What is it Like to be at IIIT Hyderabad?

I was recently asked to answer this question on Quora, am posting it here for the interested. You can check out the answer on quora here.{:target=”_blank”}

I believe the experience is very different for different people, depending largely on your own personality and world view. Though there are commonalities that I’ve attempted to sum up in the following points.

It’s rigourous. More so than any college I know of. But in no way unmanageable, or a burden that doesn’t let you enjoy your college life. You learn to appreciate the thorough curriculum when you realise how far ahead you actually are compared to your peers.

No institution that I’ve been to (I’ve been to plenty, IIT B, D, M included) comes close to the quality of research being undertaken in Computer Science at the undergrad level. Period. And if you, like me, end up enjoying research work, this place is love.

Extra-Curricular:
There’s a plethora of active clubs that organise frequent meets, workshops, activities, if you’re interested in something, you are sure to find a community that shares your interest. Whether it be adventure trips, music, football or movies. Do checkout the @IIIT-H Facebook groups.

College Life:
The campus is located in the heart of HITEC city, there are tons of restaurants, bars, malls, movies, things to do in a ten kilometre radius. More so than you’ll be able to explore in your four years here. That’s an advantage that adds a unique flavour to the IIIT college life in general. Absolutely no curfew also helps, of course.

Opportunities:
This is probably the one most significant reason why it’s great to be at IIIT Hyderabad. Interested in starting off? There’s an active Entrepreneurship Cell, in-house deep-tech incubator, Asia’s largest technology incubator (T-Hub) all on campus. Want a high-paying job at a huge tech firm? All of them hire from here. All. Feel like exploring cutting-edge research? That’s quite literally IIIT’s forte.

You can be what you want to be. You can fail without the fear of ending up nowhere. You can experiment, try out new things, explore.

So yeah. It’s pretty awesome to be at IIIT Hyderabad.

Originally published at https://vivekkaushal.com on April 19, 2018.