All of the mentioned institutes are very reputed and considered among the top engineering colleges in India. The academics and course curriculum are the best with excellent placement opportunities. A lot of reputed companies are known to visit the campuses with decent salary packages. 

Students take programming very seriously and practice it a lot as it is one of the necessary skills required to become a computer engineer. The companies select students based on their coding skills and knowledge rather than looking for academic credentials. You will be selected based on your profiles on GitHub and Topcoder. Salary packages range from 5-50 LPA depending on your skills and experience. 

I have some friends who have become managers in computer engineering through personal learning and luck too. To rank these colleges, I would put NIT Calicut first, then NIT Surathkal and BITS Goa at last. The NITs are excellent and only the main campus of BITS Pilani is comparable to the NITs. 

Microsoft has introduced a program namely DreamSpark by partnering with more than 80 institutions. With this initiative, the students are trained on Microsoft tools so that they can completely understand everything. Students enrolled in these institutions will already have hands-on experience in the industry.

NIT Calicut, however, has its policy where most of the software is used from the open-source domain and students are encouraged to contribute for the same through FOSSMeet activities. 

If Microsoft hires students from FOSSMeet it would be a great loss as the entire time would be wasted to train them.

By not being trained according to the norms and policies of Microsoft, the company usually does not visit NIT Calicut for placements.

There are many aspects to this answer. If you are from South India then go for NIT Calicut. It has a reputation for good placement records. Here are the placement statistics for both NIT Calicut and VNIT Nagpur.

If you are not from South India, then choose according to your convenience. Don’t choose Calicut over Nagpur as it is not an easy place to live in for four years. If you like a lot of alone time then Calicut will be suitable for you. Nagpur is in central India. So, you will have easy connectivity to your home town. VNIT is located in the middle of the city. You will enjoy your stay there. 

Both are good institutes. Choose according to the proximity.

This will entirely depend on your interest as you are comparing two different colleges and two different branches. If you are interested in one particular branch, don’t decide between the two colleges as they are both NITs.

You should first see where your interest lies and choose an option accordingly. If you are not sure, I will suggest you take CS in NIT Patna which is the better option. Here are the recent placement highlights for NIT Patna. 

Regarding civil engineering, let me tell you that even if you land up at an NIT, you will have to prepare for GATE or ESE exams since the placement scenario is not that great.

With civil engineering, you will have to do a lot of hard work but with CSE, you will be able to enjoy college life and get good placements at the end of your degree unlike civil. 

In the end, it boils down to your interests and what you are looking for.

First of all, you need to understand what you want. Do you want higher education or a placement? Then ask yourself whether you want only computer science because you love the subject or simply because you want a good placement.

• If you love computer science, then do not worry and join NIT Calicut. You will learn it in an elaborate way and can then pursue a master’s or doctorate degree. 
• The fee at NIT Calicut is also lower than that of BITS Pilani.
• However, if you are like the majority of people who want CSE for placements, then I would suggest you consider BITS Pilani or any of its other campuses. 
• You have to understand that a CSE degree is not compulsory to learn to code. 
• If you join ECE or ENI programs and learn to code yourself. You can easily land a job in any IT company. 
• The salary package you will receive at BITS Pilani (any campus) will be better than that of NIT Calicut.
• The college life of BITS Pilani will also be very good. 
• You will not have the pressure of attendance. 
• There are lots of extra-curricular activities you can participate in also.

ENI and ECE are technically different branches but they are almost the same. Except for the high fee of BITS Pilani, I do not feel BITS Pilani or Goa campus is anything less worthwhile than NIT Calicut. In fact, if you want only placements, then BITS Pilani any campus should be your choice.

According to the rules laid down by the college, you will not be allowed to get a laptop for the first year of your college but many bring laptops anyway. It will help you with your presentations, assignments as well as design. Your work will become quite simple and effective.

You can also use it for recreational purposes like watching movies, shows, and series. Over the weeks, the rule is relaxed pretty much and students will start getting their laptops to class over the second semester.

From the second year, the restriction will go away entirely. Although having a laptop in the first year is against the rules and regulations of the hostel, they don’t usually object if you bring one. 

If you are a Civil student, my advice to you would be to prepare for the GATE exam once you are done with your degree. The placement is quite low for core companies. Many students also follow the same.

Chemical students are known to focus on jobs and have a good placement in analytics and software-based companies. Many of the top ones also land core jobs.

My suggestion would be to check the syllabus and pick the subject you like. You will realize which subject has good scope and what does not. As far as Civil is concerned, most students land jobs at L&T. But, they will make you work a lot and you will not be satisfied with the pay. This is not the case with Chemical engineering.

Chemical Engineering and ECE, both the branches are in demand. The major scope of Chemical Engineering is in chemical, food processing, pharma, medical industries, oil, and gas, etc.

The major scope of ECE is in android, mobile, and telecommunication. The majority of the students prefer ECE because of two reasons. The first reason being comfort. Secondly, after acquiring skills in programming languages, it is easy to switch to the IT or software field.

Here is a brief overview of CE at NIT Calicut and ECE at IIIT Jabalpur.

If you don’t have any particular inclination towards any branch you can go for ECE at IIIT Jabalpur.

You should be trying something related to Algorithms. Try better than simple Java-related projects like CMS, Library Management System, Job Portal, etc. Be focused on algorithms or machine details. If you are thinking of algorithms, you can take a look at some of the mini-projects hosted by students.

In my friend’s recent conversation with a faculty member of the department, he discussed the trend of students getting away doing simple application-level projects during their B.Tech.

Students who were ready to take up good system-level projects like those related to Linux kernel, networks, compilers, etc. are not wanting to do the same later.

It's engineering that you are trying to learn, application development can be done by anyone. So, you don't have to go through 80% of the courses for that.

Making a comparison between two branches is not appreciable as each branch has its own pros and cons. 

• CSE at VIT Vellore is one of the finest branches after top IITs. The college produces quality students every year who are usually leading top MNCs today or pursuing higher degrees in top US universities.
• There is a strong coding culture at VIT Vellore and technical knowledge is given to them which is one of the major requirements for this field. 
• There is a startup ecosystem that involves learning machine language and artificial intelligence that can help students to gain many opportunities for their future ahead.
• According to recent placements statistics, the total number of offers made by various prestigious companies was 717. 
• The highest package offered was INR 75 LPA, with the top recruiting companies as Dyte, PayPal, and DE Shaw.

CSE at VIT Vellore is one of the best colleges offering ample opportunities to all the students studying.