MEASURES FOR INTRODUCING TRANSPARENCY IN JEE-2008
JAB has approved the display of following JEE 2008 information on the dates indicated, on the IIT-JEE web sites for information of all.
1. The procedure of subject-wise cut-off and aggregate cut-off for the preparation of Merit Lists and Ranking Procedure. (This has already been displayed on March 01, 2008 and subsequently updated on 22.06.08)
2. The question papers and the key of the papers would be displayed on August 1, 2008.
3. The candidates would be able to see his/her performance and get a printout from the IIT-JEE websites between August 01, 2008 and August 31, 2008.
4. The details of category-wise opening and closing ranks of all the admitted candidates to different programmes shall be displayed on August 01, 2008.
5. Subject wise cut offs and aggregate cut off for GE general category on August 1, 2008.
6. Relaxation for all other reserved categories in subject-wise cut offs and aggregate cutoffs on Aug. 01, 2008.
7. Aggregate total for every 500th rank in Common Merit List (AIR) till the last qualified candidate. Similarly for every 100th rank in SC, ST and OBC category on August 01, 2008.
8. Aggregate total and subject-wise marks for the first and last admitted candidate to IITs for all categories on Aug. 01, 2008.
PROCEDURE OF SCANNING OF ORS
Scanning/Reading of the ORS has been done simultaneously at the seven IITs between 25th April and 05th of May 2008. Scanning work is divided in two operations called Coding and Tabulation. Scanning of lower half of the ORS containing candidate’s information is done by the Coders and that of the upper part of the ORS containing candidate’s responses to the questions is done by Tabulators. Senior and the experienced IIT faculty is normally entrusted the coding and the tabulation work. Brief summary of scanning procedure involved is given under.
1. Coding team will take charge of the sealed ORS packets as received from examination centres and tally with the registered candidates at that centre minus the absentees recorded at the centre. This physical verification is done for all the centres in the zone.
2. ORS of all the candidates present in both, the Paper 1 and the Paper 2 are collected for evaluation.
3. The ORS is then cut in two parts separating upper and lower parts. The upper and lower half of each ORS has unique bar code. Packets of upper parts are handed over to Chairman JEE in sealed trunks for handing over to Tabulators.
4. The lower half of the ORS will be machine read only after the scanning of the upper part is over and tabulator’s data received by the Chairman.
5. Coders supervise the machine reading of the Lower Part of the ORS (single scan). Error flagging shown by the software, is removed by manual verification of that ORS.
6. Chief coder will hand over the sealed coding data to the Chairman and will format the hard disk and seal it.
Tabulation Procedure
1. The Chief Tabulator receives the upper half of the ORS in sealed trunks from the chairman.
2. Machine Calibration – This is done by scanning sample check of 1000 ORS including the dummy response sheets, on each of the two machines in use. Two out puts per machine are obtained, thus giving four responses. Proper calibration will ensure minimum discrepancy/error in the four responses.
3. After calibrating the two machines, each ORS is scanned on the same two machines and the four out puts (responses) are collected. Software flags the discrepancy if any in the four responses. Mismatches and discrepancies of ORS reading is reconciled by physically looking at the ORS by the Tabulators. Thus the final response data collected is error free.
4. Upper-Half data (Barcode and strings of candidate’s response i.e. answers corresponding to each question) for both Paper 1 and Paper 2 are handed over by the Chief Tabulator to the Chairman and the hard disk of the systems used is formatted and sealed.
General Precautions
1. The Chief Coder and Chief Tabulator ensure that the machine remains in dust-free condition all the times.
2. Ensure that at least two coders/tabulators are always present while the lower part/upper part of the ORS is being scanned.
Source:iitjee homepage
Frndz I am posting some doubts related to BITSAT which may be bothering many of you.(even though for most of you it must be too late)
BITSAT FAQs
1: Is the class 10th mark sheet/cert absolutely necessary ?
It would be gud if you had it but even if you don't have it the authorities will provide you a form wherein you state that you'll provide the same at the time of counseling.
2: Is the rough wrk sheet enough?
They provide you with a 8 page pad(16 sides) which is just enough. however I suggest you to first scribble using a pencil & if you need more space you can write over it with a pen.( extra sheets are not provided)
3: What is the qsn level?
the qsn level is very simple (I found it easier than 'EEE (esp Maths)).
Maths - I had a good smattering of DE qs(all easy) 5-6,sum of infinite series ,exp,log(3-4)
integration was also easy, P&C was routine stuff,Co-ord was the most easy of them all.
Chem - There were just traces of org chem. !!!
Inorg was also not that tough (mostly gp prop, vry little rxns.)
Physical C bothered me a little
Phy - I can't comment much since phy is not my forte
However most of the qs were routine
Logical Rsn-It was the eaiestof them all
vry simpe series qs, figure qs (NTSE was far better)
English-One wrd substitutions, correct meaning of a w in a sent, correct seq of sentences
were sim to Arihant, there was 1 qsn tag, overall nothing was very bothersome
(for few qs that I got refer to my next article)
4: Was the time sufficient ?
I had been through all the 150 qsns in 160 min. I had attempted arnd 130-135 odd qs.
So I decided to take the plunge and after marking the remaining went for the extra qs. I
got 10 min for those & easily done 10 qs out of the 12. I got stuck in 1 and had to leave 1 which was really easy. Thus I think devoting 12-15 min for the last 12 would have been the optimum balance.
5: level of extra qs. ?
the extra qs were of less than avg difficulty. all 12 could be attempted easily in 15 min. They were almost of the same level as the first 15 odd qs of PCM.
Many of you would be thinking about whether to take the extra qs or not.
I gather that the two options depend on your own answering style:
1: If you are the impulsive type (like me) whoare bound to make guesses involuntarily and can't help from attempting the 60-40 qs I would sudggest you to go for them.
The reason I say this as there are more chances of getting more -ves than the others.Thus if you attempt 135 qs 10-15 (this fig may vary )may be wrng.Thus you could mark th rest 15 and do the extra.Thus even if you assume -15 for the rest and get 30 out of 36 in the extra there is a net gain of 15(which in all probability will be higher)
120x3 - 15 + 15(gain by extra) =360
2: If you are of that type who even though attempt less qs but only the sure shot ones, it will be better to stick to them. If you attempt 125-130 there are high chances that only 5-10 would be wrong.thus it will be better to take your own sweet time as even then your marks would be better off.
120x3 - 5 =360
Thus the utility of the extra q,s depends on you yourself.
I'll be writing another artcle with some of the qs that I remember.
Hope you find this useful & best of luck for those who have not attempted the BITSAT yet.
This article specifically reviews reputed non IIT colleges :
___________________________________________________________________________________
Here I am listing a very small set of colleges about which I have some personal knowledge either through a visit, or by checking out their website extensively, and based on my limited knowledge I can recommend these departments for good-quality undergraduate education in CS/IT areas. I am also trying to give some reasons in brief as to why I think these departments are good. If I have not listed a college/department here, it is almost certainly because I don't know about it enough, and not because I consider that college not good enough. So please don't feel bad if your college or alma mater is not listed here.
