is that my roomate is going to do that program next year.

2) Go to Asia to a place like Japan if you're into oriental cultures and languages (Although i must confess that I never really was attracted to pictorial language scripts like Chinese and Japanese because I suck at art and anything remotely related to drawing scares me.). My second roomate is going to Japan in his last year.

3) Go to Europe to a place like Germany. This is what I want to do because I'm taking German language courses and always wanted to speak more German than just the common words they speak in German movies like "Schnell" and "Jawol".

At college, I discovered a vast array of study abroad programs in countries in almost all continents. (Well im pretty sure they dont have colleges down in Antarctica, so exclude that one. Also they say its pretty cold down there and all you'll get to eat is moss, penguin sandwiches and ice).

Well, people may raise a question - Why study abroad when we already know english? Its because every passing day, the firewalls between economies are disappearing and one needs to be a global citizen. Employers especially look at varied traits like proficiency in languages and cultural experiences positively.

I am posting the link to the Ohio state university study abroad site. Interested in how it works and what sort of programs are offered? check it out.

http://oia.osu.edu/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,1/

And surely there is one thing that a person can claim after studying abroad; global citizenship, which, unlike a national passport, doesn't expire after in 10 years.

Harit

Law in India

Post by Ranjita Talukdar:-

In India , legal education has been traditionally offered as a three years graduate degree conferring the title of LL.B. (Bachelor of Laws) or B.L. (Bachelor of Law).

However the legal education system was revised by the Bar council of India, the governing body of legal education, in 1984.Various autonomous law schools were established which administer five years undergraduate degree programme and confer an integrated honours degree, such as "B.A.,LL.B. (Honours)", "B.B.A, LL.B. (Honours)", "B.Sc., LL.B. (Honours)", etc.

Both the types of degrees (i.e. three years and five years integrated honours) are recognized and are also qualifying degrees for practice of legal profession in India . The eligibility qualification for the three year law degree is that the applicant must already be a holder of a Bachelor's degree, for being eligible for the five years integrated law degree, the applicant must have successfully completed Class XII.

The National Law School of India University(popularly 'NLS'),in Bangalore was the first to give the five years course.These law universities were meant to offer a multi-disciplinary and integrated approach to legal education. It was therefore for the first time that a law degree other than LL.B. or B.L. was granted in India . NLS offered a five years law course upon the successful completion of which an integrated degree with the title of "B.A.,LL.B. (Honours)" would be granted.

Thereafter other law universities were set up, all offering five years integrated law degree with different nomenclature. For example the National Law University, Jodhpur offered for the first time in 2001 the integrated law degree of "B.B.A, LL.B. (Honours)" which was preceded by the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences offering the "B.Sc., LL.B. (Honours)" degree. We have our own law university in Gandhinagar too.

However despite these specialized law universities, the traditional three year degree continues to be offered in India by other institutions and is equally recognized as eligible qualifications for practicing law in India . Another essential difference that remains is that while the eligibility qualification for the three year law degree is that the applicant must already be a holder of a Bachelors degree, for being eligible for the five years integrated law degree, the applicant must have successfully completed Class XII.

The holders of the three year degree and of the five year integrated degree are eligible for enrollment with the Bar council of India upon the fulfillment of eligibility conditions and upon enrollment, may appear before any court in India .

Entrance exam

Earlier each institute conducted its own entrance exam. It is from 2008 that the Common Law Admission Test has been introduced. The Application Form is available from 12th January, 2009. The last date for submission of duly filled-in Application Form is 10th April, 2009. www.clat.ac.in

Apart from taking coaching, you can prepare for the exam on your own. If you seriously want to pursue the course, start preparing after 10th itself. Base your preparation on the previous papers of the institutes of NLS, Bangalore www.nls.ac.in and NALSAR, Hydrebad www.nalsar.ac.in, as they have been conducting their individual exams from quite some years. You will have to order them by post. The placements are good including foreign ones, especially of the top law schools like NLS, NALSAR.

