What are the best institutes to pursue Physics and/or Mathematics as an undergrad in India?

I like how the BS program at IISc is doing. They're taught by some of the best physicists in India (for example, HRK (http://www.physics.iisc.ernet.in/~hrkrish/) taught the first year modern physics courses last time round). The labs are already amongst the best in India. They got hold of a Stern-Gerlach apparatus especially for the undergrads, the first in India!! On the softer side, IISc. has great environment for science - Loads of graduate students actually passionate about their research (Compared with the IIT's where this fraction is small), active conference-seminar circuit and a campus close to nature. I wish IISc were an option when I started my undergrad.

Disclaimer : I am not saying IISERs are the best but I am going to talk mainly about them because clearly no one has yet (which, in itself, is absurd). Also, I have not been paid to write this. I am an IISER student. Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) is an institute which, like IISc, only offers one degree for undergrads - A five-year BS-MS Dual degree. It was set up by the MHRD in Pune, Mohali, Bhopal, Trivandrum and Kolkata. Course Structure : The first two years are spent doing Chemistry, Physics, Maths, Programming, Logic and Biology courses. And the last year is an entirely research year where the student completes a project and writes his/her MS thesis in their area of choice. IISER Pune : In IISER Pune, students of the 3rd and 4th year are given full freedom to choose any courses of their choice which allows you to drop astrophysics if you are sure you want to do solid state physics, or drop statistics if you want to do number theory, or taking a course on molecular biology just for the heck of it! But as a result, the institute does not give you a major in your degree. In this IISER, as opposed to the others, you can spend your final year working anywhere (even in Leh if you're a field ecologist)! Other IISERs : In the 3rd year, you choose a major and the course structure thereafter includes electives, department electives, mandatory courses etc. Here, your degree will be a "BS-MS Dual Degree with a major in <subject>" but you can't do your final year project anywhere except the institute itself. Faculty : If you think having to do a project within the Institute is a problem, think again! IISERs have been hiring some of the youngest best faculty in India. Most of them having just/recently come back from studying abroad. Teaching is usually so-so but knowledge of the subject is definitely vast. The fact that their actually working in the area they're teaching is a definite plus-point. At the same time, it also does have at least a few of the senior "classic" professors in each department. Environment : While this does depend on who you hang out with, on the whole academic interest is encouraged and "nerd" is rarely used as a term of depreciation. People who know a lot are often (not always!) looked up to. Scholarship : This should be the last reason to join (the first being your interest in science). All IISER students receive a scholarship of Rs. 5000/- a month and a contingency of Rs. 20,000/- a year. Travel to your place of summer project, materials required and books are reimbursable by the contingency money. This money is given by DST INSPIRE. Fee : Needless to say there is no tuition fee and you just have to pay an admission fee, and hostel and mess charges. Couple of other institutes that you should check out that also provide quality education are : Indian Satistical Institute (ISI), National Institute for Science Education and Research (NISER, Bhuvaneshwar) and Centre for Basic Sciences (CBS, Mumbai). Also, some universities (Delhi University, for instance) are not bad options at all!