Other minimum requirements for listing here:
The list is as follows. (You can jump to the description of each department by clicking on the name.)
IIIT,Hyderabad:While I will by and large refrain from ranking colleges, I have to admit that I consider IIIT, Hyderabad as the best alternative to IITs (from amongst the colleges I know or I have been told of). This Institute is already competing with IITs on attracting faculty, and I am sure very soon they will start competing on attracting students also. (I believe that they are already getting students who are as good as those in IITs. I believe that a rank in AIEEE is equivalent to a rank in JEE. After all, how many good students will give JEE but not give AIEEE. But on any given day, someone could do well or not so well depending on health, luck, and other such factor. So there are many who for some reason get a better AIEEE rank than a JEE rank, and such persons, who as I said above are equally good, just a tad unlucky, chose to join IIIT Hyderabad.) I have visited IIIT Hyderabad umpteen number of times, and I come back more impressed every time I go there.
NIT Calicut,In September 2006, I had a chance to visit NIT Calicut, and I must say that I was very impressed. As you can see from the short list of colleges on this page, I do not get impressed easily. And let me tell you why. The first thing I noticed was that pretty much every faculty member in the department had a degree from either an IIT or IISc. Thry do hire people who have a BTech degree, but then ask them to do graduate education from outside. In most colleges, they run graduate programs (MTech or PhD) primarily to ensure that their own faculty members can get part-time graduate degrees. But this in-breeding is dangerous for the quality of a department. The maintenance of the campus is another thing that struck me as something great. In many campuses I see buildings in black or green colour because of what they will like to claim is heavy rain. But NITC, all the buildings looked good from the outside, and I was told that they put a coat of paint frequently to ensure that the buildings do not look ugly. The infrastructure is very good, and is one of the few colleges who have actually used up the grants given to them under the TEQUIP program. The faculty is very cohesive. They have resisted the temptation of starting a program on IT. (Why shouldn't CSE and IT departments be merged in all NITs? There is hardly any difference in the programs, and these differences can be handled by offering electives.)
DA-IICTAnother Institute, which is sure to make an impact in future is DA-IICT at Gandhinagar. I recently went through their website, and was very impressed with the number of faculty members with PhD degrees from various IITs and mid-level US universities. And let me admit, being a faculty member myself, I think that an Institute which has so many of PhDs in their faculty, has to be on the right track. Of course, having "Dhirubhai Ambani" in the name of the Institute will ensure that the ADA (Anil Dhirubhai Ambani) group would never let it down, and become a second-rate institution. Further, in their curriculum, there is a unique mix of Information Technology (CS) and Communication Technology, and depending on one's interest, one can go into the depth in either direction. In most colleges, you decide at the time of admission whether you want to do a BTech in CS or a BTech in ECE. That dilemna is not there, if you join DA-IICT. And they seem to truly believe that under-graduate education is about broadening the horizons, and not become an expert. So not only do they have humanities courses in their curriculum, and they claim all the standard things about extra-curricular activities, and facilities, but they have a six-week stay in a rural setting as part of curriculum. (By the way, this is the only college on this list, where I have not personally visited. What I am writing here is based on reading their website, and interacting with a few faculty members when they have visited IIT Kanpur.)
L N Mittal Institute of Information Technology is the third of the IT-focused institutes which has a potential to compete with the IIT system. (The other two being IIIT, Hyderabad, and DA-IICT, Gandhinagar.) The institute has excellent infrastructure, beautiful architecture, and some of the best teachers in the country, who have retired from IIT system in recent times. Lack of sufficient number of young faculty members is a small cause for concern, which I am sure the Institute will work on. The curriculum is modern, and has only 40 courses. (Elsewhere, I have argued that a BTech curriculum should not have more than 160 credits or so, which is equivalent to regular 40 courses.) And of course, Jaipur is arguably the second best city to live in North India, after Chandigarh.
I also admire BITS, Pilani for a lot of innovation that they have been doing in the engineering education. Whether it is the one semester training (Practice School) in the industry, or their online entrance exam, they always seem to be a step ahead of others in the new ways of doing education. They have an excellent dual-degree program, more flexible than any IIT can boast of. They are accredited by NAAC. They also have a very significant presence in distance education sector. While IIMs will keep talking about opening campuses abroad, BITS has gone ahead with a campus in Dubai. They also have a campus in Goa, and are working on a campus in Hyderabad. (The Goa campus is a beauty.) They have the best admission process, which takes some amount of language abilities into account. Of course, one concern that I have is whether BITS is spreading itself too thin by growing so fast. Also, their focus on research seems less than other top class institutes in the country.
Another excellent place that I visited in 2006 is College of Engineering, Anna University, Chennai. The CS department has a fairly large faculty, and lots of them have a PhD degree. There is an active research program, and one can find several publications from that department in literature. It is an active and vibrant department. Also, they have a very interesting part-time under-graduate program. Whenever I visit a department, I am looking out for something unique, an idea which is worth emulating, and I don't know of any other place which has such a part-time under-graduate program. The curriculum is based on a credit-based system, which is a big positive.
A college which was always considered good, but has improved significantly in the last couple of years is Punjab Engineering College or better known as PEC. In 2004, PEC gained Deemed University status, and since then has undergone a complete transition in its academic processes. Its then Director, Prof. Vijay Gupta (from IIT Kanpur) is a visionary, and has fantastic leadership qualities. To me, his presence in PEC was enough to place them in this list of mine (though the college has to now show that it can continue the good work even after he has left). Of course, the college was not an unknown quantity earlier also. Around 2001, news reports had suggested that PEC will be one of the colleges selected for an upgrade to the status of an IIT. Politics play a big role in these decisions, and another committee chose another set of colleges for a possible upgrade. The college requires each student to have its own laptop (bulk discounts, loans, scholarships available for poor). This is something which is very significant, and I doubt whether any other government college of engineering has this as a requirement. It is a gutsy decision, and I admire PEC for that. They have a good curriculum that allows students sufficient breadth as well as depth without overloading them. The infrastrcuture is good too. And, of course, the city of Chandigarh is one of the best cities in the country to live in. I personally wouldn't mind shifting to Chandigarh, if an appropriate opportunity comes my way.
