What are the pros and cons of pursuing Computer Science and Engineering at each of the IITs? [Comparative Analysis]

Following is my experience at IIT Kharagpur Options/Placements When it comes to placements, CSE has the best stats. Most of the CSE students are placed in a couple weeks in comparison to about a month for most of the other departments. Some of the companies that recruit from Kgp CSE are : Google (Bangalore, Hyderabad and Mountain view California) Microsoft (IDC, Hyderabad, MS Research, Bangalore and Redmond, USA) Facebook (USA) Cisco Oracle IBM India Software Lab, Bangalore as well as India Research Lab, Delhi Yahoo! Bangalore Adobe, Noida Amazon (Hyderabad, Bangalore) Goldman Sachs, Bangalore and a bunch of other iBanks Curriculum Overview First year is all the common subjects : Physics, Chemistry, Mechanical Engineering, Mathematics, Advanced Mathematics, Programing and Data Structure, Electrical Engineering, Electronics, and English 2nd year onwards, the core subjects are taught along with some related subjects from Electrical Engineering and Electronics departments (like Signals and networks) Also, 2nd year onwards, in addition to the compulsary subjects, you also have the option of selecting some subjects from a given list on the basis of your ineterest. Depending on the credit strucutre, you can choose electives from your department as well as other departments. It is predefined how many you have to choose from your department and how many you may choose from other departments. There are some fun courses such as Economics, Environmental Sciences, German, French, Supply chain, Information and Communication Technology, etc The course has the regular LTP structure i.e. most of the courses have fixed weekly lecture, tutorial and practical components. Most of the CSE courses have a practical component where you implement the stuff you learn in the theory lecture. Its the real fun part. So, every week (or once in two weeks) you get a problem statement and then you design and code the solution and then submit it before the deadline. The code is evaluated and you are awarded marks on the basis of the performance of your code. I loved these assignemtns. I'm not sure whether the problem itself or the deadlines made them so exciting. I still remember, we would often keep coding and debugging till the last minute (most of the deadlines used to be midnight). Some of my favorite labs were - Algorithms, Compilers and DBMS. In the final year, one has to take up a project (known as B.Tech Project - BTP in short). You spend most of your year working on some research project or implementation project depending on your advisor. Internships Just like placements, the internship scene is also good at Kgp. Not sure about other IITs, but I've observed that the foreign internship funda is not as prevalent in kanpur as in kgp. A few of us went for internships abroad in 2nd year. In 3rd year quite a good number of us went for internships abroad either at educational institutions or IT/Software companies. Research work at the respective IITs/Undergrad Research Options Frankly speaking, the undergrads don't have much interest in Research as such. It requires a somewhat different attitude from engineering in general. If you do have aptitude for research, you can join one of the various research groups such as VLSI, Fault Tolerant Network, Complex Networks, Cryptography etc. But most of these will start making sense only after 2nd year. You can get more info about this at Faculty CSE dept. has some really great faculty for most of the areas. In the last couple years, quite a few young lecturers have joined the department. Yet again, you can get more info about the facutly at the link mentioned above. Anything else? The department has its own small 3-floor building next to a park (which is maintained just once a year). Next to the dept. is a Nescaffe where we spend quite some time (during the break between lectures). Bitwise: CSE, IIT Kgp organizes Bitwise every year. Bitwise is a annual algorithmic contest which runs for about 12 hours and gets participation from across the world.

