Monday, November 9, 2009

Vidyalankar Global Venture - Penn State, US

About Vidyalankar
Vidyalankar has been offering quality Engineering Education to students since its inception in 1960.
In the year 1999, Vidyalankar consolidated its commitment towards the same cause by establishing 'Vidyalankar Institute of Technology', an Engineering Degree College approved by AICTE and affiliated to the University of Mumbai. Branches offered at this college are Electronics & Tele-communication Engineering, Electronics Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Computer Engineering & Information Technology at Undergraduate level & MMS at Postgraduate level.

In 2002 Vidyalankar was granted permission to start Vidyalankar Polytechnic approved by Govt. of Maharashtra and affiliated to Maharashtra State Board of Technical Education (MSBTE). Branches offered in this institute are Electronics & Telecommunication Engineering, Computer Engineering & Information Technology.
In the year 2002 Vidyalankar was also granted permission to start, 'Vidyalankar School of Information Technology' a Degree College approved by Govt of Maharashtra and affiliated to Mumbai University. Courses offered at this institute are B.Sc.(IT), B.M.S., BBI, BFM, BAF and M.Sc.(IT).

Vidyalankar School of Information Technology – The Campus





About Penn State University
The Pennsylvania State University is one of the most respected and prestigious American Universities and ranks among the top ten publicly funded institutions of higher education in the US. Founded in 1855 in state college, Pennsylvania, the university now has 24 campuses throughout Pennsylvania with a total enrollment of 90,000 students pursuing more than 200 undergraduate majors and graduate degrees at the masters and doctoral level programs in more than 130 fields.


About Penn State University,York Campus
The York campus of Penn State opened in 1956. It currently enrolls sixteen hundred students. The Campus occupies more than fifty acres of land in the suburb of York. Penn State York combines the personal care and atmosphere of an elite private university with the resources of a major research university. More than 100 students are enrolled in Information Science and Technology (IST) programs at York which is housed in the state of the art M.S. Grumbacher Information Sciences and Technology Centre.


Objective of Collaboration
Continuing the legacy of prviding quality education, Vidyalankar has collaborated with one of the most prestigious American Universities : The Penn State, York to offer to students a Baccalaureate degree, that would be internationally accepted.

The objective of this alliance between Penn State, York and Vidyalankar is to provide the most meaningful educational experience in Information Technology & Management to Indian Students interested in Experiencing American Education and Culture. The program provides a unique opportunity to Indian students to benefit from both the systems of education at the undergraduate level itself and thus acquire the skills necessary to meet the challenges of tomorrow's globally competitive world.


Course Objectives
The IST degree is one of Penn State's “ Signature Programs” developed in 1999. IST was founded to train leaders for digital global economy. From the beginning, corporate experts have helped the university to build a program to ensure that graduates will not only be technologically skilled but will also understand how technology can make a difference in business, government, social services, education and in very many other fields.
The program is highly interdisciplinary, and special-topic courses are created as the business landscape changes so that students get real-time information about the IT world. Additions and improvements to IST courses are regularly made, based on feedback from student control groups. These core values make the IST program unique.


Scholarships
Vidyalankar students of Fall 2008 Batch, Mr. Ashish Rane & Mr. Bhaskar Suryakumar and Fall 2009 Batch Karan Shah & Purva Chitnis have received a scholarship of $1250 per year towards "HORN SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM AVAILABLE FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS"

Our student, Mr. Bhaskar Suryakumar received The Keystone Honor Society award for the Highest GPA 3.95 o 4.0 in the College of IST for the academic year 2008-09.



Highlights of the Program

Periodic Interaction with Penn State Faculty
Regular interactions with Penn State Faculty are conducted to have synchronization between the two courses.

Documentation
Vidyalankar guides the candidate in completing the Application Procedure systematically, accurately and on time so that one does not miss any deadline of the university. Vidyalankar team assists the candidate to Draft the SOP (Statement of Purpose) and LOR (Letter Of Recommendation).
A team of Financial advisors guides the candidate about the documents required to support the financial status of the candidate.
A student can avail of Vidyalankar's good will with some banks, financial institutions, courier services, book shops etc.

Training for TOEFL
Experienced faculty at Vidyalankar trains the candidates for TOEFL. Online Mock-Tests are conducted for practice.
Our student Shantanu Rajyadhyaksha scored 114/120 in TOEFL.

