Unofficial Prospectus

[Ramu Mutt]

This is where you get to give us the lowdown on your Campus. What's special about it? Where do people hangout? The profs rock? Click here to get an idea of the ideal Unoff! Post your entries up in this thread.

[Skud]

After four years of blissful inactivity, I graduated from the National University of Singapore last year. I guess that makes me an old bozo on this forum, but the campus is special enough for me to disregard this minor (?!) drawback.

Situated on the West Coast of Singapore, NUS offers something for every degenerate.

I'll start off with the eating places, because all things worth knowing happen in the canteens. Since the whole university is located in the same campus, there are a variety of digestive delights on offer for the connoisseur and the big fat man who eats anything that swims or has legs in multiples of two. Food stalls ranging from Vietnamese to Western grace almost all canteens and the fare on offer is very cheap by Singaporean standards. There are 7 such canteens dotting the campus, and each of them is very conveniently located, either right next to your faculty, where you can talk about how simply must start attending lectures, and then burst out laughing, or close to the student union and other offices, where you can not enroll in various 'enriching' activities. All the canteens have extremely pleasant facades, and time wasting will become a pleasure, I assure you. There is also a MacDonald's and Burger King on campus, in case you want to teach a lesson to those healthy arteries of yours. For the health conscious (ha!) there's a Subway and a general store that sells cigarettes. An ice cream parlor and a snack shop rounds off things nicely. All canteens have conveniently located bathrooms, in case those digestive delights want to see the world again.
Other than the regular canteens, there are small joints which are open till varying hours, (latest 1 A.M.) that sell Singaporean and Western food. A 24 hour "Prata" shop that sells a variety of Malay and Singaporean dishes sits right next to the campus, and is an all time student favorite - mainly due to lack of choice, during those peak hunger hours between 1 and 6 A.M.

Right - moving on to hostels. All are well equipped with facilities ranging from common rooms with T.V. to laundry rooms with dryers. The good (or bad) news is that unlike in India, all hostels are co-ed, which might make the prudes queasy, but they are very very safe. You might find your laundry bag holding some questionable contents at times - seeing as how the laundry rooms are shared too, but a handwritten note of apology stuck at a strategic place, accompanied with the return of the contents usually suffices. Of course your friends, if they know of this might call you a pervert and other unnameable names that haunt the rest of your uni days - but that almost never happens. Promise. Rooms are extremely well furnished and average in size. Enough for all your belongings. The weather is almost always pleasant and hence a non-issue. If your daddy's safe is bursting at the seams, you can release the pressure by putting up in a air-conditioned room complete with a personal toilet. If megalomania is what gets your groove on, you can apply to several positions in the student committees that help the administration in running the residences. You can live out your Hitler and Mussolini role playing fantasies through these. No one will ever listen to you of course, but my duty is to inform, not advise.

NUS has exceptional sporting infrastructure. The sickeningly active types can enroll in teams ranging from water polo to cricket. If you are good, you get to rub noses and maybe other things with the best athletes in Singapore - including Olympic participants and Ranji trophy players.

There is a plethora of student clubs that cater to interests both common and exotic. Indulge in theatrics with the NUS Drama Club, or hold on to your roots through NUS Muslim, Hindu, Tamil or Sikh societies. Other popular clubs include the Toastmasters, which provides training and conducts nation-wide debating tournaments, the Ridge team which produces the student magazine and the NUS Satya Sai Society - I kid you not - that attends to your spiritual needs.

Ah! Now to academia. I have absolutely no idea of that. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Rumors have it that the lecture theaters are magnificent and the faculty fabulous. Of course, there's a fair share of weird, eccentric and downright crazy professors, but hey- we're talking about college right? What fun without teachers who should be in padded cells wearing straitjackets? Courses are wide and varied, so think deeply and choose wisely. NUS has exchange programs with the best institutions (IIT, MIT, Stanford, IIM etc.), so this might be the place where your nerdy dreams finally come to fruition.
The illusion of geek paradise is accentuated by the presence of 5 libraries with tomes on 'History of Inter-Galactic Wars' and 'How to not bathe for a week and still smell like the proverbial lily'. Ok, I made those up, but maybe I did not look hard enough. I'm sure they are in there somewhere - hiding.

