Among the above three institutes, IIIT Gwalior is the best choice, considering the fact that it is the oldest IIIT and offers excellent placement and academic facilities. The preference order of choice among the institutes is given below.

IIIT Gwalior > IIIT Jabalpur > IIIT Lucknow

The table below gives a brief level of comparison among the three institutes.

Key Highlights:

• The cut-off for admission to IIIT Gwalior is a validation of the fact that it is the best choice. It has its infrastructure spread across a 100-acre campus, being the oldest IIIT and maintaining its standard of placement and academics.
• Jabalpur has a 260-acre campus. In terms of placement and infrastructure, it comes just after IIIT Gwalior. But in terms of research, IIIT Jabalpur is ahead of the other two.
• IIIT Lucknow has a 50-acre campus and is mostly under construction, and is just 2 batches old. It is growing with time and needs to gain fame eventually. IIIT Lucknow has good placement, even in the first pass-out batch. It would be an excellent choice in the future if the records in placement are retained.

Therefore, the above order is the choice of preference a candidate will find relevant. No candidate should be misguided just by recent placement records and statistics.

One of my friends who was a student of AB IIITM has described his journey throughout the course. Following are the points highlighted below.

• In the 1st year, very few students have an idea of what is to be done. Students pursuing IT mostly have no prior knowledge of the stream and no one guided them throughout.
• Students usually spent most of their useful time playing games like CS, watching movies, casual group discussions, etc.
• After the 1st year, most students don’t attend classes with the perception that classes are of no use, and good marks can be easily achieved.
• The actual impact starts in the 3rd year. Serious, hard-working candidates go for internships. Seeing them, average students either start coding and the others start preparation for government jobs (those who think coding is not their cup of tea).
• There is a problem among students that they underestimate themselves in the beginning. Some of them set their target towards only selective companies like TCS, Infosys, etc, which have an easy process of selection. This is a big mistake, in which students assume that companies like Microsoft and Samsung are meant only for a specific set of students. Eventually, students having such an assumption don’t work hard and prepare only for certain companies selectively.
• Some of these students, having such wrong perceptions fail to achieve their goal due to this lack of proper guidance and understanding.

Preparing for two years is enough for you to get a decent job, and no difficult coding skill is mandatory. Preparation can be taken in any domain. At the same time, enjoying college life is extremely important because it is generally the end of the glorious student life, and is to be missed afterward. So, do not set your goal low, and try to enjoy your college years.

IIITM-Gwalior is the best choice to opt and if you are getting it, grab the opportunity. It is the oldest IIT of India with its own campus spread over 160+ acres and is totally funded by MHRD. The institute has a decent placement with the average package for M.Tech was around 10.5 LPA. In MBA, the highest was 15 LPA.

If you're not getting IIIT Gwalior, then the order should be as follows: IIIT Lucknow > IIIT Vadodara > IIIT Kota.

IIIT Lucknow was recently established and is making good progress and the placement records are good. If one has to choose between IIIT- Kota or IIIT- Vadodara or IIIT- Lucknow, choose IIIT-Lucknow any day!

IIIT Vadodara doesn’t own a permanent campus but it is known for its coding culture and the placement statistics are far better. Also, final-year students do get an opportunity for an internship to work in Amazon.

IIIT Kota is in the beautiful campus of MNIT, Jaipur spread in an area of 329 acres.

Want to have a fulfilling college life in the sense you want to enjoy being part of a college fest.

The factors which used for ordering the above institutes are:

• Year of the establishment.
• Placements records
• Whether to have permanent campuses or not
• Funding mode
• Connectivity with the neighboring cities

Hence, before opting for any college just ask yourself, in which field or stream you want to get into so that you don’t regret it later. As 4 years duration is not too little to give and graduating from a reputed college with good placement and tag plays a vital role in your upcoming future.

Both IIEST and IIITM Gwalior offer CSE and IT as their flagship courses respectively. The deciding factor here is which subject you are more inclined towards.

If you are passionate about CSE, then IIEST is the best option. Being the second oldest engineering college in India; it has an amazing faculty-Student ratio of 1:14 with highly qualified faculties and visiting professors from IITs, NITs, and other renowned Universities. IIEST is ranked 21st for engineering in 2020.

If your interest lies in the IT field, IIITM Gwalior must be your priority. Ranked 100 for engineering by NIRF in 2020, IITM offers IT as its flagship course.

Admission:

IIEST:

• For admission in IIEST, aspirants must clear JEE Main.

• With the ranking of 4165-10909, one can secure admission in CSE at IIEST in the first round.

• Aspirants from the General (PWD) category must secure a rank below 522 for the same course. Whereas students belonging to OBC (Non-creamy layer) must secure a rank within 4,398.

• IIEST offers a total of 120 seats for CSE with the annual Tuition fee of 70,000.

IIITM Gwalior:

• Securing the rank within 9713-14442 in JEE Main will fetch admission in the IT department of IIITM Gwalior.

• Cutoff falls down to 3,800- 6,300 for OBC (Non-creamy layer) and General category students.

• The admission process is carried through JoSAA Counselling and CSAB Special Round.

• IIITM Gwalior offers 262 seats for the IT branch with a yearly fee of 84,325.

Placement statistics:

IIEST:

• Around 100 large to medium-sized companies take part in campus recruitment every year.

• Industry giants including IBM, Microsoft, Maruti, TCS, HSBC Technologies are the top recruiters.

• CSE branch in IIEST has the current placement rate of 72% with 462 students being placed in 2020.