If one were to look four years from now and say which college has the best chances of breaking into top 10, I have no doubt in my mind that that college has to be NIT Hamirpur. Besides being the most beautiful campus that I have visited (and I have visited more than 100 colleges in the country), the improvements are everywhere to see. You talk to anyone and they have a story to tell, a story of change, a change for the positive. The infrastructure improvement (computers, Internet bandwidth, buildings, and everything else) are taking place at a very fast place. It is no longer a sleepy NIT, with no link to the outside world. Now they welcome visitors from other NITs, IITs, and everywhere else. And once you go there, you are bound to fall in love with the campus. The curriculum has seen major changes (for the good). There is focus on hiring more faculty. They are starting new MTech programs. They are starting to build relationships with their alumni. Everything that a college can and should do is being done at NIT Hamirpur, and I am sure they will be in the top few soon. So if you are looking for a college which has less brand equity now (and hence easier to get into) but is likely to have a good name when you graduate, my bet will be on NIT Hamirpur. _______________________________________________________________________________________
Source:http://www.cse.iitk.ac.in/users/dheeraj/ideas/csdept.html
Hey frndz ths is a continuation of my prev artcl on counsellingThe guidelines given in the post are rigid but if you follow them in selectng VIT,Manipal,SRM etc it could be of help________________________________________________________________________________________ Since my page on JEE Counselling was published, I have received a lot of requests on my views on engineering colleges other than IITs. However, I cannot claim to have known a lot of colleges. I travel a lot, and must have visited more than 100 colleges all across country during my career so far, talked to thousands of students, and I can claim to have some understanding of the higher technical education in the country. However, all these visits and browsing the website cannot really tell you everything about any particular college. So I am going to do two things here.One, I have prepared a small list of colleges, who have made a significant positive impression on me. This may be due to my visits to that college, or my interactions with faculty or students there, or sometimes just visiting the website of that college. So, if a particular college is not listed, it is most likely because I don't know enough about them, and not because I don't consider them as a good college. Also, please note that I do not claim to know anything about programs other than Computer Science. When I visit a college, it is usually only the CS (or related) department. And, if I visit their website, it is usually the CS department website. So, when I recommend a college, I am really recommending it for CS and related areas only.Here is the list of Recommended Colleges (for CS/IT only) Two, I am writing below how one should go about ranking them oneself. If I had infinite time, I would have followed this approach myself to rank these colleges. In my opinion, the ranking should depend on the factors that I list below. You should check whether the department has a website or not. If the department does not have a website, or does not provide all the information on the website, then don't rank it very high. The assumption here is that in today's age, if a department in CS/IT area does not provide information for potential students, then it can only be because they don't have any meaningful information to provide.If you go through the following details, you are bound to find it a very time consuming process. (You will be right, and that is exactly the reason I am giving the process, and not doing the exercise myself.) But choosing a college will have a huge impact on your future, and you should be willing to spend a lot of time in doing this exercise. Of course, you always have an option of looking at the last year's closing ranks in all the exams like AIEEE and use that as the basis of making your choices. But then you didn't need to read even this much. The most important component that goes into making a good institution is a good faculty. So when you visit the website of a department, look for the following information: Number of full-time faculty members. Please make sure that you read the details, and find out who is a full-time faculty member, and who is a part-time or adjunct faculty member. Look at the visiting faculty list carefully. Are they visiting in the sense that they are there at the college full-time for only a semester or two, or are they visiting in the sense that they might be coming on two evenings to teach a course, and perhaps not even that much. Many colleges request faculty members of other good colleges (or those who have retired from good colleges) to teach occasional classes, and would often put their names on the site. Adjunct faculty is usually meaningless. Their qualificiations. How many are PhDs. Where did they do their PhDs. Similarly, how many faculty members are having MTech qualification. Where did they do their MTech. If a significant portion of faculty received their highest degree (whether PhD, MTech, or BTech) from the same college, then that should raise some alarms. On the other hand, faculty members having a lower degree from the same college, implies that they value the place enough that they returned back to the same place after getting a higher degree from elsewhere. If the highest qualification for any faculty member is MCA, then be alarmed. Top places will only higher PhDs. Good places may have some MTechs. But if colleges are hiring BTechs and MCAs for teaching courses, it means that they are not able to attract enough good faculty, and that should be a cause for concern. What are faculty doing. Are they teaching three courses a semester or two. Are they doing at least some bit of research publications. Look at the Curriculum of the college. If the college is a deemed university, only then it has the flexibility of deciding its own curriculum. Otherwise, it has to follow what the university prescribes. Some of the things to look for in the curriculum are: How many courses do they teach. Unlike the conventional wisdom in India, I believe that the college that teaches you less is a better college. It means that they do less spoon feeding, and give you more space to grow and learn. If you look at international examples, MIT and other top universities have as low as 32 courses as the requirement for undergraduate degree. The next level universities in US require upto 36 courses for the undergraduate program. In India, IITs and the other top departments usually have 40-42 courses in the undergraduate curriculum. Some of the deemed universities require around 45 courses, and many of the universities require even 60 courses in the undergraduate curriculum. There are surely exceptions to this general trend, but by and large colleges will try to teach you more, if they know that they are doing a poor job of teaching, and hope that if they try teaching you lots, then perhaps in some courses they will be able to teach you something. How many electives are there in the curriculum, giving flexibility to the students to learn what they are interested in. Many colleges may have slots for electives, but they treat that slot as their choice to offer a course. So they won't offer three courses, and ask students to chose one. But instead they will offer one course of their own choice (basically for whatever course they can find a faculty). Also, in most colleges, the curriculum will only contain professional electives, but no open electives. Do they have enough number of humanities and social science courses (at least 10 percent courses). How is the Infrastructure at the college. Now, this is something that most colleges will score equally well. In CS/IT areas, what you really need is a bunch of PCs with some standard softwares, something that increasingly students are anyway affording on their own. But still there are pieces of infrastructure that the college has to provide. Also, how good is their support staff to manage that infrastructure. Here is what you can check. What is their Internet bandwidth. (Consider the per capita bandwidth.) Do they have their own domain name for the website. Do they list some email addresses for faculty, and others on the website. If yes, are these addresses from free service provides (yahoo, gmail, rediffmail, etc.), or are these of the domain name of the college. If everyone seems to be using yahoo and gamil accounts, then it means that they do not provide a good email service internally. Do they have BOTH a Windows lab and a Linux lab. Ideally CS departments should be preparing you for both Windows and Linux platforms. The next most important parameter in determining a good college is to look at what happens to their students after they graduate. After all, you want to study there because you feel that the education will result in a good career for you. So look for the information on the following: What all companies did they attract for campus placement. Do they attract any multinationals. Do they attract only those IT companies who have local offices, or companies with no presence in the local town also come to the college. What percentage of their students got hired by these companies. What is the average and median salaries. (Maximum salaries are attractive but very deceptive. Beware of colleges which only talk about the highest salaries.) How many people are going for higher studies, whether in India or abroad, whether for doing MS/MTech or for doing MBA. Do