Firstly, Manipal University is an amazing college, regardless of where you’re planning to join from. It was always among my top priorities when I left Dubai after 10th grade, and fortunately I got my course easily enough.
Now the hostels are top class. There are different tiers obviously, the more expensive ‘firang’ hostels include the newly opened block plus the existing 15th and 16th blocks, which have AC rooms and which most NRI students usually occupy. There are also the 17th & 18th blocks which are without AC but nevertheless still comfy. All blocks have a TV room every alternate floor and a TT/rec room. Of course I speak out of experience regarding the boy’s hostels, although I have heard that the new girl’s block which just opened when I left (in 2013) are ‘the bomb’.
The faculty are amicable, and greatly appreciate interest in their subject. No matter how strict they might be in class or whatever, they will still help if you explicitly show interest in learning and need tutoring. In class they’re mostly strict, but engage the class and require very prompt assignment submissions. Even if you’re an NRI, the teachers don’t seem to show any bias, although for me, being a Mangalorean, with my close proximity to Manipal, the ‘localite’ tag did make a lot of things easier.