No. It is not mandatory. The college allows you to have full freedom on whether you want to live in the hotel or outside. If someone has a problem with hostel life he/she can stay outside. But if you do not take hostels for a year you are going to miss a lot of things in life. 

The main crux of college life lies in a hostel and it is better to join the hostel for the first 2 years. Also, it is easier to maintain the 8–5 classes from hostels and after the whole day tiring classes you can hang with your friends, play on the two grounds or go to the gym. 

IIEST Shibpur is one of the oldest Engineering and Technology colleges in India. An excellent placement record ever since it’s the foundation is held by the college, right from the department of mining to an exceptional upgrading placement log in Computer Science (CSE).

Ranked 51 among the Engineering Colleges of India by NIRF in 2019, NIT Silchar is among the prestigious institutes specialized in departments like civil, mechanical, electronics, mining including Computer science (CSE) mentioned on the official site and some other reliable websites to be contemplated.

Placement:

• IIEST Shibpur: Almost 90% of students got placed in Microsoft, Google, Amazon, IBM, and a lot more prestigious companies from a CSE vantage point mentioned in some official government sources with the highest CTC of 39.12 Lakhs.

• NIT Silchar: It has an excellent placement record with quite 86% of B.Tech students getting placed as per the 2019 stats, with a mean annual CTC of INR 6.25 LPA. The very best package offered was for INR 32.5 LPA, from an Indian software company named, Arcesium India Pvt Ltd.

Infrastructure:

• IIEST Shibpur is fit out with well-equipped computer labs that meet the needs of the students, research scholars, faculty members, and staff. The students are provided with the latest technology and hardware that best allows them to effectively handle their coursework.

• NIT Silchar has a contrasting computer lab arrangement for different departments. For example, the Department of data science and analytics labs are different than those of P.G labs.

Fees:

• IIEST Shibpur: The fee structure of B.Tech CSE is 1.37 LPA (First year) whereas, for M.Tech, it is 81,500(First year).

• NIT Silchar: The fee structure of B.Tech CSE is 1.48 LPA (First year) whereas, for M.Tech, it is 91,140 (First year).

The admission into these colleges are only possible through JEE(Joint Entrance Examination). The above-mentioned details will help you in making your decision. However, the name of an institute could just be taken as a tag and you can possibly pursue your dream job from any of the two institutes mentioned.

My brother pursued Mechanical Engineering from IIEST Shibpur. IIEST, Shibpur Mechanical Department has an excellent set of faculties, but some of them are known to be a little strict. But, their temper and strictness depend on how you behave with them and how much attention you pay in their lectures. Otherwise, they are found to be completely student-friendly.

The strictness of the professors is listed below in decreasing order. 

• Santanu Kumar Karmakar - He seems to be very strict.
• Somnath Chakrabarti
• Shyamal Chatterjee
• Aritra Ganguly
• Apurba Kishore Dutta
• Debasis Datta
• Bijan Kumar Mondal
• Achin Kumar Chowdhuri
• Sisir Kumar Guha
• Sudip Ghosh
• Partha Pratim Dey
• Subhas Chandra Mondal
• Uttam Rana
• Ashim Guha
• Bidyut Kumar Bhattacharya
• Rathindra Nath De - Most benevolent and calm.

You should note that this list does not reflect their teaching style or knowledge by any means. It is completely based on how strict they are about attending the classes regularly. Hope the information given in the answer is helpful.

The second-oldest engineering institute in the country is the Indian Institute of Engineering, Science & Technology, Shibpur (formerly named BESU and B. E. College). Since 2014, it has been listed as an Institute of National Significance like IITs or IISc by the Parliament's NITZER Act.

Courses Offered: 

This Institute offers 5-year full-time dual degree courses (i.e. 10-semester courses) in the following divisions of the undergraduate course.

• Engineering & Applied Mechanics in Aerospace
• Civil Engineering Business
• The Science and Technology of Computers
• Electrical engineering engineering
• Engineering in Electronics and Telecommunication
• Informational Technology
• Engineering in Mechanics
• Metallurgy and Engineering Materials
• Engineering in Mining

The Institute also offers a 5-year full-time undergraduate course in Architecture on a regular basis.

The Integrated Dual Degree Five-Year Curriculum or program for the following Departments of Science and Humanities are funded by the Arch Program, as stated above.

• Chemistry 
• Physics
• Mathematics
• Earth Science
• Social Sciences and Humanities.

These departments have post-graduate and doctoral programs of their own. There are several specialized centers and schools offering PG and Ph.D. programs at this Institute.

One of my friends was in the same situation last year. He got IIEST Shibpur Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, Mining Engineering, and Civil Engineering along with a rank of 1383 in West Bengal State Merit List of NEET for MBBS admission converted with a mark of 462. 

• In West Bengal State counseling he received R Ahmed Dental College in the 3rd round. 
• He refused the seat in KPC Medical College as he knew that his parents will not be able to pay his fees of 8 lakhs over 4.5 years. As he was not interested in Civil so he continued with Metallurgy and Materials Engineering.
• During his 1st semester, he again started preparing for NEET but figured out later that the course pressure at IIEST Shibpur is too much and with so much to study for NEET, he was just falling apart. 
• His CGPA was not good as it was only 8.67 and ultimately decided not to go for NEET as his father advised him to concentrate on IIEST and give up on his dreams of becoming a doctor. 
• It came as a shock but later he realized that preparing for NEET all over again alongside maintaining a proper CGPA at IIEST is doing more harm than good to his career. 
• He felt that he should have taken the drop in the beginning but he was not ready to take any risk and IIEST Shibpur being a renowned college he was not ready to leave it.

So, if you want to become a doctor and serve people and if it's the long-cherished dream of pursuing MBBS then you should leave IIEST and better prepare for NEET again. Different people will have different views regarding the decision of leaving a good college like IIEST but in the end, it completely depends upon your goals.