F1-Visa Guidance
F1 visa "Student Visa" is a special category of visa issued to a candidate for studies in the United States of America. After getting an admit from the University the candidate has to apply to the US consulate for the Visa.
Vidyalankar Experts organise a seminar to guide the candidates regarding the procedure for the application of a Visa, the required supporting documents which include Bank Statements, Financial Status, Assets, etc. required to be produced at the time of Visa interview.
A one on one meeting is conducted between the counsellor & the student for personal guidance. All the documents are scrutinized by Vidyalankar experts.


F1 Visa Seminar
by Mr. Avinash Chatorikar

Mock Visa Interview
All the students appear for 2-3 Mock F1 Visa Interviews conducted by our experts. These interviews help them to get a real feel of how the actual interview will be. All the documents are again screened thoroughly. These interviews are taken a few days before the actual visa interview.
The student profile is analyzed and tips are offered on one's academic profile, body language, mannerisms and finances.

Predeparture Orientation
Predeparture orientation program is arranged for the students in which they are briefed about the life and culture in US. They are also guided on forex, ticketing etc.



Amenities on Campus
Infrastructure
Vidyalankar's sprawling campus of 11 acres has a unique state of the art, grand regal structure that promises to be a boon for students pursuing a professional career in Engineering. The structure expresses the will of the Institution to enable progress in a progressive environment.

Class Rooms
Vidyalankar School of Information Technology has well-furnished class rooms, with advanced teaching aids.

Computer Centre
At Vidyalankar, the use of computers is a normal part of every student's life whether they are word-processing technical reports or using the internet to search for information. Vidyalankar has thirteen state-of-the-art Computer Centers with about 400 computers including SUN, Macintosh Work Stations.


Central Library
The Central Library provides the right resources to help students complete their studies successfully. The Library contains an extensive collection of technical books, national and international academic journals and newspapers. Students can also access the large reservoir of information from the world wide web through the specially set up internet terminals in the Library. Library provides areas for Group work as well as Silent study.







Laboratories

All the Laboratories are equipped with modern equipment.







Cafeteria

Mumbai is a place of distances and a good cafeteria is a necessity. Vidyalankar has a good cafeteria with adequate space that offers food items to cater to different tastes. Food items are moderately priced and utmost care is taken to maintain cleanliness and hygiene.

Sports Centre
Vidyalankar appreciates the boisterous, physical and mental energy of the students that needs a proper channel to express itself. Thus, it aims to promote and improve the sporting prowess of the students and provide opportunities to develop various skills appropriate to both sports and life. All are aware that games inculcate discipline, teamwork, patience, a sense of justice, courage, endurance perseverance etc.
Vidyalankar has a provision for Indoor and Outdoor Games. The campus has a huge play ground to play games like football and cricket. The Sports Centre has facilities for weightlifting and gymnastics. The students can also relax by playing indoor games like chess, carom, table-tennis, badminton etc.

Cultural Centre
The Cultural Centre supports the recreational side of the campus life. It provides a lively focus for social activities. The Centre runs a College Magazine "Expressions" and organizes the college Annual Social Program, Intra and Inter-Collegiate Competitions etc. including the annual Technical Festival.

Friday Paath-shala
The objective of the Friday Paath-shala is to bring about a break from the relentless academic schedule as also to give students a platform to express their creative selves. It is a platform created for students to indulge in their non academic passions & pursuits. This ranges from dance workshops, to screening thought - provoking movies, from debates to musical jams where students bring their favourite musical instruments.
The allotted time is every Friday between 4.30 pm to 6.30 pm and the venue is the amphitheatre.

Health Centre
Vidyalankar has a Health Centre for the benefit and care of the students. It administers 'First Aid' on the Campus, and directs further line of treatment.

Co-operative Stores
Vidyalankar runs a small co-operative store within the premises itself for the benefit of the students. The store mainly provides floppies, CDs, pens, pencils, erasers, markers and other stationery items. The items are moderately priced.

