35+ NITH FAQs
1. Where will I be residing in NITH?
There are 2 hostels for girls and 8 hostels for boys. So as a fresher if you are a girl, you will be staying at Ambika Girls Hostel (AGH) and if you are a boy you will be staying at Kailash Boys Hostel (KBH). Hostels keep on changing every year.
2. How are the rooms of KBH/AGH?
In KBH, you’ll get a triplet with common washroom cum bathroom ( a big one, don’t worry ) on every floor. Each room has 3 Beds, 3 Cupboards and 3 Chair-Table for each person.
In AGH, 5 girls have to share on the room. The other features are the same as that of KBH.
3. From where will I be getting books for courses mentioned in the course curriculum?
There is an Institute Library. All students have issued a library card during initial days of college. Using this card, a maximum of 3 books can be issued on each card for 30 days. If students get late in returning them over 30 days, they are charged with a fine of ₹1 per day.
4. If I get Supplementary ( suppli/arrear ) in an exam, will it be marked so on my new mark sheet?
Yes.
5. Can I have any vehicle on campus?
No, students are not allowed to have any motorized vehicle on campus but they can have Bicycles. But a handful of people own bikes, which they park at Ekta cafe at their own risks.
6. Can I opt for courses of my choice at college?
No, you are not allowed to opt for a course(s) of your choice. There is a predefined course curriculum and you are supposed to follow that. However, there are some open electives and departmental electives in the third and fourth year which you can choose from, based on the courses being floated during that particular semester. You can see the course curriculum and syllabus for the bachelor’s program for each department on their respective websites.
7. How will I be graded in each semester?
For each semester you will be awarded a SGPA ( Semester Grade Point Average ) and CGPA ( Cumulative Grade Point Average ) based on your progress in the mid-term and end semester. Each semester’s SGPA will be independent and past all SGPA’s will be counted in the calculation of CGPA. In short, SGPA reflects your performance in a particular semester, and CGPA lingers on like a ghost of all SGPAs from previous semesters in a cumulative addition fashion. Your final CGPA tells about your actual percentage is multiplied by 10.
8. How grades are categorized in NIT-H?
For each subject
- 20 marks are for the Mid-Term exam (90 min) which happens ( no guesses needed! ) in the middle of the semester
- 60 marks are for the End-Semester exam (3 hours) and 20 marks are internal (10 marks class test/surprise quizzes + 10 marks assignment/project/attendance). Mid-Term exams are also considered in Internals.
Now, if your total marks(X)X < 40 — F (Suppli)40 <=X< 45 — D (4 pointer)45 <= X< 55 — C (6 pointer)55 <= X< 65 — BC (7 pointer)65 <= X< 75 — B (8 pointer)75 <= X< 85 — AB (9 pointer)X >= 85 — A (10 pointer)
9. How is SGPA calculated?
Each subject is assigned some credits like 2, 3 or 4. Now, this credit number is multiplied with your pointer. Suppose in Computer Graphics you got 8 pointers and it had 3 credits, then total credit for this subject equals 24. Similarly, credits for other subject are calculated and then all total credits are added, then the result is divided by total credits of the semester. The resultant will give you your SGPA.
10. How important is CGPA for placement?
Companies don’t pay heed to you CGPA much, as long as your CGPA maintains 7 or above, since that’s the criteria for most companies to filter people for placements, so you must try to maintain it above 7.
11. What if I want to go for higher studies?
If you want to go for higher studies in India, then CGPA is not that much significant. Top colleges in India only look at your GATE score. However, if you want to go abroad (USA, UK, Germany etc.), good and respectable CGPA could be a must. There can be many combinations :
- CGPI is average, but you have work experience after getting out of college equals good chances.
- CGPI average, but you’ve got research paper(s) published and / or conference talks given and / or participated in national / international level academic events / competition / hackathons / races = good chances
- CGPI is awe-inspiring, but there are no other real-world activities done = can’t say.
- And so on and so forth, so it depends.
Also, not even to say, one got to have good GRE scores.
12. Should I join departmental and cultural clubs for NIMBUS (technical festival) and Hill ‘ffair (Cultural Festival)?
Some would say you should, some would say you shouldn’t, some would say join this, you’d get to learn more, some would say join that you’d get more on your CV being there, and what not. Bottom line, go where ever you want to go, explore. Joining a club / departmental team is more about exploring, learning things, executing ideas and making friends. This could be done in any club / team really can’t it? So go where your interest is, if you are interested in dancing, go dance, singing, go sing, playing, go play an instrument, and so on and so forth.