My cousin(Upamanyu Talukdar) who is in the final year of the 3yrs L.L.B course,Law Faculty of Delhi University can be contacted at upamanyu.talukdar@gmail.com. This is something that I asked him to write,hoping it might help:-

"there is nothing like getting in2 1 of the top notch law schools rght after ur 12th.......these law schools include NLS banglore -NUJS kolkata -NALSAR hyd - NLU jodhpur -ILS pune and 1 or 2 more........placements r like rocking......u gt 2 wrk in foreign law firms.....interestingly a few years bk the entire batch of nls banglore opted 4 foreign placement....isnt it gr8?

but the catch is that u ve 2 crack CLAT 2 b in 1 of these premier LAW SCHOOLS.... wat i'll suggest is read frontline magazine regularly and religiously.....becos clat is a test designed by nls faculty and they r a l'il biased 2wards south india and south indian events.....frontline covers south indian news......besides be good at writing short notes....and mind the word limit.....maths is very preliminary so not 2 wrry much....a lil practice wld do good.....reasoning is very trickey as far as i remember....so try 2 go thru RS aggarwal's logical reasoning......

besides law people can also opt 4 courses in designing 4m NIFT it's 2 good but i dnt knw much about it's entrance....so u nd 2 find it out.....

ok that is all i can say .....if u want 2 knw something mre lemme knw...

ban2."

Life in NUS

There has already been a post about education in Singapore and I hope not to repeat what has already written but rather show you another aspect of life and education in Singapore.

An ex-SNKian from the class of 2007 I came here after my 10th grade on the SIA Youth scholarship. After giving my A’levels in December ’07, I am currently studying Computer Engineering from the National University of Singapore (NUS).

I am going to go through the following aspects:

1. Social life
2. Diversity in education
3. Exchange programs
4. CCAs

A crucial aspect of University life that most of us fail to think about when choosing a college is the social one. We all want the best education and ofcourse it is the most important criterion. And yet the social atmosphere of the place where you are going to spend 4 years of your life is important too. NUS is a place where you can choose your Uni lifestyle. If you are the party-going type, it has a great night-life. If you are the geeky one, you will find your likes. The point being that the rich diversity of students from all over the world gives Singapore an edge. The numerous halls provide a rich ‘social life’ and yet if you value your personal space there is a range of residences to choose from. With more and more exchange students coming every year and hundreds of international students NUS is a truly global place and could give you the opportunity to connect with people from across the world. Valuable experience.

Unlike most Indian colleges NUS also offers the option (it is compulsory here. almost) of studying cross-faculty modules as breadths. This is important as never again in your life will you get a chance to say study photography, theatre, literature, music, French, German and journalism, to name a handful, in just a couple of years. You have the chance to explore your hobbies and interests in depth. This diversity which is also characteristic of many US colleges truly makes the Uni life fuller.

Not only does NUS offer a rich diversity in its student population but it also offers you the chance to go overseas through many programs like the Student Exchange Program and NUS Overseas College. NUS has liaison with various reputed Universities in China, Australia, Japan, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, UK, USA, etc (more than 25 nations). In addition NUS also has liaison with Universities like Stanford, University of Pennsylvania and Fudan University where you can study and intern with a start-up at the same time. This is a just a glimpse of the opportunities that you can grab. There are numerous other programs as well which might cater to you better and give you a global experience.

And lastly, NUS offers you numerous Co-curricular activities that you can take part in. Ranging from cultural, sports to entrepreneurial clubs which will give you the chance to learn something new and explore your talents fully. It is indeed an enriching experience as you get various opportunities to lead clubs and organise numerous events according to your interests. And ofcourse all this adds up to an impressive resume.

Hope you find this informative and ofcourse questions are welcome. Best luck!

Engineering @ Purdue (US University)

I hear this many times that apart from MIT, Stanford and Berkley, getting into a decent engineering college in US is not difficult. I agree to that notion but the reality is surviving the engineering courses at those schools.

