Vellore Institute of Technology - [VIT] Chennai, Chennai

From what I have heard, VIT Vellore is a money-making machine that accepts donations and admits every kind of student irrespective of their academic profile. The rankings that claim VIT to be better than IITs are baseless and forged. Don’t fall into their trap and talk to the students directly. You will find most of them saying that the professors are underqualified, have no interest in teaching and the academic environment is deteriorating. VIT is just a private university like Amity that is attracting students through fake advertisements and donations.

I would recommend you go for a government institute like DTU instead that has a genuine brand value. 

No, VIT is not better than NITs at all. In fact, its a private engineering college so it will cost you much more than studying at a government college like NIT. Here is why I think NITs in general or NIT Durgapur, in particular, is better than VIT

• Although NITs have a reservation policy, it does not suck as much as the Management Quota at VIT that lets in a huge number of average students.
• The placement statistics clearly put NIT Durgapur ahead of VIT. 
• NIT Durgapur has a rich legacy and is highly reputed among recruiters. 
• You will get the advantage of the NIT tag and one can deny the fact that it does give you an edge over others

Here is a brief overview of these colleges

Ultimately, it depends on your passion for studying because if you are passionate enough, even an average college will bring out the best in you.

I feel I am the right person to answer this as my brother and a friend are in VIT and KIIT respectively. From what I heard from them, I derived the following conclusions 

• KIIT Campus is huge and you can find posters of Mr Achyuta Samanta at every corner of the campus. It looked more like an advertisement.
• The campus has a good location and enjoys the advantages of Bhubaneswar city.
• However, you will find very less diversity here as most of the engineering students are from East Indians. 
• The hostel rooms are spacious and well-ventilated. The overall campus is clean and beautiful with decent facilities

My friend at VIT also experienced a similar situation as both are private colleges striving to attract students. 

If ever you are left with these two choices, I suggest you go for VIT as it has better placements and ranking.

I am a student at VIT and have friends at Manipal Institute of Technology. Here are some facts about both-

• Placements - Both have good placements in CS. Just like other engineering colleges, most other branches aren’t usually offered high packages. Both the colleges are visited by similar companies. An IT job is assured even if you fail to land a core job.

• Examination- VIT has easy examination questions. However, getting a grade 9 requires dedicated efforts.

• Academic flexibility- At VIT, you can choose your own subjects, teachers and timings. Given that you satisfy the basic requirements for a degree, you can choose to study any subjects. This means you’ll get to see new faces during each class. It’s a great opportunity for building your network.

• Cost- The fees at Manipal are much higher than VIT.

• College Life- Manipal offers a much better college life. It has fewer restrictions and better eateries. Its campus is more picturesque as well. If you like to travel, Ooty, Pondicherry, Kodaikanal and Tirupati are situated near Vellore.Manipal on the other hand, has Goa, Gokarna and the Agumbe rainforest near it.
• Language-barrier- Outside the VIT campus in Vellore, you’ll feel difficulty due to language barrier. This problem is faced less in Manipal.
• Faculty- Almost every branch at VIT has some very qualified teachers. However, it's not necessary that they teach well. If you wish to pursue higher studies, take initiative and approach your teachers, they will assist and support you. 

The faculty at Manipal isn’t great. 

Both the colleges have enormous student populations, and are great for building networks. You can choose either of them as both are at par with each other.

Rather than focusing on the institutes, it’s best to give importance to your branch. I know a friend who gave up on BITS Hyderabad Mechanical production for core Mechanical at VIT. When I asked her the reason she told me that for her it was the branch that mattered more and VIT offered the branch of her choice.

So I will advise you to do the same. Analyze where your interests lie and choose the institute accordingly. 

While comparing institutes, you should consider these parameters-infrastructure, faculty, fee structure, and placement record:

• Infrastructure- VIT Vellore campus is clean and hygienic. Its hostels and mess are also good. 

Mahindra Ecole Centrale (MEC) has a world-class infrastructure with a good campus environment and good sports facilities.

• Faculty- The faculty at VIT consists of qualified Ph.D. teachers. MEC has Indian and international Ph.D. holders as its faculty. They teach well and give high value to research. The curriculum is co-designed with Ecole Centrale 

Paris, and is of good quality.