I can certainly speak for Mathematics, but certainly not for Physics ( of which I understand very little ). I did my Msc.Mathematics and scientific computing from IITK. I got an option to join ISI, Bangalore for a Bsc.Math after my 12th standard, but turned it down. To be honest 5 years down the line I was and still am very happy about the choice I made. The following text is majorly about the IIT Kanpur Msc.(Intgd.) Mathematics and scientific computation. 1) IIT Kanpur MSc(Intgd.) Mathematics and Scientific computation As for your concern about the course contents, you should probably look at this: http://www.iitk.ac.in/math/Prog-MSc-Integrated.html This is your source of truth. Compare it with those from other institutes and see for yourself. However the above will change soon since the new 4 year BS is rolling in soon, but dont worry it wont change much. Nevertheless it will remain as it has been for eternity a mathematics program at its heart. The only computer science course I was forced to do was 'Data Structures and Algorithms' that too from the Computer Science department where it was taught very well by those who understand it best. Apart from that one is asked to do a Numerical computation course from the math dept itself, which to be honest any engineer can do. Apart from these, there is not even a hint of computer science or computing that the institute/dept forces on the student. As for the diversity of faculty, the math dept has good range of research areas ranging from analysis to algebra to statistics to applied mathematics. The numbers are a little low on the algebra side, pretty good on the analysis side ( The department is trying to balance this out by hiring new people ). There are decent number of faculty in statistics ( I hardly know this area so you are better off talking to people who know more about it ), and some faculty in applied mathematics. The department gives students a generous number of electives to steer his ship in the direction he wishes to, you could be interested in anything ranging from pure analysis to the latest fad in jet propulsion technology, you can always find someone to help you. One major issue I found here was that the environment. Studying pure sciences in an engineering dominated environment is probably not that great, but it opens up one to a whole range of ideas, interactions and discussions. God forbid if you end up being interested in pure analysis or something abstract like I was then practically nobody in your peer group would understand what you do. The group with whom you can discuss any useful mathematics becomes rather small, which does get annoying at times, but trust me its not that bad. Coming to campus life, IITK is in a lovely(atleast for me) rustic village like setting. Life is very simple, and its always pretty peaceful. There isnt a lot of dhoom dhadaka around, and there is hardly a culture of going and roaming around in the city, since practically all that one needs is available within campus. There are lots of clubs within campus that lets you develop an all rounded personality, load of facilities that practically no campus can rival IITK in ( like the artificial climbing wall, which no other non physical education institute in India has ). Now coming to other institutes in India for mathematics. 2) Chennai Mathematical Institute and Indian Statistical Institute, Bangalore: If you care about science and nothing else in the world, you should probably be here. I can bet when you get out of here, you would know your stuff really well. But I believe things get a little too narrow there, that people from these institutes hardly seem to do anything else in life. Undergrad at least for me is a time to explore. Heck one must have something useful to do, if one gets bored of science. At least in mathematics, faculty here too are skewed to one area or the other, but I believe at an undergrad level it really does not matter. 3) IISER's and IISc: Their program structure looks nice, but I would recommend talking to people there to understand ground reality. 4) IIT Kharagpur and IIT Guwhati: They too have programs similar to the one at IITK, but I would personally prefer Kanpur over the others. I would recommend you to talk to faculty from each of these places. See if you can get a reference to any faculty in these institutes, if not even better just pick a random professor(s) and mail him regarding your confusion, I believe they can give you a more mature perspective on the matter. But talk to as many people as you can, faculty, students and alumni ( both in academia and the industry ). Each one of them will have a different story to tell and different perspective to offer.