Cool hangout places include the Lover's Park (Call up Ripley's!) where you can take your flavor of the day for nice romantic walks and whisper sweet nothings in her/his (?) delicate ears. Also a hideout for smokers and other villains. The University Cultural Center houses 5-6 huge auditoriums, and has a very nice cafe overlooking the gardens. The staircase behind the McDonald's is a known spot to hide out from angry girlfriends and drink your liver away. The campus is dotted with benches where you can sit and laugh at students stressing out over lectures, assignments and other mundane stuff.

I have tons to write, but this post is assuming epic proportions, so time for a wrap up.

NUS offers the best of facilities and education without picking your pockets. If you still find yourself financially stretched, you can apply for the SIA-NOL scholarship that covers all your tuition expenses and provides an ample living stipend. If your application is not successful, the loans on offer cover absolutely everything including living expenses. The interest starts only when you graduate and you can repay in small installments. NUS opens up new windows of opportunity, through which you can climb and make it big. If you are the laid back kinds, pull up a chair and just enjoy the view. Either way, it will be an experience to treasure.

For more information, contact me at [e-mail]

[Rashmi Bansal]

Cool.. u can do a part 2 sometime. If u have any interesting pics on campus do also send and we'll use em with the piece. Also how's the whole job and study scene in singapore for Indian students... canu start a forum / discussion on Studying in Singapore? That might be of interest to a lot of clubjammers. Two areas esp: engineering/ BBA after 12th and doing an MBA

[Strider]

Unofficial Prospectus - Army Institute of Technology


The Army Institute of Technology. The name brings to mind visions of a military institution, probably churning out young lieutenants by the dozen, probably no civilian allowed inside the hallowed grounds. Right? Wrong. The Army Institute of Technology, or rather AIT, is your regular run-of-the-mill engineering college, with a small stipulation - all the students here are kids of Army-men.

Location : Affiliated to the Pune University, AIT is nestled in the foothills of Dighi, at a distance of about 10-12 km from the hub of the city. With the roads of Pune finally getting a makeover with the Commonwealth Youth Games looming in the horizon, bike rides are now much more comfortable and enjoyable than earlier, when the rain-wrecked roads continued to remain patchy at best.

The college is well connected to all the hot-spots (malls, multiplexes you name it) and it's all within a time radius of just a half-hour. Koregaon Park, the posh place in town, is in fact quite close at hand. Even if you are not sporting a two-wheeler, the good old tum-tum aka six-seater is always a viable option.

Population : As you already know, all the AITians are essentially Army brats - not from the Navy, not from the Air Force - just Army. Much to the chagrin of all the guys, the eternal problem of engineering colleges is quite prevalent here too - there's only a hundred-odd gals in a college which is thousand-strong.

I think the burgeoning animal population too deserves a mention. The college has a small enclosure set aside for rearing geese. However, the geese are not the problem. Stray cats and dogs seem to have found their haven in our campus. So much so that one of the dogs recently delivered its litter inside one of the boys' hostels - over the last few nights my friends and I have stayed awake listening to the heart-wrenching (and after some time rather annoying) yapping of seven tiny little pups, freezing due to the cold (a kind soul did think of putting out a bed-sheet for them to cozy up in).


Campus & Infrastructure : Not quite the sprawling landscape I had hoped for, yet the campus is suited to our needs, providing us with enough avenues for our growth and a rich college life. With two hostels each for the boys and girls (the fairer sex don't need to employ the use of the second one due to reasons described above), one academic block, a residential area for the staff and a shopping complex dotted around the campus, enough open space is left for sports facilities - grounds and courts galore, be it tennis, basketball, cricket, football, volleyball, squash or badminton.