Alumni Association
Links with college do not end on Graduation day !
The college Alumni Association keeps its former students in touch with all the news.
  • Benefits for members of alumni association include
  • Use of college sports facilities
  • Access to college library



Students Speak

The feature I liked the most is that the PSU students would be seated in a different classroom for PSU subjects, reducing the Teacher-Student ratio, allowing the teacher to ensure that every student was able to comprehend the lessons. Secondly the book service from the library helped a lot during our exams.
Ashish Rane B.S.(IST) 2006-08


VSIT has provided an excellent blend of technical and non-technical subjects. VSIT has a good teaching staff. The teachers are friendly and always willing to help. What I enjoyed the most is the library, which has a huge collection of the required books for the course In addition the library also has some very good non-academic books and classics.
Akhil Rane B.S.(IST) 2006-08


I am really thankful to Vidyalankar for providing us an excellent faculty. The faculty members always helped us in every situation. The non-teaching staff was also very cooperative and always had solutions to all our problems. Apart from the regular subjects, we had an excellent opportunity to learn Psychology, Economics, Yoga etc...
We had a wide range of books to refer to in our library. The Verve Festival which is the college annual cultural program and the Fervour - the technical festival gave us excellent opportunity to display our talent.
Apart from this, I really appreciate the assistance we got from Vidyalankar who offered us all the help we needed. Vidyalankar staff was always there whenever we had any doubts, for example for filling forms or fixing dates for visa interview or every other kind of guidance we required.
Bhaskar Suryakumar B.S.(IST) 2006-08


Education at Vidyalankar gave me a chance to meet some very good Professors. Besides the classrooms, the library and the football ground have been the most visited places on the campus. Individual attention to students is always a task, which was very successfully achieved here at Vidyalankar.
Kiran Modi B.S.(IST) 2006-08


The most striking feature of Vidyalankar is Its planning and co-ordination in executing such an unique program , Vidyalankar has really put in lot of efforts in these two years to make us a perfect product for high a ranked university like Penn State. This became possible because of good teachers , the high technical infrastructure & the facilities offered by library like facilities offered by the library.
Rohan Chitalia B.S.(IST) 2006-08


It was a great experience studying at VSIT. The infrastructure of the Library, Computer Lab, etc are really worthy of appreciation. The faculty who taught us are wizards in their subjects. The staff members are very cooperative. Thanks Vidyalankar !
Sayur Shah B.S.(IST) 2006-08


Spending two years here at VSIT has opened a whole new world to me. Here, at Vidyalankar, success is defined not only by one's test grades, but also through one's overall development. I have had the pleasure of meeting and being taught by some very experienced Professors. I have understood the importance of working hard to achieve the high score required in an exam. The individual attention given by the professors has been invaluable.
Shantanu Rajadhyaksha B.S.(IST) 2006-08



Placements
Well before the graduation more than 90% of the IST class has either accepted full time positions or has been admitted to graduate schools. For those entering the workforce, their average starting salaries-$56,185 - and signing bonuses-$4,350 were among the highest in the country. Penn State IST students are being hired as information systems analysts, security administrators, across industries like financial services, defense companies, consulting, manufacturing, health care and pharmaceutical corporations.


Here are some of the companies and organizations that have hired IST graduates

• Accenture

Aetna

• Air Products

• Alcoa

• Allstate Insurance

• AMS

• Anadarco

• AT&T

• BAE Systems

• Blackboard, Inc.

• Cerner

• CIGNA

• Comcast

• Computer Ais, Inc.

• Computer Sciences

• Corporation

• Deloitte

• Flack and Kurtz

• General Electric

• HPTi

• J.M.Huber

• IBM

• Johnson & Johnson

• JPMorganChase and Co.

• Kraft

• Lockheed Martin

• Mellon Financial

• Merril Lynch




IST alumni are pursuing graduate studies in prestigious universities like :

Cornell University

Duke University

• MIT, Lincoln Labs

North Carolina State University

Penn State

Syracuse University

Temple University

University of Maryland

University of Pennsylvania




5 Good Reasons to study at Vidyalankar & Penn State
High Quality Teaching
Excellent Infrastructure

Good combination of Business Management & Information Technology

Internationally accepted Degree
Excellent employment opportunities



Further Information
For more details and admission enquiries please contact – Ms Shweta Apte
Vidyalankar House
Hindu Colony , 1st Lane
Dadar (E), Mumbai 400 014
Tel. : (022) 2416 55 26 / 2418 55 86
Fax : (022) 2422 88 92
www. vsit.edu.in