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Frequently Asked Questions About Top Engineering Colleges

A senior at BITS, Pilani, with the alias messyangel, was kind enough to visit RutSum and share his expertise with us in the form of a long comment on our earlier BITSAT 2008 Cutoff / Predicted Rank post. Though the knowledge shared by him is priceless, I feel that something needs to be added to it, and it needs to be properly formed so that it is clearly visible, readable and easily reachable and referable. So I am making a new post for this and adding my own experience to it.



NITs vs. BITS Hyderabad
BITS Hyderabad has been setup recently. Because of this reason, even though it is a part of the very popular and recognised BITS, Pilani, companies do not prefer do recruit preofessionals from this institute. Rather they would prefer to get engineers from the old, reecognised and well-established NITs. Moreover, recommendation letters from NIT professors hold a lot of value, for the same reason that NITs are well known and old. Moreover, good IT companies rarely come to Hyderabad for campus lift-offs.

Akshay, who also claims to be a senior at BITS, Pilani says that BITS, Hyderabad hasn’t even passed out its first batch as yet, and so talking about the preference of companies is meaningless.



B. Tech./B.E. vs M. Sc. (Hons) or M.Sc. (Tech)
Streams are of course different, but the general trend has been that both B.E. graduates and M. Sc. postgraduates land in similar jobs, but the latter (i.e. M. Sc.) are paid lower because their graduation is of 3 years (10+2+3) and 2 years of post-graduate while B.E. have 4 years of engineering (10+2+4). The industry prefers to take 4 year graduates rather than 3 year graduates. Companies like TCS and Infosys train both B.E./B.Tech. guys and M.Sc./M.Tech. guys for the same job, but just because the value of an engineering degree is more than a science degree, the engineer is paid more to do the exactly same job.



Will I get a M.Sc. Dual Degree in BITS?

messyangel, on the other hand, says that at BITS, only the top 10% of the students selected in the M.Sc. (Hons) course are offered the Dual Degree, and not everybody is eligible for it. The exact criteria is if you get a certain GPA (8.5 or above) in the first year, then only can you get a dual degree. Otherwise, if your GPA is lower than 8.5, you just get plain M.Sc (Hons) and not a dual degree. This means that you cannot get a dual degree just by your BITSAT scores, and that M. Sc. (Tech) students CANNOT get a dual degree at BITS at all. Dual degrees are only for M.Sc. (Hons) students, and that too the toppers out of them. messyangel, to prove that his point is correct, provides us with a link from the OFFICIAL BITS WEBSITE. I personally believe what he is saying is true, because the link seems to be authentic. It seems that EVERY M.Sc. (Hons) student is eligible to get a B.E. dual at BITS, it is just the branch that you get is allotted according to your CGPA at the end of the first year.

Akshay claims that 99% of the M.Sc. (Hons) students get dual degrees, and there is no such criterion to be eligible for it, as mentioned by messyangel.

Rasagy Sharma, another supposed senior at BITS, says that after you pass out with a DUAL Degree, you get TWO degrees: MSc (Hons) & BE (Hons). That means you are an ENGINEER along with a SCIENCE Degree. Every M.Sc. student CAN get a dual, the CAN means because it is your own choice, and a few kids (3-4) choose not to do a dual degree. Now to get a dual, your FIRST YEAR CG is used. From the last couple of years, the trend has been that with a CGPA OF 7.5 (& above), you will be allotted a BE Computer Science Engineering. Then comes EEE, EnI, Mech, Chemical. (In Pilani, there’s Civil & B.Pharma too, though I don’t think many get B. Pharma).



Can I be transferred from BITS, Hyderabad or Goa to BITS, Pilani?
Sachin says that he has talked to seniors at BITS and a transfer is possible if you score very high at your branch.

messyangel claims that such a transfer is not possible and such queries are never entertained.

This post will be updated frequently as and when needed.

Altec Lansing AHS423 ‘Behind-The-Neck’ Headphones With Mic

Since I screwed up my old and cheap Intex headphones, I decided to treat myself and get new ones, but this time, a little more durable and of a comparitively superior quality. So I went to Nehru Place with Sneezy Melon and got myself a brand new set of Altec Lansing headphones.

Altec Lansing has a very good reputation in the sound equipment industry. This, and the recommendation by a friend was the main reason I went for Altec Lansing rather than other competitors such as iBall and Creative. But sadly, I was disappointed.

* The one thing that grabs your attention at first is obviously design and ergonomics. The set is sleek and has the obvious ‘behind-the-neck’ coolness factor. Pads of three different colors - black, orange and pink are provided.

* When you start using it, you notice the awesome and clear sound quality. However, there is no option for size adjustment. So the headphones are practically unwearable for my sister as they are too large for her tiny head. They keep falling off when she wears them.

* Because of the ‘behind-the-neck’ design, the whole weight of the headphones and mic is on your ears. So your ears would hurt like hell if you wear the set for 4-5 hours at a stretch.

* Though the connectors are sturdy, but their is the usual problem that develops after some time, the one of loosening of connection, and particularly breaking of wires in this area -

So you have to adjust the connector until you start getting clear sound. For me, this problem has started a bit too early. It has just been over 3 weeks since I bought it.