All the institutes you name are very good, albeit in different spheres. 1) Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur for Physics IIT Kanpur specializes in condensed matter physics. I understand that it is hard to decide what you want to do so early, but you have to. If you want to do stat-mech/condensed matter/quantum optics/photonics then IITK is quite good. Applied physics is good too. 2) Chennai Mathematical Institute for Physics and Mathematics Small batch strengths, very good in theory. Strong tie-up with IMSc helps. Strong mathematical background. I've been to lectures by profs from IMSc (EDIT: not CMI), and there's a world of difference between their insights and insights by profs at my institute. 3) Indian Statistical Institutes Beyond doubt, some of the best math institutes in India. If you want to study math/statistics, this is the best choice, better than IITs for sure. Workload is lesser than IITs, you can focus on learning instead of grades. Students are really interested and motivated, many of them are from international olympiads. 4) Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore A very good choice. Faculty is world class, and academic curriculum is entirely research oriented. Students who join the curriculum would be likely to be very highly motivated. 5) Engineering Physics degrees: I am not altogether sure how good engineering physics degrees are, mainly because I don't know too much about it. People in IITM do a lot of electronics courses, which they do not necessarily enjoy a lot. However, electronics is a very important component of experimental physics, and if you want to go into an applied field, it will be useful. This is not to say that IITM does not focus on theory - there are notable physicists in the IITM faculty. You might consider IISERs. IISER Pune and IISER Kolkata are pretty good, although they will not have a campus life like the IITs. EDIT: Another institute which I forgot to mention is CBS, Mumbai. Some of the professors over there are TIFR astronomy faculty. However, the institute has not settled down yet, and students do not necessarily have an academic mindset. (Lots of fights, from what I hear) Mathematics and Scientific Computing is practically the same as mathematics. They have some courses which overlap with CS, however the focus is on the math part. BITS - not too sure. Why bother if you can get into IITs? Then again, the HOD of physics in IITK was from BITS Pilani, so there. You need to decide on a few things right away. First - physics or math? This is important, math is very different from what you learn till the 12th. Second, what do you want to do? Theory or experiments? This is a hard choice, but you might have a general idea. Third, how important is the campus/city life to you? In places like IISER K you don't have any life out of your classes. In IIT Kanpur too, you'll barely ever leave the campus. In IIT B on the other hand, you're in Bombay. This might seem trivial right now, but three years down the line you must not repent. Know yourself, and don't fool yourself. Also, in general IITs offer a lot of facilities which other colleges can't match. See for example When I was your age, I was convinced by my seniors into joining IIT. Five years on, I'm glad I did.

I agree more or less with the other answers, but both were a little pessimistic about IITK, so I thought I'd correct that a little. It is true that IITK's physics department is condensed-matter heavy, but there are a good number of professors working in other fields too. The relevant question is whether you'll be able to follow your interests or not: and the answer to that is that almost every major area of theoretical research in physics is represented in the department {black hole thermodynamics, particle physics, QCD, cosmology, computational fluid mechanics, statistical physics, biophysics (due to retire), nanomaterials, even string theory (though you should probably not count on it)}. If I were to rank good physics departments in India by diversity, IITK would be above average, not below. Further, the Director has recently embarked upon a faculty-hiring spree and has set an ambitious target for the next two years. Even if the target is not met, it should certainly aid in bringing more diversity to the department. In my opinion, city life is overrated. I know many people will not agree with me, but I just wanted to present an alternate opinion so that you would know that the issue is quite complicated. IITK has an extremely beautiful campus with most amenities available on campus. There are many decent places available on campus to eat as well. I'm not really the roaming type, and in my five years I never felt the need to go outside campus, since everything you need is available on campus. On occasion, my friends and I have visited some restaurants in the city; good restaurants are probably a little overpriced in Kanpur, but are certainly not absent. To add to Jishnu's answer, physics is very different from what you learn in 12th grade too. You have to be good at mathematics. And a word of caution about Engineering Physics: I have talked to some people getting their degree in EP. It's not really that much different from getting a physics degree, but when you are out to do something, why do it in a half-hearted way? From your description (interested in physics and mathematics), I gather you would be much more interested in theoretical physics than experimental physics. In that case, in my opinion, you should prefer getting a physics degree to an EP one. At the end of the day, all the places you mentioned are very good. If you choose to go to grad school later, what will really matter is your research -- and you can do good research in all these places, or at least gain an advantage in getting good research positions. A word of advice: In coming to these decisions, do not trust any single person (myself included). You will find as many differing positions as people; at the end of the day, you need to decide your priorities yourself. I strongly suggest that you visit as many of these places as possible. There's no need for a prior appointment; most professors are very friendly. Just go to the physics department and talk to as many people as you can -- professors and students. Take from everyone their candid opinion. This is the best way to go about gathering information relevant to your decision.