these students care about the college after they graduate. In particular, does college have an associated Alumni Association. Is there any interaction (not necessarily donations, may be just visits) between alumni and the college. Research output of a department is another factor to look at. One might argue that research is not that important for undergraduate education. Firstly, I do not agree with that statement. Doing research keeps a teacher uptodate on the area, and makes his/her understanding of the subject better. This can only help the quality of teaching. But more importantly, research flourishes when there is an institutional support for it. If faculty members are doing research, then it shows that the college management is serious about the quality of education. Research can be measured by the following parameters. Publication by faculty members. Higher preference should be given to peer-reviewed journals and conferences of high quality and reputation. Then one should also look at local conferences. At least someone is putting some effort in the right direction. Sponsored research projects by various funding agencies like Department of Science and Technology (DST), AICTE, Dept of Information Technology, etc. Any industry interaction in terms of research projects or consultancy. Do they invite several researchers to give seminars. Do they organize workshops and conferences. Does college management have any scheme to reward good research. What do others say about this college. Have they been ranked by any major survey like India Today, Data Quest, etc. Note that most of these surveys are only about perceptions and not realities. And it is not that easy to get all the comparable information any way. So take the ranking information with a HUGE pinch of salt. Has the college gone through any formal accreditation by AICTE (NBA) or NAAC, etc. If yes, what is the result. Is it a deemed university. I wouldn't be swayed by the number of MoUs or exchange programs that a college may have with so-called foreign universities. A few miscellaneous things. They are gross generalizations, hence be careful in applying them to specific instances. A fully residential or at least mostly residential college has a much better environment than a college which has mostly day scholars. I don't recommend anyone to do an MCA degree. If you are interested in knowing why I say so, please read my views on MCA programs. On a couple of occasions above, I have referred to the status of Deemed University. In my opinion, it is very important to be declared as deemed to be university. When you get this status, you can decide your own academic processes, including curriculum, exams, grading, and even admissions, etc. Invariably, colleges with this kind of autonomy have much better quality of education than others. And one last thing, which is very difficult to check on the website is to look for teaching and administrative load that a faculty member has to sustain. I am aware of some institutions which have many positives in terms of number of PhDs in faculty, research focus, good students, etc., but the institute keeps starting a new program every year, and as a result every faculty member is asked to teach more courses every semester, even in areas where their expertise is not there. This overload ensures that despite the sweet talking of the management about research, no real research can be done. That the faculty members do not have time to update themselves, or even prepare well for the classes, Such a situation can be sustained for a brief period, but is surely going to impact quality of teaching sooner or later.If you feel that the information provided on the college website is incomplete, or you think that there might be exaggerations, you should send emails to some faculty members and students. Hopefully, the website would have email addresses of faculty, and at least some students (like those who organize events, etc.). __________________________________________________________________________________________________Source :http://www.cse.iitk.ac.in/users/dheeraj/ideas/csdept.htmlHope you like it
Hey frndz ths is a continuation of my prev artcl on counselling
The guidelines given in the post are rigid but if you follow them in selectng VIT,Manipal,SRM etc it could be of help
________________________________________________________________________________________
Since my page on JEE Counselling was published, I have received a lot of requests on my views on engineering colleges other than IITs.
However, I cannot claim to have known a lot of colleges. I travel a lot, and must have visited more than 100 colleges all across country during my career so far, talked to thousands of students, and I can claim to have some understanding of the higher technical education in the country. However, all these visits and browsing the website cannot really tell you everything about any particular college. So I am going to do two things here.
One, I have prepared a small list of colleges, who have made a significant positive impression on me. This may be due to my visits to that college, or my interactions with faculty or students there, or sometimes just visiting the website of that college. So, if a particular college is not listed, it is most likely because I don't know enough about them, and not because I don't consider them as a good college. Also, please note that I do not claim to know anything about programs other than Computer Science. When I visit a college, it is usually only the CS (or related) department. And, if I visit their website, it is usually the CS department website. So, when I recommend a college, I am really recommending it for CS and related areas only.
Here is the list of Recommended Colleges (for CS/IT only)
Two, I am writing below how one should go about ranking them oneself. If I had infinite time, I would have followed this approach myself to rank these colleges. In my opinion, the ranking should depend on the factors that I list below. You should check whether the department has a website or not. If the department does not have a website, or does not provide all the information on the website, then don't rank it very high. The assumption here is that in today's age, if a department in CS/IT area does not provide information for potential students, then it can only be because they don't have any meaningful information to provide.
If you go through the following details, you are bound to find it a very time consuming process. (You will be right, and that is exactly the reason I am giving the process, and not doing the exercise myself.) But choosing a college will have a huge impact on your future, and you should be willing to spend a lot of time in doing this exercise. Of course, you always have an option of looking at the last year's closing ranks in all the exams like AIEEE and use that as the basis of making your choices. But then you didn't need to read even this much.
If you feel that the information provided on the college website is incomplete, or you think that there might be exaggerations, you should send emails to some faculty members and students. Hopefully, the website would have email addresses of faculty, and at least some students (like those who organize events, etc.).
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
Source :http://www.cse.iitk.ac.in/users/dheeraj/ideas/csdept.html
Hope you like it
Frndz I found this artcl while surfing d net & fnd it uber-cool
wrtten by an ex iitian and now tcher at iit kanpur
its a fntastic artcle really helpful hope you find it usful for counselling as every aspect has been dealt with
Here's the artcle
What to do after getting through JEE Here I attempt to answer a few frequently asked questions by people who have passed JEE. Please note that these are purely my personal views, and based on my discussions with several of my friends and colleagues, I can confidently say that these are not even unofficial views of IITK. Official view of JEE, to put it simply, is that all IITs are equal, all programs are equal, and all students are equal. That is quite absurd in my opinion, but the guys who manage admissions, have to project an image of being unbiased. So what do you do. First, you got to delve deep into your heart, and see if you have any innate preference for any program. (And by the way, in my humble opinion, you should follow your heart and not your mind in these matters.) But if you are an average JEE qualifier who has spent the last two years in a coaching center in Kota, Delhi, Hyderabad, or Kanpur, and who didn't have time to develop and explore one's own interests, the result of this exercise is likely to be one of the two possibilities: I don't know enough about any program. (You are being honest.) Well, if you want to follow the official words of wisdom, do the following. Since all programs and all IITs are equal, and you do not have any specific interest, the best way to choose is to draw lots. Write down codes for each program on a separate piece of paper. Put all such small pieces in a box. Take one slip out at a time, and write down the code in that slip on your preference sheet. I love computers. My first toy as a baby was a computer. I am great at playing computer games, and this would make me a perfact computer scientist. Well, as I said, follow your heart. Fill up all CS and IT related programs as your first few options. If you get Computer Science, spend the next 4 to 5 years competing with other folks who too got a computer as their first toy. And when you manage to stay afloat and get a degree, you will find it easier to quietly dump computer science as a career, and move on to management, finance, and other such careers. Anything, but computers. For good or for bad, JEE qualifiers do not