I am speaking here for IIT Roorkee and these are strictly my personal opinions : Course : - There is on average 22-24 credits per semester ( about 180 credits in total) to be covered in 4 years - The core courses taught in Computer science is more or less the same as in any other IIT. - However, Till 2012-13 there are no provisions to take a minor in any subject. There is a strong likelihood of it beginning with this session (2013-14). Hopefully, if you like say something in Physics and want to study it, you would now be able to choose that subject in your Minors. - The electives offered in the Computer Science Department is limited however. The reason for this is a slight crunch in the number of faculty so people have to opt for electives from a very limited option. - The institute electives offered till this session involved some rather vague courses like Biotechnology and Photochemistry which for me are of no relevance to Computer science. - After 3 years you can opt for a dual-degree program as well if you meet a certain set criteria. - You can opt for a fixed number of electives. There is an option of studying courses like Graph Theory , Operations Research , Mathematical Modelling in your second year. They are offered by the Mathematics Department and are more Math oriented rather than programming oriented. Regardless, they are the favorites among the CS students. - In your departmental electives one has certain options of taking electives from Electronics as well (seniors can help me here). However with a separate administration now, the exact situation can be clear only once the semester begins. Placements: - Placements are excellent with all the major software giants visiting the campus and generally hiring the students - Internship in 3rd year takes place through a built-in system of the institute with all the major companies hiring along with several reputed start-ups. - Internship in 2nd year has to be sought after by the students themselves : Some prefer to work , others like to simply expand their knowledge through self study and few just like to relax :) Faculty: - The numbers are less but they are well qualified with Ph.D from reputed colleges. - In all honesty, the extent to which you can gain from a particular teacher depends on your focus and enthusiasm as well. They do give their best in every way. - There will be teachers whom you would despise and this is entirely personal bias. Research: The labs include : http://www.iitr.ac.in/departments/CSE/pages/Facilities+Computers_Lab_-_I.html http://www.iitr.ac.in/departments/CSE/pages/People+High_Performance_Computing_Lab.html http://www.iitr.ac.in/departments/CSE/pages/Facilities+Information_Security_Lab.html http://www.iitr.ac.in/departments/CSE/pages/Facilities+Network_Security_Lab.html http://www.iitr.ac.in/departments/CSE/pages/Facilities+Data_Mining_Laboratory.html Research at this stage is a bit limited at undergraduate level but a lot of work is being put in all the time to improve this. Professors are encouraging the UG's to collaborate with the M.Tech's and Ph.D students to provide a greater experience. Since I still have 2 years to go, this part can be better told by a pass out student. - What I have certainly realised is that certain professors are really doing every bit they can to carry out research in all the latest fields and are encouraging the students to do the same. - Some of the projects given to the students during the EC 252 course : Computer Architecture involved designing  a two-way super-scalar processors which are in tandem with the UG level projects in good foreign universities. CS vs Other Branches at IITR: - The academic load during the first year is same for all branches (about 26 hours a semester). - Second year is fairly relaxed and you may notice certain people from other branches taunting you for this. ( We virtually had a free Monday every week during the 4th semester) - Third year onwards I cannot say for sure but I feel it will be more or less the same. -Placements wise , CS is of course excellent with an on average salary being the highest in the campus. -Study wise, you need to be regular( like in anything else) but there is plenty of time to follow your passion. People learn all sorts of things : from musical instruments , to other programming stuff like PHP, JS, Python to only name the very basic few. Certain points to note : - The coding culture of IITR has improved several folds partly due to the rising competition elsewhere and partly due to PAG(Programming and Algorithm Group). IITR programmers ( not only from CS) have made huge strides up the rankings of SPOJ , Codechef etc. - The department was with Electronics for so many years that administration wise the CS students have had to face problems, be it something as simple as semester registration. With a new department (Administrative wise for now) : things look better for both the branches. - One problem I found was during the process of getting recommendations. While you apply for many  foreign colleges after 2nd year, the process of getting a recommendation isn't easy and to say the truth : difficult if you aren't in good books with a professor. Some of them blatantly refused to give recommendation to students. Will this change in future I do not know but for now: it proved a problem. - Another thing is that the number of professors being less : gives you a fewer choices to study. This does not mean that you can't learn something you want to, neither does it mean that you would be less knowledgeable as another pass out from another IIT. Its just that the options to choose electives is less for CS so you might have to choose something you do not  really like. - "Dual Degree" as I said earlier is now an option only after your 3rd year. If you find that the course is interesting enough, you can opt for a M.tech degree along with your B.Tech degree by spending one extra year.(Traditional M.Tech takes 2 years after B.Tech) OK a big DISCLAIMER : I have just completed my second year. Certain things that I have said; I haven't really experienced but heard from several seniors. They can freely correct me or add something here. There have been a lot of positive changes in Computer Science in the 2 years that I have been here and things look promising. Departmental Website : http://www.iitr.ac.in/departments/CSE/pages/index.html

I wrote a small overview of the IIT Kanpur CSE curriculum in my blog, https://srijanshetty.quora.com/CSE-at-IITK.

I am answering for IIT Kharagpur. Curriculum Overview (a) Credit System As mentioned in the answer by Smit Mehta, one is required to complete a certain number of credits to graduate. It’s around 230 for Dual Degree and 190 for the 4 year course. One is registered for 22-24 credits per semester, with theory courses having 3-4 credits and labs worth 2 or 4 credits. (b) Departmental Courses (Depth and Electives) The courses mostly cater to core CS concepts such as Algorithms, Operating Systems, Computer Organization and Architecture, Automata Theory etc. Wherever required, associated lab courses are also compulsory to aid in better understanding of the subject. The course load gradually decreases over the years, from 2nd to 4th year, with reduction in both lab and theory courses. Most of the undergrads take up CS600 level electives (graduate level). The course load across electives varies enormously, with heavy courses such as Cryptography and relatively light courses like Database Management. (c) Minor One does not need to pursue a minor. If someone is interested though, you need to take up atleast 6 courses and 2-3 lab courses and have a minimum GPA of around 7 to earn a minor (these numbers may not be exactly correct). (d) Breadth Courses There are 6 slots for taking breadth courses across the 8 semesters. These can be chosen from other departments (you may need to fulfill certain prerequisites). Some can also be chosen from Humanities and Social Sciences, Rural Development Center, Industrial Engineering and Management etc. Placements/Internships/Higher Studies Placements in Computer science are at par with most other IITs. Most of the big core companies (Microsoft, Google, Facebook, IBM, Goldman etc) visit the campus for both placements and internships. The institute does not provide internships in the second year, and one is required to pursue “off-campus” opportunities themselves. Some also stay back during the summer and contribute to various research projects going on in the department. Many of the students pursue internships at foreign locations during the third year summer. IIT KGP has tie ups with Microsoft Research, Cornell University, EPFL, DAAD, MITACS etc and these provide ample opportunities to pursue internships abroad. Many of the students graduate and go on to pursue MS/PhD from prestigious universities abroad, such as UC Berkeley, Stanford, MIT, CMU etc. Faculty The department boasts of some excellent professors, who work in various different fields. Some are graduates from IITs and have completed their PhDs before becoming professors. Teaching capability differs across professors, most being excellent to good, though a few are not up to the mark. Research Work and Undergrad Research Options One is required to pursue the B. Tech. project in the 7-8 semesters, and the Dual Degree M. Tech. project in the 9-10 semesters. You are required to choose from amongst various project titles, and the appropriate guide is assigned to you. There is a certain degree of flexibility available, that is, one can change the project area, if need be. Besides these projects, some students also pursue projects under professors independently alongside the curriculum. There are many research groups at IIT Kharagpur, such as the CNeRG Dual Degree vs B. Tech. I may be biased here, since I pursued a Dual Degree course at KGP. I feel it gives you one more year to explore, have more courses, and just have more fun during your final and 5th year! Also, since your 4 year batchmates undergo their placement process one year earlier, its good to know from before what you are required to know to excel in placements.