I think you've picked out the right institutes, more or less. CMI, ISI, IISc are great schools and definitely the strongest in their respective areas. Far superior to IITs and BITS. IITs have higher brand recognition, a better campus life, and will generally have a larger and more diverse crowd. I expect at IIT-B/D, you'll certainly enjoy life a lot more than most other places. IIT K would be a nice compromise between campus life and active research groups. There's another reason I would probably recommend you join an IIT. Placements, job prospects, and career flexibility. "WHAT?!" I hear you scream? Yes. I'll definitely play Devil's Advocate here. This is going to sort of be the 'Un'-Jishnu (har har) post. You are perhaps 18 years old and think you know what you want. Maybe you do. Maybe you don't. Interests change, and do so quite rapidly in fact. In 12th grade I was adamant about not taking computer science despite being quite good at it, enrolled for a BSc in Physics at a 'top' DU college- left disgusted after attending one class, majored in Chemical Engineering at BITS with a view to get into Nanotechnology or Bioengineering, became disillusioned for years and became convinced that I had no other option but to go to IIM. Right now I'm working at a video-game company and heading off for a masters in Machine Learning soon, while running a weekly column for a national daily and helping a silicon valley startup launch in India. If you'd gone back and told me in 1st year that this is what I would be doing in 4 years- I'd have called you crazy. The fact is, if you keep focused and stay faithful to your dreams, you'll end up doing great at any of these places- or any place at all. But your dreams are not set in stone- they can change too- and there's nothing wrong with that, either. At a big engineering school you might discover that your true passion is say, artificial intelligence, or consulting or financial engineering or economics or robotics- and the degree carries enough weight to open doors to pretty much everything. You might simply become sick of math and physics, since what you're going to study at this level is nothing like what you've studied up till 12th grade, and you may want to take a break to work for a couple of years, or join Teach for India, or start your own company. "But I can do that anywhere!" That's true as well. Yet I think that an IIT will probably expose you to a much wider variety of ideas- their alumni networks will be able to guide you much better no matter what you choose to do. All of the other colleges are known for their research but not their campus lives. A guy from IIT can quite easily spend a year or two working on a startup or teaching kids, then bounce back into a successful career without fuss. No IISc/CMI/ISI/IISER grad has that luxury, and having that kind of platform to stand on can be incredibly useful. But I'm not here to dissuade you from pursuing your dreams. Even though I'm going telling you to take IIT (if possible), I would advise you to definitely  get CMI/ISI/IISc/TIFR on your resume by the time you apply to grad school - in the form of either summer research or a thesis. Honestly to an grad school adcom, undergrad colleges are mostly the same (with IITs having a slight added weight), and it's these research projects that really make the difference. Engineering Physics is a sort of 'jack-of-all-trades' degree, which can be heavily customized. Its job prospects tend to be extremely weak though-and I hate anything that closes ANY doors. Pick EP and grad school becomes your only option, basically. That said you can customize it heavily and specialize in things as varied as photonics, nuclear science, mechanics and optics. Most EP grads seem to move on to Applied/Theoretical Physics, Mechanical and Electrical Engineering- but it's quite diverse. Mathematics and Computing is basically an amalgam of Math along with Computer Science, occasionally with a bit of finance and financial engineering thrown in. Call it applied math if you like. In terms of job prospects in India- it's VERY good (which makes me put it a notch above EP). M&C grads tend to move on to financial engineering, CS/AI/Machine Learning, mathematics, statistics etc. BITS Dual: Let me start off by saying that research is really not a priority at BITS, you'll be surrounded by wannabe engineers/managers/entrepreneurs and I find the mathematics department in particular a little sadistic. You will likely get better a better education at the top 5 IITs/ISI/CMI, and perhaps also at IIT-G Math and Computing, and FAR better research opportunities. That said, if by some fluke you don't manage to get the degree of your choice at one of those schools A BITS dual is a very good 'hack' to succeed. (although physics and math tend to be relatively easy to get at IITs- and the other schools are pretty easy to get into for undergrad admissions vis-a-vie Pilani), It makes you look damn good on paper, MSc Physics + B.E Electrical Engineering/B.E. CS+MSc. Mathematics, In 5 years you have two degrees, and since you only need to spend 4 on campus- you also have one year's experience at a research lab or some company, if you also manage to publish some research papers in all this time (this is the tough part at BITS) then your profile becomes ridiculously strong. Because the BITS curriculum is highly modular, you get a lot of flexibility to customize your degree- especially your last year. It isn't uncommon to have guys spend 6 months/1 year doing research at NAL/TIFR/ISI/CMI/IISc, or at top universities in the US/Germany/Canada. If you stay interested- it isn't that hard to equal or surpass your counterparts from the IITs because you have a far greater degree of control over where you do your final year project. Staying interested is the hard part. Despite the relatively weak research focus, BITS equals or betters IITs in most of the other things they do. You will have an extremely enterprising and and ambitious peer group, a lot of flexibility in terms of time (up to 10 electives+ no compulsory attendance+ off campus theses), a very accomplished and helpful network of alumni, strong brand recognition (amongst academia and industry, not your friends circle) and a very active campus life. Weaknesses of BITS: The college life there can be harsh and not particularly nurturing of a love of science- and you'll find a lot of distractions. Most guys in the MSc dual programs are just there because they want to get an engineering degree and then a stable, high paying job. It's unlikely that you'll find too many lovers of math or physics. The location is terrible. Luckily my home town was a short train journey away so I didn't mind it much. If you can remain motivated and continue to do some heavy duty internships in your summers or for your thesis. There's really nothing stopping you from doing what you want to- and CS/EE duals tend to be quite lucrative in case you decide to heed Mammon's call. In recent years Math +EE/CS dualite guys have bagged many of the most sought after jobs on campus, (whether their degrees had any role to play in it is a different question). I'm going to A2A a dualite friend of mine who was at CMI for 6 months, I think he will be able to provide a more nuanced perspective.