• The average CTC offered for CSE students is 9 LPA with the highest CTC of 39.12 LPA.

IIITM Gwalior:

• 400+ companies participate in the recruitment process every year.

• Top recruiters include Amazon, Expedia, IBM, TCS, HCL, DELL, Paytm, Myntra.

• 90% of the students get placed at top companies with an average salary of 14.58 LPA.

• The highest domestic CTC offered in 2020 is 42 LPA.

Both IIEST and IIITM Gwalior are best in the respective courses offered. The deciding factor here is which branch you find perfect for your interest among CSE and IT.

Yes, there are quite a few options available for fee reductions for students from a financially weak background. Most students are not aware of this for some reason. These are mainly given out in the form of scholarships or fee waivers and a lot of them are based on your JEE Mains rank and your family’s income.

• If you are from the SC or ST category, your entire semester’s tuition fee will be waived off. 
• Now, if you belong to the OBC or General Category, some other scholarships are available as well. These include some state as well national scholarships that are available. 
• Other than this, the institute itself offers a Merit cum Means scholarship to candidates from a weak financial background. This scholarship is given to 10% of students from the batch. It includes a monthly allowance of INR 1000 for any expenses as well as a complete tuition fee waiver.
• Also, don’t miss the chance of applying to the Merit Cum Means scholarship within the first month of your admission. You will definitely regret this later. This scholarship is given only once and if you do bag it, you will definitely benefit from it for the next four to five years at least. Once this chance is gone, no other cases are considered. If you are interested in applying for it, you should contact the Deputy Registrar of the institute.

Just ensure that you have good JEE rank because scholarships are given based on that.

My brother studies at IIIT M and the coding culture there is not limited to coding, i.e. the competitive coding, there are only a few of these competitive coders but they are quite dedicated and get placed with companies like Google and Microsoft. A lot of exploration can be done in different fields as well. My brother has enrolled in the Integrated Post Graduate (IPG) Course in IT, which is the only branch at IIITM G with 129 seats - a number lower than seats available at other institutes. It is ranked on #100 in the NIRF ranking list. 

Also to be noted are these -

• As you know, due to limited seats, there is a lot of scope for peer-to-peer learning.
• You will discover that your classmates won't stick to just coding, but will also learn more about development too; which would be software development, web development, and Android development.
• A lot of varied events are organized weekly, bi-monthly, or annually by the students' forum called AASF. They hold programming contests and conduct classes for Freshers to introduce competitive programming. These sessions are peer-to-peer interactive ones where seniors and juniors participate in sharing ideas.

AASF is the only club that holds coding competitions, mostly for first-year students, but some programmers turn out to be very good.

The annual programming contest is what coding enthusiasts at the college look forward to. Finally, it depends on whether you are interested in coding and want to truly participate with dedication, if so, your seniors will support you the most. 

Let us go with a side by side comparison of both the colleges on the basis of the following factors: NIRF Ranking, Faculty and Placements.

NIRF Ranking: As per NIRF 2020, NIT Durgapur has been ranked 47th whereas IIITM Gwalior has been given a rank above 100.

Faculty:Having friends in both of the colleges I can share their views, and according to their personal experience the faculty at IIITM Gwalior is one of the best faculties out there in India. Also, you will get good research facilities in IIITM Gwalior.

Placements: As many of you might find this a major point while choosing colleges, you should know that NIT Durgapur offers placements for CSE branch with an average package of 6.5 lac pa and 29 lac pa being the highest package. On the other hand, there is not much data available on placements at IIITM Gwalior as CSE is a newly introduced branch.

At the end of the day, if placements are your topmost priority then NIT Durgapur is the best choice. But if you are more inclined towards research work you will need a good faculty for that, which you’ll get at IIITM Gwalior.

IIITM, Gwalior is known for its well-structured programs in Engineering, Technology, Business, and Education. It also offers some of the top placements in the country considering a whopping 90% placement rate. IIITDM, Kancheepuram on the other hand, offers 13 programs across Engineering, Design, and Science and is most popular for its program in Computer Science and Engineering.

The factors based on which we can draw a comparison of the two colleges are as given:

• Ranking: IIITM, Gwalior has been ranked at 81 by the NIRF in 2020 whereas IIITDM, Kancheepuram is ranked at 181 by NIRF.
• Courses: Considering IIITM, Gwalior only had its first batch of Computer Science Engineering students in the year 2017, it is advisable for students to look at IIITDM, Kancheepuram for programs pertaining to CSE- which has been well-structured and more detailed across the years. Also, for students who are looking at programs to do with design, manufacturing or research can opt IIITDM, Kancheepuram considering IIITM, Gwalior is not a research-oriented college.
• Placements: Both colleges offer good placement services but IIITM, Gwalior sees a higher number of companies as part of their placement drives. The average salary package of students is near 10.5 LPA, with 30% placements from the Field of Engineering. IIITDM, Kancheepuram observes an average salary package of 17.54 LPA with a total of 135 students of the total being placed. About 38% of placements take place within the field of Engineering.
• Campus: The campus at IIITM, Gwalior is in the middle of nature with lush greenery and well-developed infrastructure with a hostel, sports complex, labs, open theatre, and Post office. The IIITDM, Kancheepuram campus is knowns for its 14-storey hostel building, with high-speed internet facilities, smart classrooms, a library, departmental stores, and a gym.

Hence, depending on the program of choice, campus facilities, ranking, and placements students can make a choice as to which college will be better suited for them.