I think doing an undergrad engineering degree at Purdue, Georgia Tech, UIUC, UT Austin, Texas A & M, UMICH, Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, Virginia Tech is more or less the same. The curriculum of these colleges overlaps as much as 75%. So if you get an admission into any of these (or equivalent colleges) and are going to be 100% dedicated thereafter, only then it's worth spending $35k per annum. Also not to forget the drop out rate of engineering students in public schools like these are the highest in the nation. Hence this proves that just getting in is not important, surviving the classes is more important.

Unlike IIT wherin they expect every student to have mastered all the concepts of Physics, Chemistry & Calculus before entering the colleges, in US remember that if you like a program they will start basically from scratch and grow on that. (Though i am not saying that IIT are not good, they are good in there own sense). It's like looking at a pyramid from the top. Your course in Calculus may start with limits and 1st order differential equation but by the end of 16 week semester they would have covered vector calculus, partial differentiation and multiple integrals too. The same thing is applicable for the rest of the engineering courses in a decent University.

The first year has got some FYE course to be finished. These are the basic tools for succeeding in the professional engineering school. Only after finishing these courses one can be admitted to the desired engineering school. The courses are Calculus I, II, III, Physics I, II, Chemistry I, II, CAD modeling/GDT, Seminar Engineering series, English Language (writing), Communication (writtent and verbal), Computer engineering problem solving tools. Even though some of the first year classes may have class strength of 250-300 students, but these are just the lectures in which the instructor is one of the best in his/her field and would be actively involved in some ground breaking research; but along with these are recitation/labs consisting of 25-30 students taught by graduate/Phd student. This is just to give you a feel of what engineering classes in first year really are. From second year onwards the class strength reduces.

In a good engineering school, there will be a dozen specialisation like aeronautics, mechanical, electrical, civil, chemical, biomedical, construction, industrial, material, agriculture, and etc. Not to forget along with this, a student can also pursue his/her area of a secondary course like management, entrepreneurship, economics, foreign language, mucis/performing arts, humanities & social science courses. Basically one can get a second degree or a minor degree in almost any field.

One of the greatest advantages offered by some good American Engineering Universities is the Co-Op and internship program. In a traditional Co-Op program (Cooperative education program) a student is hired by a company and is offered 3-5 internship alternating with the academic semester. This is a typically 4.5-5 year program but the extra year is worth the time. Apart from getting $2-3k per month a student gets valuable work experience on his/her resume realting to his academic major. This not only makes you more marketaeble after you graduate but also give you an exposure of the real engineering projects, functioning of a global company. I personally had a good experince working with Robert Bosch LLC. I was in the Engineering Developement of the Gasoline Systems Fuel Injection for the North America. Our plant was the biggest in North America. Even though it was my first internship, i got an opportunity to be a part of tele-conference with other engineers from Germany, Michigan. It was the real engineering work because whatever work i did, meant something to our department. I got to do some design and validation testing on developing products not yet launched in the market amd write some developement reports. This is a rare opportunity which is available in US. These are the programs that give you an edge in the early phase of your career. In India, average work experince of a high school graduate is nearly zero, so something like this is very helpful to us.

Also there are many engineering clubs in which you can join. Something like SAE would build a car and race with other clubs from various colleges across US. Such things give you a real feel of working in team with a diverse group of students. That is the case in real life, as thomas friedman says, "The world is really Flat", because in the life after college you would be working in an American company, with Asian engineers, product being desgined in Germany, parts imported from Mexico or Brazil and manufacturing happening in Australia. As the globalisation has become a crucial movement in the last decade having a good internation exposure is essential for all the students.

Apart from the undergraduate degree, US colleges are known world wide for their Graduate programs and Phd research programs. They have got all the world class facility with million dollar funding. Some colleges like Purdue, even have their own particle accelerator. Even for the undergraduate students there are research opportunities available rigth after the frehman year.
The research would be actually be done in some research park with some professor. Hence this is definitely something big for a student at such a young age.

Good Luck to all for your professional career. If you need any further guidance, i can be reached at patel57-at-purdue-dot-edu(Hope that screws up lots of web crawlers!).

999

(Note: Although I have shared my experiances at Purdue University, I am presuming that any other equivalent University would offer similar exposure to the students)