Undoubtedly, there are a lot of good places in India to pursue mathematics at the undergraduate level. Being a 4th year student of mathematics at IISER Mohali and with my father as the current HoD of the math department at IIT Kanpur, I get a fairly decent idea (I am not claiming that it is better than personal experience) of how mathematics is done and taught at the undergraduate level in many institutes around the country. Though IISERs are relatively new (just about 7-8 years) they are making a name for themselves in the scientific community at a pretty decent pace. If one wishes to pursue pure math (number theory, algebraic geometry, abstract algebra, topology etc) IISER Mohali should be a name that one must consider. It is not so easy to find stalwarts like Kapil H. Paranjape, I B S Passi, Sudesh Khanduja all in one place!! The other faculty members are young (most in their mid-30's) and are passionate about their research and teaching. Though they haven't made a name for themselves like those mentioned above, in the mathematics community they are all well known! The best part of my department (that's how I call it) is that the teachers are very friendly and very approachable. The student to teacher ratio is really good and this allows us to interact with our faculty members outside the classroom. It allows us to learn mathematics beyond the classroom, which is absolutely essential but (I think) is lacking in most other places.

BITS Pilani has a dual degree system & CMI has a very strong CS department . So , if you intend yo take up CS related research ( say quantam computing , algorithmic design etc.) later , then you should think of CMI or BITS Pilani. ISI Bangalore & Kolkata have very strong analysis and statistics related courses . In case you want to study mathematical statistics later , ISI Kolkata has the finest statistics course of the country . Also , there's a lot of computer science in ISI Kolkata B.Stat course.  IIT Kanpur is a better option in case you are more interested in research. If you want to go for jobs , ofc IIT B has more choices to offer. IIT's do offer maths and computing courses , but the course has much lesser amount of mathematics when compared to ISI or CMI . IISc is a really great institute in case you are interested in research in natural sciences . I know many students from these institutes and I study in ISI Kolkata . So , I can assure you that , these are all actually very good institutes and what you know ( or hear) about them is not ''myth''.

You should seriously consider IISERs.