Is direct m.tech computer science and engineering (SPL in data science(5 years) ) in VIT, Vellore is valuable

Hey Sanjay

I completed M.S in Software Engineering from VIT in 2011 and I will be honest with my review and experiences.
I gave VITEEE in 2006 and got a rank of 15600. But VIT invited students with ranks upto 15000 only that year. I have missed an opportunity to get into a BTech course very narrowly. But, later I came to know about this MS SE course and got first hand reviews of students who were studying there. By the time I joined the course the first batch who joined that course(2001 batch) passed out. So, there were literally nobody who can tell me the value of this course who are already working in the software industry. But the course curriculum is 70% similar to BTech CSE and IT.

Good thing about MS SE is it will save you a year when compared to others who pursue a 4+2 years degree to complete PG. While there is some amount of discrimination from faculty who treat students as below par when compared to BTech students, I can still show many examples of students who are much better wrt technical skills when compared with BTech counterparts.

The subjects are tailor-made to suit software industry. You will be a perfect fit to pursue a software job once you complete this course. Certain subjects like Design Patterns, Requirements Engineering, Software Testing, Software Architecture and Design etc are some of the subjects that are not offered in BTech CSE/IT but are very much relevant and widely used in the Software Industry. There are some optional subjects (electives( like Management Information Systems, Multimedia etc have huge value when learnt at university level.

As soon as I joined my first company as a fresher in 2011, I could relate many processes and terminology used in delivering the projects inside IT companies. Infact the person who took a technical interview was amazed to know that I have an idea of all the 23 design patterns which was offered as a subject in my penultimate semester. Then he looked at my course curriculum and said this course offers some of the best subjects that could be learnt at University level.

But there is definitely a certain amount of discrimination in VIT wrt BTech CSE and IT. Not all companies will make MS SE eligible for their recruitment, but the situation is changing now. The current percentage would be 70% of the companies who recruit BTech CSE/IT are recruiting MS SE students as well. In 2011, all the eligible students (206/240) have secured atleast 1 job either through on campus or off campus. So, its 100% placement

I would definitely say that its a good course if you have a IT job on your mind after graduation.

Note: A student should not have more than 2 arrears at the time of recruitments in order to be eligible for a job interview. This was the rule in 2011 placements and could have changed later which I am unaware now