• Fee- B.Tech CSE at VIT Vellore will cost you INR 1.95 lakhs each year. From MIT, this course will cost you INR 18.62 lakhs in total, while from MEC, it will cost you 4.50 lakhs per year. So VIT Vellore is more adorable than the other two.

• Placements- B.Tech placements of VIT Vellore are good. The average package of VIT Vellore stood at INR 9.23 LPA in 2023. MNCs like Amazon, Microsoft, D.E. Shaw, Paypal, etc. visit the campus for placements. 

At MEC, the average package stands near 7 LPA. At Manipal, the average package for 2023 was INR 14.10 LPA, and the median package was INR 8.5 LPA.

I would suggest you reach out to the alumni from each college. This will give you a clearer picture of how things are at the ground level. According to me, Manipal Institute of Technology, VIT, and MEC, all have their own strengths and weaknesses.

I would place these institutions in this rank-

1. MIT (Main Campus- Manipal) 
2. VIT
3. SRM
4. KIIT

However, KIIT will overtake VIT and SRM because the academics and placements at this institution are getting better over the years.

As an alumnus of MIT, here are a few reasons why I have placed MIT in the top:

1. Top Engineering streams like CSE, IT, Mech, ECE, and EEE at MIT are as good as the NITs.
2. It has only merit-based seats and no management quota. On the other hand, in KIIT and other institutions, the majority of intake is from management quota.
3. The All India MU-OET exam brings in a good crowd at MIT. The campus life, faculty, and alumni are also great.
4. MIT has a decent placement record and a great campus life. During placements at MIT, I sat for 50 companies and by the end received 3 placement offers. Currently, I am working at TATA Motors.
5. If the high fee is not an issue for you, MIT is the best option after IITs, BITS, and top NITs.
6. People tolerate opposing views and the approach is more egalitarian at MIT.
7. MIT student has the distinction of being an undergraduate with the highest number of research papers in the country to his credit (22 research papers in 4 years).

Though KIIT is a good institution with improving academics and placements, I would say that MIT ranks the highest among the four.

Even though I am a CSE student at VIT Vellore, I would like to point out some weaknesses of my institution-

1. The annual intake for all the branches, all four categories, is quite high at VIT Vellore. It is close to 5000 students each year. In the CSE branch alone, close to 1300 students are admitted annually (including Bioinformatics).
2. Placements seem very high, but in reality, large scale mass recruitments by IT firms like Cognizant, TCS, Wipro, Infosys, Accenture, etc. inflate the placement figures. 
3. The course fee at VIT is comparatively higher. It is around 1.95 Lakhs per year. This too if you are a category 1 (merit) student. Around 1 Lakh per year is added if you belong to the other three categories. 
4. Advanced Placement Training sessions have been introduced for students. But these sessions aren’t really helpful in practicality. In fact 6 hours of each weekend is spent in these sessions. 
5. Those with a good CGPA get good hostel rooms in good blocks. Those who fail to score high grades are given older blocks.
6. The hostel rules are strict. This is especially true when you have to get a leave sanctioned from your faculty advisor or proctor.

NIT Surathkal, on the other hand, is a government college. It has an intake of around 800 students in all the branches, with 120 students in CSE. The institution offers top notch placements. There are no mass hirings. The course fee falls between 1.38 to 1.57 Lakhs per year. College rules are much more flexible.

Thus, based on these observations, I would suggest you take admissions in NIT Surathkal for your CSE program.

As a former EEE student at BITS Goa, I would not recommend taking up EEE at BITS Hyderabad if you want a career in the field of software engineering. 

Here are the reasons why-

1. The coding involved in EEE is not enough. You’ll code in MATLAB, which is rarely used in the IT sector. You’ll have to devote extra time to learning Python, Java, and other languages. 
2. CS involves much more than coding, all of which you’ll miss out on.
3. Elective courses like OS, DSA, Comp Arch have very limited seats, and not everyone gets to pick them. Also, you’ll get these courses by your third or fourth year. By then you’ll either be under too much pressure to complete your main syllabus or it’ll be too late because the placement season will have begun.
4. Top IT companies don’t open for non CS candidates, and even for the companies that do, you’ll have to compete with CS students.
5. BITS will give you all the necessary exposure, quality education and opportunities. However, as a non IT student you’ll still find difficulty in getting an IT job via campus placements.

Based on all these points, I would recommend choosing CSE at VIT for better job prospects in the IT sector.