The guys and gals also sweat it out in separate gymnasiums set by their hostels. We also have a pool table in the common room equipped with a wide-screen TV. The shopping complex is well equipped - a cafeteria (which actually serves palatable food unlike the mess), a fruit shop (where you'll always find guys with bananas and a milk packet in hand), a well-stocked stationary (good ol' Bali sir loves chatting with 'girls' during long transactions while guys stand patiently by), a barber shop (hardly anyone uses it) and a laundry (oh wait, I forgot to mention, we also have a telephone booth). The academic block also plays host to an amphitheatre (Raman Theatre), where all our cultural activities are held and a state-of-the-art auditorium (BC Joshi) for seminars and the like.

The largest drawback in the campus is the ban on bikes for all save final years'. It gets a tad depressing for the juniors, but life goes on (with or without two-wheelers).

You'd expect me to talk about the infrastructure related to our college work, seeing as I have been rambling on about all the recreational infrastructure. Well, not really interested personally - but for formality's sake I'll just say it's good enough to work with.

contd...

[Strider]

Acads : The college gives you a BE degree in four different disciplines viz Electronics, Computers, IT and Mechanical. The academic year gets split into two semesters, and all semester exams are held under the purview of Pune University. The college churns out university toppers by the dozen, while at the same time you have people at the other end of the spectrum too - the dudes (and even some dudettes) who are a year behind their colleagues (more popularly known as YD's). Classes are generally monotonous and no one really wants to attend - however, the attendance requirement of 75% hangs over everyone's head.

Crowd - Guys/Gals : The crowd at AIT is as diverse as you can imagine. Even though you'd say everyone should be much the same because of the Army connection, yet you can see people from all walks of life here. From cool dude to simple guy, from super bitch to vivacious girl-next-door - we have them all here. Yet there’s an innate quality of AITians that sets them apart from everyone else. The almost completely residential setup ensures a wonderful rapport among the collegians – almost everyone knows just about everyone. There is a healthy relationship between people from different years and the juniors can always bank on their seniors to bail them out when they are in a pickle. (Oh and yeah, we have uniform on Mondays and Thursdays - that kinda sucks).

Hangouts : The OAC (Open Air Cafeteria) beside the academic block, a garden cafeteria, is the perfect place for us AITians to hang out and chat (or 'maro bakar' as we like to call it). There have been days when I have spent hours at a stretch just sitting there and 'hanging out' with friends (my record would be 9 to 5 during college hours last summer). The other 'hot spot' would be the benches set beside the football field or even in front of the basketball courts (these benches are even hotter in the dark). The comfortable gusts of wind which blow into your face when you sit facing the football ground rejuvenate you completely, which is why some people also call it 'beach-side'.


Apart from these two, inside the campus there's not too many places to hang out - unless you count the insides of the cafeteria or the acad block. Places frequented in the city by AITians? Well, Adlabs in KP is the most popular choice for a movie and a quick meal(generally McD's, it's easy on the pocket), while lavish lunches/dinners are generally either in KP or MG Road. The most popular place for 'flank treats' is Sher-e-Punjab, on the Pune-Mumbai Expressway - I don't know why, it's now a traditional (tr)eating joint.

USP : What sets AIT apart really is the confidence which each and every AITian exudes. The college is renowned all over the city for its students’ extensive skill set (i.e. technical, cultural as well as sports). Any college looks at the placement scenario to gauge how well it has been faring – over the last three years the college has averaged 98% success in the placement charts. Consistently graded in the top 50 engineering colleges in the country, AIT has also acquired accreditation from ISO 9001:2000, NAAC and NBA (no, not the basketball one!).

Personally, I have found my niche in this college and I know for sure when I look back at my college days in retrospect, I’ll remember fondly all the memories that I have garnered over the years (and continue to do so). I can’t think of a better place to spend my late teens and early tweens. In the words of Robert Frost, ‘Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.’

(Pics on my blog - http://clubjam.jammag.com/profiles/blog/show?id=1230525%3ABlogPost%...)