Review By: Rachit Bansal Review Date: 24 Jul 2019
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Overview When a student says that he is doing B.Tech in Chandigarh, the name of the college that comes to one's mind is PEC, that is, Punjab Engineering College. Though Chandigarh has a number of engineering colleges, no one can ever have a level even closer to that of PEC. Its full name is Punjab Engineering College (Deemed to be University) but it is more commonly known as PEC. Though established about 100 years back, the institute has become the dream college of students from nearly last two decades only. PEC is the most preferred college for children of northern India after IITs. Be it NITs, or IIITs, or the top private universities of Northern India, no one can be compared with PEC. PEC has the infrastructure, facilities, faculty, teaching & everything similar to that of IITs of the country, and has been trying to get the status of IIT from a past few years. It might be able to become one in the upcoming years.
The Campus To give a hint of the infrastructure of this top-ranked college (or Deemed to be University): the classrooms have jammers which block the mobile phone's network, thus preventing the children from using mobile phones in the classrooms. PEC is established over about 149 acres covering all the sector 12. Much of the space is empty with some new building being constructed every year. Each branch of engineering course has its own department, and each department is spread in an area larger than the whole area of UIET, PU (the second-best engineering college in Chandigarh). Each department has the classrooms a student desires and can imagine only in dreams, various number of laboratories equipped with advanced types of equipment, etc. Gandhiji said that the development of a place can be judged by watching the cleanliness of that place. Come to PEC and you will find washrooms similar to that of 5-star hotels. The auditorium is one of the finest in the region, and one can find a number of playgrounds and small gardens. The library is incomparable and has more than sufficient books for all the students. The lush green campus has a well-planned structure and is home to the Chandigarh College of Architecture (the prestigious architecture college of India). One can easily find the map of PEC on the internet. The wi-fi enabled campus is truly a home for the students, name a thing and you will find it here, be it the market, bank, dispensary, canteens, etc.
But when it comes to hostels, PEC is like other government colleges. The hostels are being renovated at a slow pace which poses a problem for the students.
Courses In addition to the common B.E/B.Tech and M.E/M.Tech courses such as Computer Science & Engineering, Electronics Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, etc., PEC has Aerospace Engineering which is present only in a few government colleges in the region. The admissions are conducted on the basis of JEE Mains.
Annual Fest After IIT Delhi's annual fest, the most popular fest of any engineering college in Northern India is PEC fest. Though the name of the annual fest of PEC keeps changing every year, it is famous among the localites as PEC fest. A 3-day event of dance, singing, gaming, coding, the annual fest costs around 1 crore every year and that also without any entry fee! One can see some wonderful dance and singing performances, along with hundreds of other events which are unique in themselves. And the best part for which the whole of Punjab comes to Chandigarh is the 'Star Night', which involves a musical concert by some Bollywood singer. In the year 2018, the 'Star' was Sukhwinder Singh and in 2017, it was none other than the great Bollywood actor, director, producer, and singer Faran Akhtar. The list is infinite with some different personality gracing the annual fest every year. Thousands of students flock the star night with full zest and zeal and the best part is that entry is totally free!
Fee Structure Nothing is perfect and the same is the case with PEC. To avail the best facilities, the students need to shed out a lot of money, though PEC is a government college. The fee structure is approximately Rs 1,00,000/- per semester and the hostel fees are approximately Rs 80,000/- per annum. Unlike the provision of charging half fees from families with income less than Rs 6,00,000/- in NITs, PEC is a bit expensive as compared to other government colleges and the number of scholarships provided by the college is also less.
Placements A college is judged by its placements and most of the government engineering colleges in India remain shy in publicly declaring out their placement figures but PEC is different. Reports of students acquiring salary packages as high as 25 lakhs and average packages of abut 10 lakhs flock the local newspapers every year. The salary packages offered by various companies in PEC are almost similar to that of IITs.
Alumni Similar to the supremeness of this 100-year-old college, the students of this Deemed to be University are no less. For a small example, a few years back, a pass out of PEC offered a famous helicopter (earlier the helicopter was part of IAF) to PEC to pay a tribute to his college. Similarly, a real fighter plane and a train can be seen on the campus.
Conclusion Score high, get admitted to PEC and enjoy your life!
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| Infrastructure: | | | Academics: | | | Extra Curricular: | |
Good: Campus, faculty, facilities, placements
Bad: Hostels, fee structure
Recommend: Yes
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