trust our official wisdom. They do not want to decide their careers by a draw of lots. So they ask us all sorts of questions. In most cases, they know the answers, and we don't. But we pretend to provide answers, and they pretend to listen to those answers (which is good, one should respect one's potential teachers). So here are some Frequently Asked Questions and their unofficial answers. (And another disclaimer: I know more about IIT Kanpur than any other IIT. I did my BTech in CSE from here, and now I am teaching here for more than a decade. I love this place. Also, I have been on faculty of IIT Bombay for a semester. So don't expect me to be fair and impartial.) Should I be selecting an IIT or a Program. I have decided the Program. Which IIT should I chose. I have decided the IIT. Which Program should I chose. Should I prefer a Dual-degree program or a BTech program. If Dual-degree programs are so good, why is it that many people are not opting for it. Which IIT has the most liberal branch change rules. Which IIT is best for MBA entrance preparation. How are programs on Mathematics and Computing. I have got a 1000+ rank in JEE. Should I study Computer Science in BHU or opt for some discipline in an IIT. I have got a 1500+ rank in JEE, and can get my preferred discipline in IIT Roorkee. Is IIT Roorkee as good as original five IITs. I have got a 2000+ rank in JEE, and can get my preferred discipline in IIT Guwahati. Is it safe to study in Guwahati? I have got a 2500+ rank in JEE. Can I get admission in one of the three new IITs. Are they going to be as good. I have got a 3000+ rank in JEE. Should I study abroad. I have an offer from NTU, Singapore. I have got a 3500+ rank in JEE in my first attempt. Should I go for a second chance next year. I have got a 4000+ rank in JEE. But I have a much better rank in AIEEE. Can you suggest a few good colleges. If I want to get additional information about a specific program, whom do I contact. Can we contact you for more information Should I be selecting an IIT or a Program. Depends mostly on whether your inner voice has an opinion on this. If you are passionate about a particular career (because, for example, your role model in family or neighbourhood is in that career), then give the program a higher preference over an IIT. If you are not passionate about any program, then perhaps selecting an IIT is alright. Most programs in most IITs are good. I am already deviating from the official line. But frankly, I don't see how a four year undergraduate program in one IIT be run as effectively by a core faculty of five as is run in another IIT by a core faculty of ten or more. A much larger faculty does not mean a much better program, but a faculty size in single digits should ring an alarm bell. So your first home work after qualifying JEE. Go to the website of each IIT. Visit the websites of the departments that you are considering, and find the faculty strength. If it is less than 10 for a program, then try to get more information. (Like it may be a new program, and faculty is being hired now.) If in doubt, drop the priority of this particular IIT-program pair. If a program has been around for at least a couple of years, and the faculty strength is still in single digits, I wouldn't go anywhere near that program, how so ever good it may appear in theory. I have decided the Program. Which IIT should I chose. I would chose IIT Bombay, and here is my reason for it. IIT Bombay had introduced a very flexible system last year (2007). They have made it easier to get a BTech, so if you decide sometime during your stay there that you will be going for an MBA or a non-technical career, you can take it a bit easy and get a BTech degree, instead of a BTech (Hons.) degree. They allow you to have a minor in another discipline too, along with your BTech in one discipline. I consider such a flexibility as extremely important, since during the next 4-5 years, your interests will change, and you will have better information to take decisions on your career. But this need not be the only reason to chose an IIT. In fact, choosing an IIT for non-academic reasons is perfectly fine. For example, some of you may select an IIT because it is closer to home (and you want to be able to meet family every weekend). Some of you may select an IIT because you want to go far off from your home so that your parents can't visit you frequently, and certainly not without a warning. Both are valid ways of selecting an IIT. Also, there is a trade-off between living in a metro (and enjoying whatever metros offer) and being exposed to a very cosmopolitan environment. Metro IITs (Bombay, Delhi, Madras) are slowly becoming regional IITs. There are so many selections from their respective zones that most persons studying there would come from their own respective zones. But non-metro IITs have fewer selections in their resepctive zones, hence they attract students from all over the country. As a result you find more cosmopolitan environment in IITs in smaller cities, and more regional environment in IITs in bigger cities. This may be a reason to chose IIT Kanpur over other IITs. IIT Kharagpur has an exciting dual-degree program, where you get a BTech and an MBA in five years. Of course, the selection for MBA is not now. Right now, you just choose BTech program, and if you perform well in their aptitude test, group discussion and personal interview, you might be given admission to this dual-degree program at the end of 1st year. If you are thinking of doing an MBA anyway, and you are confident of doing well in their admission process, this program may be a reason to prefer Kharagpur over other IITs. I have decided the IIT. Which Program should I chose. A more direct question that I get asked every year is what are the job prospects of various programs. And it is a sad question to answer, because it reflects complete lack of self-confidence even amongst people who have qualified in one of the toughest exams in the world. If they won't have jobs, then who else will. If you look at those students who are in the top 75 percent of their class, there is no problems at all in terms of finding a good job. Most graduates in the lowest 25 percent will also find jobs, but there could be cases, where one does not get a job in one's dream company, or does not get a salary in 7 digits, or one could not manage a job through the campus placement, but had to apply on one's own. But, really placement is hardly an issue in IITs. And if you didn't get a satisfactory first job, that it not the end of the world. Perform well in whatever you got, and then you switch to something more to your liking. Frankly speaking, there can only be two reasons to prefer one program over the other: One, your own personal inclination and aptitude. If you knew that then obviously there is no problem in ranking the programs. The second reason is placement. But if placement is close to 100 percent for all programs, then what does one do. And on top of that, most IITians end up doing things completely different from what they studied at IIT anyway. So why worry about placement of a particular program. This year's favorite all over the country were jobs in financial analytics, paying handsome salaries. And they just hired smart people from all the departments. The second most popular career path seems to be doing an MBA. Again, there is no distinction between various programs. In fact, if you are a smart cookie, and you chose a program which all other smarter cookies will avoid, then you can have an easy life in IIT, spend more time on extra-curricular, developing your personality and soft skills, prepare for CAT, and have a better chance at capturing financial analytics jobs or getting admission to IIMs. Since placement is no different, and one does not have special personal preference for a particular program, the only ranking that makes sense for most people is based on last years' closing rank. But what this means is that a new and exciting program will be missed by a large number of bright students. Do pay a close attention to programs that have been started in the last couple of years, or are being started this year. Most people will go by last years' closing ranks, and you may have an easy time getting admission into that program, even if you do not have a rank in 3 digits or less. Since most people end up using last years' closing rank as a guide to fill up their preferences this year, it puts a lot of pressure on others who may actually have a personal preference for something else. The old illogic continues. For example, why don't people select Civil Engineering. Many people still believe that the only job that a civil engineer can have is that of supervising in hot summer afternoon the road construction work in the hinterland. Nothing could be farther from truth. While one should not demean the job of constructing a highway, there are so many exciting things happening in civil engineering, but people continue to join civil only if they don't get any other engineering program. They are disinclined towards civil engineering from day one, and they fail to notice the excitement in it. Should I prefer a Dual-degree program or a BTech program. Well the answer depends on whether you are talking about the two programs in the same department, or different departments. Let us take the two possibilities seperately. If you are comparing Dual and BTech in the same department, say Dual (CSE) versus BTech (CSE), then the answer is very simple. Go for BTech. I think the dual-degree programs are fantastic, but the way IIT Kanpur policies have been designed, it is much easier to change one's program from BTech to Dual, and it is much more difficult to change the program from Dual to BTech. So why should one decide