Hi,

In my opinion, you should go for IIT Kanpur.

The Aerospace Engineering department at IITK has four subsections- Aerodynamics, Flight dynamics and control, Structures and Propulsion. Each subsection has their own computational and experimental laboratories. Various laboratories in Aero IITK are: Computational Fluid Dynamics Lab, Computational Structures Lab, Computational Flight Machanics , Computational Propulsion, Virtual Instrumentation Lab, Unsteady Aerodynamics Lab, High Speed Aerodynamics Lab, Propulsion Lab, UAV and MAV laboratories, Advanced Structures and Materials Lab, Structural Analysis Lab. Besides, we are the only IIT to have a large closed circuit Wind Tunnel . We also have open circuit wind tunnels meant for UG lab courses and High speed wind tunnel with design Mach number as high as 2–2.5 . Thus, Aerospace Engineering is a great place to explore your research potentials. You can even get a few papers published in respected journals in your Undergraduate programs if you work hard enough.

As far as foreign universities are concerned, great many students from our department go for summer internships and higher studies abroad. I have many friends from my batch alone who are doing their summer internships abroad in US, Russia, France, Italy. Even I am an SN Bose Scholar doing my summer Internship at University of Southern California this summer. Many of my seniors have gone for MS and PhD programs to esteemed Universities like University of Maryland, Stanford, John Hopkins, Purdue, Georgia Tech and so on. Getting into foreign universities entirely depends on how hard you work in you Undergraduate life and has nothing to do with which IIT you get into.

As far as placements are concerned, IITK has a slight edge over IITM due to its location and the working of the Placement cell. Since most of the government and private aviation and aerospace research organizations are located in South India, recruiting from IITM becomes easier.

Being one of the oldest IITs, the student life at IITK is great. The atmosphere here is dynamic and conducive for both academic and extracurricular. IITK has great sports facilities with large number of tennis and basketball courts, large hockey and football ground and Olympic sized swimming pool. The student body, Gymkhana is very active throughout the year, There are large number of clubs and hobby groups. You can join any number of clubs and hobby groups and explore your interest and broaden your horizon while having good academics. Since most of the activities in IITK are managed by the students, you get to build good managerial and professional skills. IITK organizes three main inter college festivals- Antaragni(Cult fest), Techkriti(Tech fest) and Udghosh(Sports fest). All these fest are completely organized by students and receive great participation and response. The PORs (Position of Responsibility) range from Event secretaries to Festival coordinators. Besides, we also have Inter hall competitions- Galaxy(cult fest), Takneek(Tech fest), Inferno(sports fest). The atmosphere during these Inter hall competitions is quite electrifying and the best experience during your entire stay at IITK.

Besides this, the faculty student interaction is great. The professors are very friendly and humble. You can easily get to work on projects under any professor in areas of your interest. It is easy to get good recommendations if you maintain even a decent enough relation with the professors.

The student life at IITK is wholesome and something you will cherish even after your graduation from this great place.

Hope this helps.

All the best.