Just one thing to keep in mind, don’t let your academics suffer because of your indulgence in any team. If that is taken care of, you are good to go!
13. What shops can I borrow from, if I’ve no money in hand at the particular point in time?
From Juice bar, you may borrow some things if you don’t have instant money. The shopkeeper just jots down your roll number and you may pay later. However, this thing should not be overly used. It’s only when you are really needful, have forgotten your wallet or something and short of money :).
14. What extra can I learn besides course curriculum?
There are many workshops organized by different societies and departmental clubs of each department. These workshops are quite informative and you will learn some very useful things which are not learned during usual lectures in class. More than anything, since you are in college now, you need to accept this seemingly hard fact that no professor would ever indulge him/herself to the level of actually working with you on projects ( this is very unfortunate, given they have plenty of time in their lives being teachers ). At least in this college, they’d only guide you. That’s a good thing as well as a little delta thing. Bottom line is, you are on your own in making yourself expert in the thing(s) that you want to gain domain expertise in ( and there should be at least one such thing ). Talk to the community out there, read books, read research papers, work on projects, ask for funding from professors and faculty if need be, go attend conferences, hackathons, make racing cars and bikes, and quadcopters, work on ideas that you think have the potential to change the world, even if a little bit. Do whatever in hell/heaven you want as long as you are on the way of doing something original, that solves a problem, and is cool and toofani.
15. Which sport can I play in the hostel?
There are many indoor games which you can play in hostels. In KBH there is a badminton court and TT room. So you can play these games there. It has well-maintained Gym also, so if you like gymming you can have that also. In AGH (to be updated soon…)
16. Where’s the TV?
In every hostel, there is a common room where students can watch TV.
17. Should I be afraid of ragging?
No, you shouldn’t. Unless goes to the level of physical hurt, or hardcore mental harassment, you shouldn’t worry. And believe us, most of us are all good people here. Seniors would, at most, try to get out some pun and fun out of asking you
Intro De Apna (Give your introduction)
and you’d start like
I am Manish and I belongs to Jaipur …
and they’d start sneering at you, saying Shudh hindi me de intro aur aankein 3rd button par! (give your introduction in pure Hindi, and keep your eyes on the 3rd button of your shirt). You might as well laugh inside thinking I’m not even wearing a shirt with buttons :D
So next seniors would ask you to tell about your shaahi shauks ( your grandiose hobbies) or to tell 5 characteristics of Rose / Tajmahal / yourself. Just silly random stuff on which they could have the opportunity to laugh upon your answers if they are funny or if you screw up in nervousness. You just calmly play along, and you’d find that in coming days, they’d definitely be the persons you’d look up to if you’d require any kind of help on campus.
Even if despite this, you feel that you are being ragged (come on, nobody rags anybody these days, they know what the laws for ragging and their consequences for breaching them are!), you can file complaint against them, but please remember once before screwing up their lives, if it was really *ragging*, that you were a target of, or hearty laughs that seniors wanted to have following a custom of first making first years nervous and then befriending them closely.
18. Who are those serious looking guys roaming in formals going towards auditorium every day?
These are the final year students going to be interviewed for companies that have come on campus for placements.
19. How will my B’day be celebrated?
Girls surprise birthday girl in their own way and celebrate it with cakes, pastries, decorated rooms, balloons, makeups, pajama nights etc. Boys are greeted will all chappals, shoes, rods( if you are extremely unlucky ), jhadu, woodland shoes, kicks of football players, and a japphie wish in the last saying “Happy Birthday Yaar!”
20. How much should I spend every month?
This depends, on a number of factors
- If you’d start missing mess food and start eating out more instead. It won’t have a significant effect really since pretty much everyone does that at some point of time or the other.
- If you drink or not, if you do ( which is not advised ), your expenses will be significantly more.
- Mess Charges come around 1.6k — 1.7k a month, you probably wouldn’t wash the clothes that often, since you live in a hostel now, you would want to eat something or the other, every other day outside, you’d want to purchase basic necessities. Rounding it all up, not more than 2500–3000k.
21. What to do when I have an empty chips packet and I see no dustbins near-by?
It’s not possible in NIT-H. After every 15–20 steps you will find one. Greenery is prime importance here. Even the shopkeepers don’t have polythene bags for packaging. They use paper bags for packaging.
