I studied at PICT 1995-1999. I had aimed to get into COEP, the government college in Shivajinagar, but I missed out on the 10 odd seats available to me in COEP that year in the open general category of applicants. PICT was my second choice. However, during that year, PICT was in high demand. Most of my classmates at PICT in the open general free category(about 30 of us) had exceptionally high scores. Even the open general paid category and the reserved free category had high cut off scores.
During my first year, I noticed some very bad attitudes among the lecturers. Most of my lecturers at PICT were resentful at the prospect that we would graduate to work at big companies with big pay while they would remain there at PICT. One of my lecturers, Mr Y.S.R., openly stated that we should suffer during our studies because we will be having a good time after graduation.
Lecturers routinely harassed students. If you complete the assignment too early, you will be asked to do a ton more work. And the lecturers will ask everyone else also to do a ton more work citing you as the reason so that every other student now treats you like their enemy. Many students rarely showed up to class. Some got harassed for missing a single day. Many students were publicly humiliated in class for missing a day or for coming in a few minutes late or for saying some answer wrong in class, and some female students cried.
Ragging was common outside of class. If you waited outside for the bus, you would be ragged. Some students from the class joined in with the ragging bosses to get themselves spared. The lecturer who taught Computer Fundamentals was also among those who ragged students. I wondered how he ended up as a ragging boss too.
I avoided most of this trouble by showing up to class every day(including every lecture of Applied Sciences I and II which most other students skipped), paying attention in class, completing assignments on time(but not submitting too early or too late, rather just in time so that the lecturer did not have time to focus on me), sitting inside the college premises to have lunch which I brought from home, and by driving home immediately after classes ended.
Most lecturers had weird accents, the strangest phrases, and the worst communication skills and social skills imaginable. Some of my classmates collected masterpieces, which were essentially the phrases we heard. Those were the jokes that kept the smiles going during those stressful months.
The second year was the worst for me. The lecturers were mostly a Maharashtrian clique. They like you if you speak with them in Marathi, and I mean shudha Marathi. If you cannot speak the language or cannot get the accent right, you will not be well liked. I almost quit during the second year and investigated the possibility of transferring to COEP or elsewhere. Anyway, I persisted.
Third year was much better. At least the courses and some of the lecturers/professors were better. There will always be weirdo students in your class who say that Mr SaJo is the worst person in the world, but I found SaJo to be a genuine person. There was another fellow, some Tatuskar, who was a moron(never had to personally interact with him though).
The external visiting professors were always the best - they were more knowledgeable and had good teaching skills. The professor who taught us Civil Engineering in the 1st year and the professor who taught us Microprocessors in the 3rd year were my favorite ones, and both were visiting professors.
The good thing about being part of University of Pune colleges was that the professors had little control over whether we passed or failed. And regardless of whether they did their jobs well, we studied for the exams on our own and got the scores. I always got a higher% score in the theory papers graded by the University and in the practicals conducted by external professors, than in the scores given for termwork. If I had got higher termwork scores, I could have ranked among the top in the university. I got a distinction in all 8 semesters, but was never 1st and never lower than 7th in my class.
Fourth year was busy but fun. It marked the end of all the pain and misery I underwent during the first 3 years.
Campus placements process started as soon as the final year of college started. Companies came in almost every day. I attended all the company presentations, but I skipped all the tests/interviews except with the one company where I wanted to work and I got that job offer(will not name the company here for my privacy, but I quit that company within a year and went for my Masters degree and PhD abroad).
The BE project was fun too. The college did not do much for us though. Dr. S.A.K. at that time was the person who managed the BE projects. Narcissistic but nice fellow who did not interfere with our industry work. The industry experience was very valuable. Actually, I spent more than the one day allocated per week for the project working at the company. That industry experience of my BE project was definitely the best part of my experience.
Thinking back on my PICT experiences, I value the fact that PICT followed the University of Pune syllabus for Computer Engineering. Although some students ended up memorizing Jigar exam notes and are now Jigar Engineers, I enjoyed learning the subjects. The books I read as part of the syllabus helped me get the foundation for the rest of my career. The facilities which PICT provided were up to the standard at that time. And the exposure we got to the industry, both through campus placements and through the BE project were fantastic.
If there is one thing I would change from my PICT experience, it would be the faculty and staff. All of them. Just throw them all out and get visiting professors and lecturers who do their job well. That was the one sore spot of my PICT experience which made it very stressful.