Students who get admission for Int-PhD in Physics at institutes like IISc, IISER Pune, or IISER Kolkata score decent marks in IIT-JAM. You should have a rank under 300 if you want admission at IISc. The required cutoff for IISER Pune remains under 500. For IISER Kolkata, you will need a rank under 700.
Some of my friends attend IISER Kolkata and here are some snippets from their experiences.
This should give you an idea of what it’s like to attend IISER Kolkata.
IISER Kolkata mess facilities offer breakfast, lunch, evening snacks, and dinner to students. For breakfast, there will be options such as boiled egg, bread-butter, cornflakes, idli, omelet, sambar, vada, etc. with tea or coffee. Rice, roti, daal, paneer, fish, chicken, dahi, papad, salad, etc. are available for lunch. You will get samosas, chowmin, bread-butter, omelet, etc. for evening snacks. For dinner, students get options such as rice, roti, daal, veg fry, chili chicken, mutton, dahi, etc.
IACS Kolkata is counted among the top-rated institutes in India. However, if you are talking about undergraduate programs then joining IISER Kolkata will be better. IACS Kolkata just started their 5 year-long integrated BS-MS program. Whereas, IISER Kolkata has offered this course for over 10 years. The quality of teaching and infrastructure is definitely better at IISER Kolkata compared to IACS Kolkata.
IISERs and NISER are reputed institutes in the field of Science. If you want to choose among these institutes, do so based on your choice of course. NISER comes under the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and has a wonderful Physics faculty. Among IISERs, IISER Kolkata is the best for Physics. IISER Pune is a good option if you are interested in Chemistry.IISER Mohali is pretty good for Algebraic Mathematics.
Here are some pointers on NISER vs IISER.
There are three ways through which you can get admission at IISER Kolkata.
Hope this gives you some idea regarding the admission process at IISER Kolkata.
The Physics department of IISER Kolkata is the best among all the other IISER. It is also the best department among all the departments of the institute, in terms of quality of academics, faculties, research outreach, and management.
However, you should note that just joining IISER Kolkata, does not necessarily mean that you will get Physics as your major. You will need to maintain a decent percentile till your 2nd year to get Physics as your major.
It is difficult to choose when the comparison is question is NISER vs IISER. Choosing one institute over another will not matter much if you stay dedicated to your studies after taking admission. NISER and IISERs offer decent academics and facilities for fundamental sciences. NISER has a great Physics department. If you are choosing an IISER, make sure it is an old one.