on Dual now. Take up BTech program now, and if you get excited about the Dual degree program after you join IIT, you can move to Dual-degree at that time. (Rules of IIT Kanpur permit a change of program from BTech to Dual-degree till the beginning of 7th semester.) What I am suggesting above may not hold for other IITs. Another view I have on dual-degree program is that it is little too early to decide what your specialization should be in the MTech program. Hence I personally prefer only those dual-degree programs where MTech is in a broad discipline (allowing you to choose your specialisation in the fourth year typically), and not like those dual-degree programs where you have to decide now a narrow area of specialization, for which you know even less at this time. Now coming to the more interesting question. I have a JEE rank of 200. I want to follow last years' closing ranks for choosing major departments, and hence I prefer CSE over EE. But I am not likely to get admission in BTech (CSE). Should I prefer Dual (CSE) or BTech (EE). You could replace EE and CSE with any two departments, and the answer will be same. It depends on how strongly you prefer one department over the other (CSE over EE in this example). And to test how strongly you prefer one department over the other, I will ask a theoretical question. Be honest in answering it. Your BTech (EE) program will finish in May 2012. Suppose I were to offer you admission in BTech (CSE) on the condition that your program will be delayed by three months, and you will actually graduate in August 2012. Would you then prefer BTech (CSE) or would you still prefer BTech (EE). Basically, if you prefer EE in this hypothetical scenario, then it is clear that your preference for CSE is very minor, and you are not willing to pay even a small cost of three extra months to undertake a CSE program. Then you should prefer BTech (EE) over Dual (CSE). But if you preferred CSE in this hypothetical situation, then we can continue this game a bit further. Now, I further suggest that you invest 9 more months in the discipline for which you have indicated a reasonably strong preference. In these nine months, we will most probably give you about one lakh rupees in cash, we will give you a degree that normally takes two years to complete, and a degree that opens a lot more doors for you in industry. At least in CSE, several multinationals have setup advanced R&D labs in India, and they hire MTechs and PhDs only, giving a very good work environment as well as an excellent financial package. I am sure there are such labs in other disciplines as well. To me the decision is a no-brainer (though your mileage may vary). The future certainly belongs to more specialisation, and having an MTech degree will be an asset for everyone. Spending a few extra months now in the same environment where you have spent four years is the easiest way to get an MTech degree. (Talking about CSE at IITK, for getting a BTech degree, you will need to do 40 courses and a project. For Dual-degree the requirement is only 42 courses and a thesis. So it is really very small incremental work that gives you an additional degree.) The financial assistance in the final year is based on your good performance in the first four years, and is based on current Institute assistantship rates. These may be enhanced in the next four years. You could also be working on sponsored projects for your thesis, and get much higher assistanship. (For example, some MTech students working with me have received Rs. 15,000 per month.) And, if you are one of those who always want to look at placement figures before taking a decision, well, the third batch of dual-degree students in IIT Kanpur graduated this year. And the salary package offered to them was better than the corresponding package offered to the BTech students in the same branch, by the same company. So you do get compensation for that one extra year (besides, as I said, opening more doors in research labs, and other such places, where BTechs are not even considered). And future growth is likely to be faster for people with two degrees from IITs. If Dual-degree programs are so good, why is it that many people are not opting for it. Nothing is perfact in life, and there are shortcomings with Dual-degree programs as well. But more importantly it does not fit into the career plans of many students. First, many students think that they might like to get a US degree after IIT. (This used to be the only ticket to US a decade or more ago. Most people who go to US today, go with business visa, but still old thinking die hard.) And the easiest US degree to get is a Masters degree. People feel shy of joining another master's degree after completing one. I can only say to such students that the number of people going to US for MS degree is reducing rapidly as other avenues to go abroad have opened, and also opportunities within India have become enormous. So the chances are that you won't find yourself in a situation where you would have to do another Master's degree after a Master's degree from IITs. Second, if the student has already decided that one is not going to be in the area of undergraduate discipline. For example, one may be interested in MBA after BTech. Then spending an extra year is wasteful. My response is that unless you are absolutely sure of your career plans, a few extra months in an IIT are not going to hurt you too much, and in all likelihood it will help your career significantly. One piece of advice. IIT Kanpur implements Dual-degree program in a very unique (and may I add, strange) way. The student gets two different roll numbers, they get two different CPIs, they are governed by two separate set of rules depending on whether they have done enough UG courses or not. It is all very confusing, and problematic, particularly if you happen to perform not so well. I believe that other IITs have a more streamlined implementation of dual-degree programs. So you may weigh this too while deciding on the dual-degree program. Which IIT has the most liberal branch change rules. Frankly, I do not know all the nuances of the branch change rules of all IITs. Also, there are some traditions, which are not codified as rules. My information is primarily from the JEE brochure. You could read yourself, but anyway, let me summarize. (But before I do that, a statutory warning. Do not count on branch change. In any IIT, it is given to very few students, and you must assume that everyone else in the IIT will be at least as smart as you are.) Many IITs allow top one percent students to choose their branch without any restrictions. IIT Kanpur does not have such a rule, but traditionally it has allowed anyone with a CPI of 10.0 to choose their branch. (And the number of students with a CPI of 10.0 at the end of 2nd semester is more than one percent of the batch.) All IITs have a lower limit of strength in a branch, and the number of students in that particular branch cannot go below that level. IIT Bombay says 85 percent of existing strength. IIT Delhi, IIT Roorkee and IIT Guwahati have set the limit at 90 percent of existing strength. IIT Kanpur has set the limit at 60 percent of the sanctioned strength. So, IITs at Delhi, Roorkee, and Guwahati allow very few people to get out of an unpopular branch, while IIT Bombay allows a few more. IIT Kanpur allows lots of people to get out of any branch, except a few exceptionally unpopular branches. (Actually, the only branch in IITK from where students could not get out of because they had only as many students as the 60 percent of sanctioned strength would imply was MSc Chemistry last year. So please join MSc Chemistry at IITK only if you are interested in Chemistry, or you just want an IIT degree. Don't join MSc Chemistry with the hope that you will get a branch change. But of course, that was last year. Next year may be different.) All IITs put an upper limit on the batch size after the branch change. IIT Bombay, IIT Delhi, and IIT Kanpur set the upper limit as the sanctioned strength. So you can get into that branch only if there is a vacancy. IITs at Kharagpur and Roorkee allow the batch size to go up by 10 percent of existing strength. IIT Guwahati allows extra seats upto 10 percent of sanctioned strength. Now, normally, the most popular courses do not have any vacancies. So it will be impossible to get Computer Science in Kanpur and Bombay by way of branch change (unless you are one of the top few), while at other IITs they always create at least a few seats for branch change. One thing you may note in these rules is that every IIT either controls exit from a branch or controls entry into a branch. IITs which are liberal in entry into a branch (by allowing student strength to go up beyond the existing or even sanctioned strength) are strict in terms of how many students can get out of a particular branch. Overall, you may not find any significant difference in the number of students getting branch changes in different IITs. IIT Kharagpur and IIT Madras do
Here I attempt to answer a few frequently asked questions by people who have passed JEE. Please note that these are purely my personal views, and based on my discussions with several of my friends and colleagues, I can confidently say that these are not even unofficial views of IITK.
Official view of JEE, to put it simply, is that all IITs are equal, all programs are equal, and all students are equal. That is quite absurd in my opinion, but the guys who manage admissions, have to project an image of being unbiased.
So what do you do. First, you got to delve deep into your heart, and see if you have any innate preference for any program. (And by the way, in my humble opinion, you should follow your heart and not your mind in these matters.)