22. What is Nati?
Nati is a traditional folk dance of Himachal in which girls and boys dressed beautifully in Himachali traditional attire dancing with beautiful gestures. Its origins are in North Western Himachal.
23. Would it snow here?
It snowed once in like 75 years or so. It’s very very unlikely that it snows now. Although in the winters you’d be able to see snow all around over Dhauladhar Mountain Range. Also, you’d be able to visit a ton of places where you could enjoy the snow.
24. Are there grocery and ration stores nearby?
Yes, there are a few shops at gate 1 where you can buy all the stuff and also one shop adjacent to Hiteshi (Stationery) Shop. However, you can also go to Anu market, where there are more shops to purchase from. Main Hamirpur market is around 3 km from campus. For 1st Year, College bus is provided to go to the main market every Saturday at 10 am and 2 pm. On Sunday, most of the shops are closed.
25. Where I can give my clothes for Laundry?
Girls don’t have to, they have washing machines. Boys either mostly don’t wash for days, but when they do they have three options
- Wash themselves.
- Give it to the laundryman that washes, down the stairs at the back Hiteshi
- Give it to the laundryman that washes, in a room in Himgiri Boys Hostel. Preferred since he doesn’t tear clothes apart, and washes better)
26. Where I can recharge my cell?
Freecharge and Paytm rocks! Still, if you have bad internet connectivity, there is a recharge shop just behind Hiteshi. Hardly 100 m walk from KBH.
27. Which SIM ( mobile network ) should I prefer?
Read this article, for a complete guide to which mobile network to choose.
28. Is NIT-H constructed over Cemetery?
These are just rumors. But discussing such topics is really fun.
29. Are wild creatures like Leopards can be seen on campus?
Yes, very occasionally people have seen a Leopard. It was like two instance in the history of NIT H. One of those times, it was seen by a faculty member. But one should be wary of snakes and such during rainy season since it’s all lush green in the campus everywhere.
30. Is Dispensary free?
Yes, it’s free. Institute take Medical Facility charges when you pay Institute fees every semester.
31. What if I am hungry during the night?
There are 2 Nescafe in Campus. One at Student Park which gets closed by 7:30 pm and another near DBH (Final Year Hostel) which has closing time around 1 am. But out the timing for KBH guys is by 6 p.m, so you have to cross the KBH Back gate Barrier to go there. Beware, its near-final year hostels :p There are also two-night canteens, one in NBH, one in Himgiri (citation needed), but freshman can’t go there as well since they can’t go anywhere after 6 p.m for at least the first semester
32. Can I go to the ground anytime?
Yes. Prefer going in the morning if you just want to go for playing purposes. But, if you want to be in the college team of any sport, then go in the evening, interact with seniors and play with them. Don’t worry you won’t be ragged except that normal intro part.
33. Is mess is in Hostel or I have to go somewhere else for the mess?
No. You don’t have to go anywhere for the mess. It is in KBH only. In fact, every hostel in NIT-H has its own mess.
34. What is mess timing?
Generally it is, Breakfast- 7:30 am-9 am, Lunch- 12noon-2pm, Dinner-7:30pm-9pm, Evening tea-around 5pm with relaxation in timing.
35. What is the Summer Class Scenario?
If you get supplementary in 1st year subjects, you have to stay back in NIT-H, during summer vacation ( which is of around 2 months and in this you have to repeat the whole semester — maintaining 75% attendance, assignments, mid-term, end-sem everything ) and it is mandatory for you to attend summer classes. But, if you have supplementary in 2nd, 3rd, final year subjects then you just have to come and give exams ( no classes )
2nd-semester results are announced in the 1st week of June, but summer class starts from May end. So, if you are not sure about your supplementary in 2nd sem subjects, wait for the results to be out. After results, you can register for the summer program although the last registration date would have been gone. Although you can clear those subjects by attending Summer after 2nd year of your B.Tech it is not recommended.
36. Do I have to go to the lecture hall in formals?
No, not necessary but don’t go in shorts. Avoid Flip-Flops if you can.
37. Can I roam in the campus in shorts?
Yes, but don’t dare enter a class in shorts, teachers wouldn’t agree ( don’t know why ). Perhaps they’d agree if a class collectively starts giving stupendous academic and research results.
38. Where can I get my favorite candy?
It turns out that your choice is quite popular amongst the student of NITH. Rumors are that Ekta cafe might be a good place to get these type of confectionery items.
Article originally written in 2016 for Freshman Guide.