* The wire is quite long (2.6 metres to be precise) as compared to other headphones. This comes in handy when you want to lie back and watch a movie with popcorn.

* It has gold connectors to ensure minimal loss in transmission of audio signal. I have no idea if this actually does any good, but I’m sure it definitely adds to the price of the headset.

* In-line volume control - The inline volume control is not a new or unique feature, it is present in almost all headphones in the market, but the 3 level volume control for the microphone is something new, and can come handy during voice chats, if you want to suddenly mute or lower your sound input.

In all, I think the pros outweigh the cons, and it is a good buy. However I would recommend going for a headphone with similar features but an ‘over-the-head’ design. I got this for Rs. 550 with a 1 year warranty, from Computer Empire, Nehru Place.

IIT JEE 2008 Results Announced

Yes, its old news, you all have read about it in newspapers, all institutes are claiming that the top rankers are products of their potholes, and Bihari people are feeling proud because the topper was from their state.

But I would like to draw attention to some facts that you people don’t know and are highly unlikely to find in newspapers.

I got a rank of 6512 when I hadn’t expected to get even in the extended merit list. My score was around 160 and the cut-off was to be around 190-200.

The first four letters from the name of the guy who got All India Rank #1 spell ‘Shit’. I would say that is suggestive of something but you may think otherwise.

Around 7800 people have been given ranks through the IIT JEE, but there are only 4482 seats for the general category which includes not only B. Tech. courses but also B. Pharm., B. Des., B. Arch., M. Pharm. Dual Degree, M. Sc. Integrated Course, M. Sc. Tech. Integrated Course, M. Tech. Integrated Course, M. Tech. Dual Degree Course. All these wrap up in mostly ranks under 5000.

We have 6 new IITs, but their total contribution to the general category is just 360 seats.

The counselling dates for SCs, STs and OBCs is BEFORE the counselling dates for general category. It is clear whom they want first. This after the fact that SCs, STs, OBCs are consistently failing and being expelled after the first semester at IIT.

AIEEE 2008 Results

UPDATE : We have put up a post on the Frequently Asked Questions About Top Engineering Colleges. We are including the opinions of all the people who comment over there. So if you have something to say, or any of your experiences/knowledge to share, submit it as a comment over there.

Without any prior notifications, CBSE has suddenly released the results for the All India Engineering Entrance Exam (AIEEE) 2008, four days before the expected date, that is 7th June, 2008. Even by the CBSE standards one would anticipate that the result would be put up on the official website for the exam, however the results are available ONLY on the CBSE result website.

Sneezy Melon was the first person to inform me about this sudden shocker released by CBSE.

My rank in AIEEE was 5499 and I have scored 184 marks in the exam. My state rank (for Delhi) is 613.

Going by the results, astonishingly about 3.5 lakh students have scored negative marks which is very shameful. 9.5 lakh students sat for the AIEEE 2008, so even scoring a rank under 30,000 means that you are from the top 3% of the science scholars of a huge country like India that feeds on education.

Detailed analysis of the results and rankwise prediction of the college selection would be posted soon by Sneezy Melon.

CEE 2008 Wasn’t As Easy As I Had Expected It To Be

31st May 2008 was supposed to be a happy day for all the Indian engineering aspirants, mainly because it marked the ending of their 5 month long study period which began way back in December. But the CEE 2008, which was the last main examination for most of us guys, turned out to be a paper which didn’t bring a smile on your face.

Most of the people who have given the CEE would have heard that it is known to pick up questions from other engineering exams, particularly the IIT JEE. But in this year’s paper, I couldn’t spot a single question that had been lifted from somewhere else. I have solved most of the Arihant’s famous 28 Years IIT JEE Chapterwise question books, for all the three subjects, so I have a good idea about JEE questions.

Physics and Chemistry contained a lot of theory related questions, especially from chapters that require you to cram, such as Semiconductors, Atom and Nuclei, Chemistry in Everyday Life, Biomolecules, Polymers and Principles of Communication. In spite of being largely theoretical, the Physics and Chemistry parts were easy, because the multiple choices in the questions were STUPID. Even an old pair of socks could choose the right option amongst the lame options that were put along with others in the CEE Physics and Chemistry sections. For even the chapters that I had never even looked at in my life, I could guess the answers by common sense. This was mainly the reason why people found this section easy, it could have been made tougher by putting in more confusing and closely related options.

The Physics paper was the shortest, I feel, because I completed it in less than 40 minutes. Chemistry was a time eater and took more than 1 hour 20 minutes, because I did a lot of questions by eliminating options. Ditto for the first 20 questions in the Maths section.

The Maths question contained questions from dumb and illogical chapters such as Matrices and Determinants, Complex Numbers and Coordinate Geometry. The questions overall were much more difficult than the Physics and Chemistry questions. In the little time I had left, I could look at only the first 40 questions, out of which I attempted about 30-32.

Overall, I would rate the CEE to be easier than the GGSIPU 2008 entrance exam, but more difficult than my BITSAT paper.