But if you are an average JEE qualifier who has spent the last two years in a coaching center in Kota, Delhi, Hyderabad, or Kanpur, and who didn't have time to develop and explore one's own interests, the result of this exercise is likely to be one of the two possibilities:
Well, if you want to follow the official words of wisdom, do the following. Since all programs and all IITs are equal, and you do not have any specific interest, the best way to choose is to draw lots. Write down codes for each program on a separate piece of paper. Put all such small pieces in a box. Take one slip out at a time, and write down the code in that slip on your preference sheet.
Well, as I said, follow your heart. Fill up all CS and IT related programs as your first few options. If you get Computer Science, spend the next 4 to 5 years competing with other folks who too got a computer as their first toy. And when you manage to stay afloat and get a degree, you will find it easier to quietly dump computer science as a career, and move on to management, finance, and other such careers. Anything, but computers.
For good or for bad, JEE qualifiers do not trust our official wisdom. They do not want to decide their careers by a draw of lots. So they ask us all sorts of questions. In most cases, they know the answers, and we don't. But we pretend to provide answers, and they pretend to listen to those answers (which is good, one should respect one's potential teachers).
So here are some Frequently Asked Questions and their unofficial answers. (And another disclaimer: I know more about IIT Kanpur than any other IIT. I did my BTech in CSE from here, and now I am teaching here for more than a decade. I love this place. Also, I have been on faculty of IIT Bombay for a semester. So don't expect me to be fair and impartial.)
Depends mostly on whether your inner voice has an opinion on this. If you are passionate about a particular career (because, for example, your role model in family or neighbourhood is in that career), then give the program a higher preference over an IIT. If you are not passionate about any program, then perhaps selecting an IIT is alright.
Most programs in most IITs are good. I am already deviating from the official line. But frankly, I don't see how a four year undergraduate program in one IIT be run as effectively by a core faculty of five as is run in another IIT by a core faculty of ten or more. A much larger faculty does not mean a much better program, but a faculty size in single digits should ring an alarm bell.
So your first home work after qualifying JEE. Go to the website of each IIT. Visit the websites of the departments that you are considering, and find the faculty strength. If it is less than 10 for a program, then try to get more information. (Like it may be a new program, and faculty is being hired now.) If in doubt, drop the priority of this particular IIT-program pair. If a program has been around for at least a couple of years, and the faculty strength is still in single digits, I wouldn't go anywhere near that program, how so ever good it may appear in theory.
I would chose IIT Bombay, and here is my reason for it. IIT Bombay had introduced a very flexible system last year (2007). They have made it easier to get a BTech, so if you decide sometime during your stay there that you will be going for an MBA or a non-technical career, you can take it a bit easy and get a BTech degree, instead of a BTech (Hons.) degree. They allow you to have a minor in another discipline too, along with your BTech in one discipline. I consider such a flexibility as extremely important, since during the next 4-5 years, your interests will change, and you will have better information to take decisions on your career.
But this need not be the only reason to chose an IIT. In fact, choosing an IIT for non-academic reasons is perfectly fine. For example, some of you may select an IIT because it is closer to home (and you want to be able to meet family every weekend). Some of you may select an IIT because you want to go far off from your home so that your parents can't visit you frequently, and certainly not without a warning. Both are valid ways of selecting an IIT.
Also, there is a trade-off between living in a metro (and enjoying whatever metros offer) and being exposed to a very cosmopolitan environment. Metro IITs (Bombay, Delhi, Madras) are slowly becoming regional IITs. There are so many selections from their respective zones that most persons studying there would come from their own respective zones. But non-metro IITs have fewer selections in their resepctive zones, hence they attract students from all over the country. As a result you find more cosmopolitan environment in IITs in smaller cities, and more regional environment in IITs in bigger cities. This may be a reason to chose IIT Kanpur over other IITs.
IIT Kharagpur has an exciting dual-degree program, where you get a BTech and an MBA in five years. Of course, the selection for MBA is not now. Right now, you just choose BTech program, and if you perform well in their aptitude test, group discussion and personal interview, you might be given admission to this dual-degree program at the end of 1st year. If you are thinking of doing an MBA anyway, and you are confident of doing well in their admission process, this program may be a reason to prefer Kharagpur over other IITs.
A more direct question that I get asked every year is what are the job prospects of various programs. And it is a sad question to answer, because it reflects complete lack of self-confidence even amongst people who have qualified in one of the toughest exams in the world. If they won't have jobs, then who else will.
If you look at those students who are in the top 75 percent of their class, there is no problems at all in terms of finding a good job. Most graduates in the lowest 25 percent will also find jobs, but there could be cases, where one does not get a job in one's dream company, or does not get a salary in 7 digits, or one could not manage a job through the campus placement, but had to apply on one's own. But, really placement is hardly an issue in IITs. And if you didn't get a satisfactory first job, that it not the end of the world. Perform well in whatever you got, and then you switch to something more to your liking.
Frankly speaking, there can only be two reasons to prefer one program over the other: One, your own personal inclination and aptitude. If you knew that then obviously there is no problem in ranking the programs. The second reason is placement. But if placement is close to 100 percent for all programs, then what does one do.
And on top of that, most IITians end up doing things completely different from what they studied at IIT anyway. So why worry about placement of a particular program. This year's favorite all over the country were jobs in financial analytics, paying handsome salaries. And they just hired smart people from all the departments. The second most popular career path seems to be doing an MBA. Again, there is no distinction between various programs. In fact, if you are a smart cookie, and you chose a program which all other smarter cookies will avoid, then you can have an easy life in IIT, spend more time on extra-curricular, developing your personality and soft skills, prepare for CAT, and have a better chance at capturing financial analytics jobs or getting admission to IIMs.
Since placement is no different, and one does not have special personal preference for a particular program, the only ranking that makes sense for most people is based on last years' closing rank. But what this means is that a new and exciting program will be missed by a large number of bright students. Do pay a close attention to programs that have been started in the last couple of years, or are being started this year. Most people will go by last years' closing ranks, and you may have an easy time getting admission into that program, even if you do not have a rank in 3 digits or less.
Since most people end up using last years' closing rank as a guide to fill up their preferences this year, it puts a lot of pressure on others who may actually have a personal preference for something else. The old illogic continues. For example, why don't people select Civil Engineering. Many people still believe that the only job that a civil engineer can have is that of supervising in hot summer afternoon the road construction work in the hinterland. Nothing could be farther from truth. While one should not demean the job of constructing a highway, there are so many exciting things happening in civil engineering, but people continue to join civil only if they don't get any other engineering program. They are disinclined towards civil engineering from day one, and they fail to notice the excitement in it.
Well the answer depends on whether you are talking about the two programs in the same department, or different departments. Let us take the two possibilities seperately.
