School of Information Technology (SoIT Bhopal) – Campus Experience

School of Information Technology, RGPV, Bhopal (or SoIT for short) is a Madhya-Pradesh State Government’s Higher Education Institute situated in RGPV University campus in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh (India). This article discusses the institute including different aspects like academics, placements, facilities, overall campus, etc. from a student’s perspective. This article is especially useful for someone wanting an overview of the institute before seeking admission.

Organizational Overview of SoIT

SoIT is directly controlled by the RGPV or Rajiv Gandhi Proudyogiki Vishwavidyalaya (“Rajiv Gandhi Technological University” in English) – the state technology university of Madhya Pradesh. The hierarchy is explained in the following figure:-

SoIT Institutional Hierarchy.

As the name suggests, the institute provides Bachelor and Master of Technology courses related to Information Technology and Computing. Details are provided in academic sections.

Academics

Academic Overview

The academic quality is average (as is the case of all Tier-3 colleges in India). It depends on the teacher of a particular subject. Assignments and work is provided in an ample manner. Neither too much, neither too less. (Note: Be sure to cover the personal remark section before forming your mind based on the “average” word).

The good point is that one has enough time for personal activities and study except for the exam month(s) of the semester. If someone is willing to, this time can be utilised for exploration, relaxation, preparations and skill-building.

Courses Offered at SoIT

Three B.Tech courses and two M.Tech Courses are provided by the institute.

Degree	Course
B.Tech	Computer Science and Business System
B.Tech	Computer Science – Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
B.Tech	Computer Science – Data Science
M.Tech	Data Science
M.Tech	Information Technology

Placements

At the time of writing this article, the oldest batch in B.Tech is in the final year. In other words, no batch has graduated from the college yet. Hence, no proper placement data is available at the moment.

Some unofficial sources (including posts from Training and Placement Cell) state few placements of around 11 LPA and 6 LPA. Based on the analysis of closest similar colleges and courses, the average placement package is expected between 3 LPA to 5 LPA.

Important: Treat this placement information as a suggestion/guess and not assertion.

Overview of the Campus

The SoIT institute shares the campus of RGPV university with UIT-RGPV, University-Polytechnique and other UTDs. The campus is roughly situated near the North-West edge of Bhopal City or about 2 – 2.5 km from the Raja Bhoj International Airport. It has an area of around 250 acres. The quality of campus is good and that of classes is above average. There are variety of facilities including the central library, canteen, post-office, bank (Union Bank of India), workshops, a new incubation centre (referred to as KRC (Knowledge Resource Centre)), fairly vast sports complex, temples, etc. apart from the academic departments and university building. Sometimes you can see peacocks in the campus. 😀

Few key facilities for students are –

Central Library (RGPV Library)

A fairly large central library (apart from the departmental libraries) that almost every student in the campus has access to via library cards issued post admission. The facilities inside have fairly high standards from tier-3 college scenario. Books from quality publishers like McGraw-Hills, Pearson among others are available in fair numbers.

Hostels

Hostels for both Girls and Boys are present in the campus. One has to separately apply for hostels if he/she wishes to accomodate a room. Although, the applications far outnumber the rooms available. Hence the management generally resorts to a priority list (which involves variety of factors like your JEE-rank, caste (reservation basis), etc.). Most of the students thus need to find a residence outside the campus.

Transportation

There is a dedicated system of buses for transporting students from all major parts and routes of Bhopal to the college in morning before college starts (10:00 am) and back when college ends (5:30pm). Some additional bus-fees has to be paid along with the semester fees if one wishes to use this system.

Apart from that, one can opt for public transport (like BMC city buses which appear at a regular interval of 15-30 min), cabs, auto-rickshaws, etc. from the campus main-gate during the college hours.

Extracurricular Activities

There is a wide scope for participating in extracurricular activities if one is interested. Most of these activities are not exclusive to SoIT but shared with UIT and sometimes with other UTDs too. Seminars are frequent in the RGPV auditorium. Sports activities are organised by the institute every year. Apart from that there are various clubs like GDSC-SoIT, GDSC-UIT (GDSC for Google Developer Students Club), ASPER, E-Cell, Phoenix, etc. and some other student organisations where students can be a part of and take part in the activities. Sometimes, even the academic departments organise few events (like the Mathematics Department celebrates National Mathematics Day). Few times, I have seen small stage shows like one conducted by radio-mirchi.

There is a newly launched club in SoIT called “Fibonacci SoIT” which is partnered with GeeksForGeeks! (through GeeksForGeeks campus-mantri-programme).

Personal Remark

I have experienced freshers complaining about the quality of SoIT (starting from my own batch). And I agree that it is not some great institute like IISc or IITs or NITs or IISERs which are Tier-1 and Tier-2 institutes. They worry too much about whether they have made a mistake or so.

They need to know that SoIT is not a very bad choice for them. Don’t compare with the best institutes (which you don’t have access to based on your performance in entrance-exam/school). Compare it with the institutes you have access to. Then you will find that SoIT is among good choices accessible to you because (a) you have access to a fair amount of resources, (b) you have a fair amount of time to work on your personal skills and interests, which is not the case with a lot of colleges in your range and (c) less important but provides a better value for money (even without scholarships) compared to most of the colleges in the comparable quality. For extracurricular part, I am someone not much interested in. So, no comments. Decide yourself. I have presented the information for anyone who is interested. 😀

At last it depends on you, whether you work to learn and acquire skills during your engineering period. (Note: This is not some promotion/obsession. These are facts for those who don’t understand it yet.)