There is absolutely no ragging here. During the initial few days of your stay here, the seniors may ask you to give them an “intro” or make you do some random stuff such as sing, dance, etc. They may also ask you to wear formal dresses for a week or two. Otherwise, there is no hardcore form of ragging which you may find in other colleges such as BESU, IIT, NIT, or Jadavpur University. 

The amount keeps changing every year. There is no fixed amount.

Nowadays, the college follows a system of seat-booking whereby you can book a seat if you are not quite sure about your admission to any college. You will have to pay a certain amount specified by the college and your seat will be booked in the stream that you want to opt for if you join the college.

The system is a little different and it is not exactly like the management quota in other colleges. The amount that you have to pay depends on which branch you want to opt for. The more demanding the branch, the more the amount of donation. For example, branches like Computer Science or Electronics are charged more than branches like Applied Instrumentation or Biotechnology.

I would recommend you book a seat and later decide whether you want to join or not. This will cost you less. But, you will have to decide within a short span of time otherwise the authority will move the list and give admission to a lower-ranked individual.

Before making a decision on what college you want to get admitted to there are some factors that must be kept in mind: the quality of academics and faculty, extra-curricular activities, the record of recent placements.

1. In the Heritage Institute of Technology, the head of the department barely ever engaged in any interaction with the students and never had a say in any matter. 
2. The quality of the faculty members is not good. There are exceptions but most of them lack knowledge so they are of not much help.
3. No events involving extra-curricular activities take place on the campus.
4. Talking about the placements, the average salary package is only around INR 3-4 LPA. Companies like Wipro and TCS visit the campus but the job roles offered are not good. 

There are far better options such as IEM and Techno India. Heritage is an overhyped institute. Also, look for institutes that are not in Kolkata if you want better exposure.

Heritage Institute of Technology (HIT) Kolkata, affiliated with MAUKAT, is ranked 154th in the NIRF Ranking 2020 for engineering colleges in India. According to some of my friends studying there, it is a really good institute.

• The college offers decent placements to students depending on their grade points. 
• The students hit above the 8.5-grade points, every company in the campus placement will hire them. 
• The top recruiters include TCS, IBM, Cognizant, Wipro, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, etc. 
• Most of the recruiters are giant software companies. So, there are fewer core recruiters for other branches.
• The core Chemical Engineering companies include Linde India Limited, Phillips Carbon Black, Berger Paints, VA Tech Wabag, Haldia Petrochemicals, Wacker, TATA Chemicals, Rene Leather, Star Cements, Himadri Chemicals, etc.
• HPL, PCBL, Berger paint generally offer packages of about 4.5-6 LPA.
• Many Heritage graduates are working in PSUs like IOCL, HPCL, BPCL, NFL, SAIL and other Government organisations like BARC, DRDO etc.

According to the past statistics of the institute, the following are the placement percentage of each branch.

As per the above, ECE and CSE are the best branches in terms of placements. But you can opt for the department which interests you, because overall the placements of Heritage Institute of Technology is really good.

UEM Kolkata is ranked 3rd best college in West Bengal and is currently at the 79th Position in NIRF ranking. Heritage Institute of Technology is at the 154th position in the engineering category of the NIRF ranking.

Admission:

UME- The institute offers various courses at UG and PG level, such as BBA, BCA, B.Sc, B.Sc LL.B, BBA LL.B, Bachelor of Hotel Management, MBA, etc. For UEM, the admissions are entrance scores based. It accepts IEM JEE, CAT, MAT, JECA scores for admission to different courses.

Heritage Institute of Technology- The popular courses at Heritage are B.Tech, M.Tech, MCA. For admission, it accepts JEE Mains, PGETand JECA scores.

Placement:

UEM- It has a placement percentage of 123%; almost all the students get 2-3 job offers.

• The average package is nearly 4.2 Lakhs per annum. The highest package offered was 40 Lakhs per annum in 2019 placements.
• Top recruiting companies of the college are- TCS, Wipro, Videonetics, Codeclouds, NRI Fintech, Think analytics, Global Logic, etc.

Heritage Institute of Technology- Heritage has a placement rate of 78%.

• The average package offered is 4 Lakhs per annum. The highest package goes up to 16 Lakhs per annum.
• Top employers’ of the college are TCS, Tech Mahindra, IBM, Cerner Corporation, Ericson, Birla, and DX Core Design.

Both UEM and Heritage are reputed institutes of Kolkata. So, choose which institute will be better for you according to your convenience.

The civil engineering branch or any core branches like mechanical or electrical are good at Heritage Institute of Technology. Some professors are really good and helpful while others are not. Some will teach you by their experience while some will teach you by the core concepts.

It’s the students who make the difference between a good and average college. Unfortunately, Heritage Institute of Technology lags behind in this manner. The placements are not good in core branches and in core companies due to this only. Most of the companies that visit the campus are IT sector companies who take people from any branch in a big lot. TCS is a regular recruiter here and they take more than 500 students in one year itself from this campus alone.

Core companies do visit the campus although in small numbers. But to crack their interviews you need to have a good understanding of your core concepts in your branch which unfortunately not all the students are capable of and thus the recruitment in core branches in core companies is low. However, you will get a job after doing civil engineering from this institute, even though it is just an IT job.

As I know some people from these institutes you mentioned above, it will be clearer to base their ideas upon the rankings on different factors. 

In terms of Academic Credentials and Research works:

• Kalyani Government Engineering College will be my first choice. It is a Government-run College bestowed with some great Professors.
• Heritage Institute of Technology will be 2nd, as it also has some of the most influential professors. It is an autonomous institute. 
• This will be followed by Jalpaiguri Government Engineering College.
• Finally, the Institute of Engineering and Management, as there have been reports of faculty shortage.

In terms of Social life and Co-curricular Activities:

• Heritage Institute of Technology tops this criteria. 
• Whereas, Kalyani Government Engineering College is in the 2nd position.
• Followed by Jalpaiguri Government Engineering College and IEM.

In terms of Locational merits and Infrastructure,

• Heritage has one of the best infrastructures and is apparently only 10 mins from the major junction of Ruby Hospital or Desun Square.
• IEM also has established both the criteria really well, yet it somehow gets difficult for South Kolkata students.
• They are followed by Kalyani Government Engineering College and Jalpaiguri Government Engineering College.

In terms of Placement Scenario,

• Institute of Engineering and Management and Heritage Institute of Technology are the same in terms of their placement drives.
• Followed by Kalyani Government Engineering College and Jalpaiguri Government Engineering College

In terms of Affordability: (Fees, Accommodation, Miscellaneous Expenses)

• Kalyani Government Engineering College
• Jalpaiguri Government Engineering College
• Institute of Engineering and Management and finally,
• Heritage Institute of Technology

Hope this layer to layer breakdown has helped you gain some insight about the question you asked. 

Honestly, this is not even a comparison. VIT (any campus) is way better than Heritage Institute of Technology. Actually, Heritage Institute of Technology is not even the best college in the Kolkata region. It is the Institute of Engineering and Management (IEM).

Heritage Institute of Technology is obviously cheaper than VIT to study and also closer to your home if you are from the eastern region of India. You will get a job after graduating with a starting salary of around INR 3.5 lakhs per annum. If you have financial constraints and you are ok with this kind of starting salary then Heritage Institute of Technology will not disappoint you.

However, if you are well enough to pay for the fee of VIT, then in no way you should even think of Heritage Institute of Technology. The environment you will get there are obviously the placements of VIT are way better than Heritage Institute of Technology to even consider them for comparison.