If you are comparing Dual and BTech in the same department, say Dual (CSE) versus BTech (CSE), then the answer is very simple. Go for BTech. I think the dual-degree programs are fantastic, but the way IIT Kanpur policies have been designed, it is much easier to change one's program from BTech to Dual, and it is much more difficult to change the program from Dual to BTech. So why should one decide on Dual now. Take up BTech program now, and if you get excited about the Dual degree program after you join IIT, you can move to Dual-degree at that time. (Rules of IIT Kanpur permit a change of program from BTech to Dual-degree till the beginning of 7th semester.)
What I am suggesting above may not hold for other IITs. Another view I have on dual-degree program is that it is little too early to decide what your specialization should be in the MTech program. Hence I personally prefer only those dual-degree programs where MTech is in a broad discipline (allowing you to choose your specialisation in the fourth year typically), and not like those dual-degree programs where you have to decide now a narrow area of specialization, for which you know even less at this time.
Now coming to the more interesting question. I have a JEE rank of 200. I want to follow last years' closing ranks for choosing major departments, and hence I prefer CSE over EE. But I am not likely to get admission in BTech (CSE). Should I prefer Dual (CSE) or BTech (EE).
You could replace EE and CSE with any two departments, and the answer will be same. It depends on how strongly you prefer one department over the other (CSE over EE in this example). And to test how strongly you prefer one department over the other, I will ask a theoretical question. Be honest in answering it.
Your BTech (EE) program will finish in May 2012. Suppose I were to offer you admission in BTech (CSE) on the condition that your program will be delayed by three months, and you will actually graduate in August 2012. Would you then prefer BTech (CSE) or would you still prefer BTech (EE).
Basically, if you prefer EE in this hypothetical scenario, then it is clear that your preference for CSE is very minor, and you are not willing to pay even a small cost of three extra months to undertake a CSE program. Then you should prefer BTech (EE) over Dual (CSE).
But if you preferred CSE in this hypothetical situation, then we can continue this game a bit further. Now, I further suggest that you invest 9 more months in the discipline for which you have indicated a reasonably strong preference. In these nine months, we will most probably give you about one lakh rupees in cash, we will give you a degree that normally takes two years to complete, and a degree that opens a lot more doors for you in industry. At least in CSE, several multinationals have setup advanced R&D labs in India, and they hire MTechs and PhDs only, giving a very good work environment as well as an excellent financial package. I am sure there are such labs in other disciplines as well.
To me the decision is a no-brainer (though your mileage may vary). The future certainly belongs to more specialisation, and having an MTech degree will be an asset for everyone. Spending a few extra months now in the same environment where you have spent four years is the easiest way to get an MTech degree. (Talking about CSE at IITK, for getting a BTech degree, you will need to do 40 courses and a project. For Dual-degree the requirement is only 42 courses and a thesis. So it is really very small incremental work that gives you an additional degree.)
The financial assistance in the final year is based on your good performance in the first four years, and is based on current Institute assistantship rates. These may be enhanced in the next four years. You could also be working on sponsored projects for your thesis, and get much higher assistanship. (For example, some MTech students working with me have received Rs. 15,000 per month.)
And, if you are one of those who always want to look at placement figures before taking a decision, well, the third batch of dual-degree students in IIT Kanpur graduated this year. And the salary package offered to them was better than the corresponding package offered to the BTech students in the same branch, by the same company. So you do get compensation for that one extra year (besides, as I said, opening more doors in research labs, and other such places, where BTechs are not even considered). And future growth is likely to be faster for people with two degrees from IITs.
Nothing is perfact in life, and there are shortcomings with Dual-degree programs as well. But more importantly it does not fit into the career plans of many students.
First, many students think that they might like to get a US degree after IIT. (This used to be the only ticket to US a decade or more ago. Most people who go to US today, go with business visa, but still old thinking die hard.) And the easiest US degree to get is a Masters degree. People feel shy of joining another master's degree after completing one.
I can only say to such students that the number of people going to US for MS degree is reducing rapidly as other avenues to go abroad have opened, and also opportunities within India have become enormous. So the chances are that you won't find yourself in a situation where you would have to do another Master's degree after a Master's degree from IITs.
Second, if the student has already decided that one is not going to be in the area of undergraduate discipline. For example, one may be interested in MBA after BTech. Then spending an extra year is wasteful.
My response is that unless you are absolutely sure of your career plans, a few extra months in an IIT are not going to hurt you too much, and in all likelihood it will help your career significantly.
One piece of advice. IIT Kanpur implements Dual-degree program in a very unique (and may I add, strange) way. The student gets two different roll numbers, they get two different CPIs, they are governed by two separate set of rules depending on whether they have done enough UG courses or not. It is all very confusing, and problematic, particularly if you happen to perform not so well. I believe that other IITs have a more streamlined implementation of dual-degree programs. So you may weigh this too while deciding on the dual-degree program.
Frankly, I do not know all the nuances of the branch change rules of all IITs. Also, there are some traditions, which are not codified as rules. My information is primarily from the JEE brochure. You could read yourself, but anyway, let me summarize. (But before I do that, a statutory warning. Do not count on branch change. In any IIT, it is given to very few students, and you must assume that everyone else in the IIT will be at least as smart as you are.)
Many IITs allow top one percent students to choose their branch without any restrictions. IIT Kanpur does not have such a rule, but traditionally it has allowed anyone with a CPI of 10.0 to choose their branch. (And the number of students with a CPI of 10.0 at the end of 2nd semester is more than one percent of the batch.)
All IITs have a lower limit of strength in a branch, and the number of students in that particular branch cannot go below that level. IIT Bombay says 85 percent of existing strength. IIT Delhi, IIT Roorkee and IIT Guwahati have set the limit at 90 percent of existing strength. IIT Kanpur has set the limit at 60 percent of the sanctioned strength. So, IITs at Delhi, Roorkee, and Guwahati allow very few people to get out of an unpopular branch, while IIT Bombay allows a few more. IIT Kanpur allows lots of people to get out of any branch, except a few exceptionally unpopular branches. (Actually, the only branch in IITK from where students could not get out of because they had only as many students as the 60 percent of sanctioned strength would imply was MSc Chemistry last year. So please join MSc Chemistry at IITK only if you are interested in Chemistry, or you just want an IIT degree. Don't join MSc Chemistry with the hope that you will get a branch change. But of course, that was last year. Next year may be different.)
All IITs put an upper limit on the batch size after the branch change. IIT Bombay, IIT Delhi, and IIT Kanpur set the upper limit as the sanctioned strength. So you can get into that branch only if there is a vacancy. IITs at Kharagpur and Roorkee allow the batch size to go up by 10 percent of existing strength. IIT Guwahati allows extra seats upto 10 percent of sanctioned strength. Now, normally, the most popular courses do not have any vacancies. So it will be impossible to get Computer Science in Kanpur and Bombay by way of branch change (unless you are one of the top few), while at other IITs they always create at least a few seats for branch change.
One thing you may note in these rules is that every IIT either controls exit from a branch or controls entry into a branch. IITs which are liberal in entry into a branch (by allowing student strength to go up beyond the existing or even sanctioned strength) are strict in terms of how many students can get out of a particular branch. Overall, you may not find any significant difference in the number of students getting branch changes in different IITs.
IIT Kharagpur and IIT Madras do
