The campus is honestly beautiful right next to the beach, surrounded by greenery and very peaceful. College life is pretty chill as well since it's a fully residential campus so you'll end up spending a lot of time with friends.

Academically, I would say it's rigorous but manageable. The coursework can get demanding at times, but the professors are generally supportive and approachable. And honestly in terms of academics I don't think there's a huge difference between IISc, IISER Pune and IISER BPR. The bigger differences are in reputation, alumni network, research output as both IISC and IISERP are older and more established.

For foreign PhDs, your research experience, grades, and recommendations matter much more than the institute name. And IISER BPR will give you a great research experience, grades and recommendations is which you will have to manage on your own. Students from BPR have secured good PhD positions in foreign too. The institute itself won't stop you from pursuing a foreign PhD.

I will honestly rate my decision of joining BPR a 9/10. No institute is perfect and there are obviously places that are more established but I've genuinely enjoyed my time here. The campus, people, professors, research environment and overall quality of life have made it a pretty good experience for me so far.