Why I left NSIT ? | IIITD vs NSIT / NSUT
I am currently pursuing B.Tech in Computer Science & Design from IIITD and have spent a year at NSIT with Instrumentation and Control Engineering as my major, so I feel I am fairly qualified to draw comparisons between the two institutions purely on the basis of my personal experience. I’ll be thoroughly comparing both the colleges on several parameters which I believe are important for anyone pursuing engineering. Even though this blog may seem biased, but I assure you that this is as real as it can be.
Academics & Curriculum
Although NSIT claims to have updated their curriculum in 2016, it largely focuses on rote learning and still remains outdated. On the other hand, IIITD has a far more rigorous and well-designed curriculum wherein every course is focused on practical knowledge to meet the industry standards. IIITD strictly opposes the culture of rote learning and almost all the exams are open-book type.
Every assignment that I had to submit in NSIT had to be handwritten (including C/C++ codes!) and everyone’s assignment was similar to (read: a copy of) that one kid’s assignment who did it first whereas in IIITD everyone does their own assignment due to a really strict plagiarism policy which I believe is only fair to promote self learning. Unlike NSIT, every single assignment in IIITD has to be submitted online on the e-portal called Backpack with a fixed and non-negotiable deadline.
I’ve always heard people say that “You’ll never learn anything from the college, you’ll have to learn everything on your own” but if you really want to learn something from your college IIITD is the place to be.
(PS: By learning from the college I don’t mean to say that you’ll be spoon-fed, rather you’ll be taught the basics and given challenging assignments to promote self learning.)
Campus & Infrastructure
NSIT has a big lush green campus with a lot of open space and is full of peacocks and other animals (snakes, monitor lizards -the usual )[images/videos at the end]. The infrastructure is archaic and is in need of a major upgradation. Dimly lit classrooms fitted with dusty chalkboards and worn out benches with almost no ventilation is a regular day at NSIT (unless you’re in the New Block which is rare). On the other hand, IIITD has a state of the art infrastructure with a relatively small but well maintained vertical campus. Even though IIITD has almost 5 times smaller area, lesser number of students and efficient space utilization compensate for the same (seems unrealistic, but they really do!). All the classrooms and labs are centrally air-conditioned with projectors, whiteboards and modern furniture which makes you sorta want to learn.
Hostels in NSIT are far more spacious than in IIITD but lack in basic necessities like uninterrupted power & water supply. The regular absence of these two sometimes made it unbearable for me to live in hostel. IIITD hostels are equipped with air conditioners and have fairly decent bathrooms(#priorities). Mess facilities at both the colleges aren’t great, but still IIITD mess food doesn’t make you unwell *fingers crossed*
Co-curricular Activities
NSIT is truly a great place when it comes to co-curricular activities such as debating, dance, sports, drama, etc. They have very well established clubs like the DebSoc(debating), Capella(dance) and Ashwamedh(drama) which are very well known in their respective circuits and regularly win podiums. NSIT is also among the very few colleges in India (the only one which wins awards there!) sends a delegation to the Harvard National Model United Nations (Oldest and one of the most prestigious conference of its kind) which is held in Boston, USA every year. (PS: I was a part of the 2018 delegation and will be writing a blog on it soon!💩)[UPDATE: It’s out, check it out here.]
On the other hand, IIITD is a fairly new in this arena and needs more time to match the level of expertise in non-technical skills as compared to NSIT. Nonetheless, IIITD has a fairly active clubs which have great potential for future. On the technical side of co-curricular activities, IIITD is among the select colleges in India which sends a team to AUVSI SUAS Competition (Most prestigious autonomous drone competition for students) which is held in US Naval Air Station in Maryland, USA.
Learning Environment & Culture
In my opinion, NSIT has a very select number of ambitious and hard-working people (in short finding like-minded people is difficult). While most people think that this not an important factor, in reality peer group does affect your personality and gives you a sort of push in form of healthy-competitive environment. Overall, NSIT has a bit more academically relaxed culture and gives you the option to either chill-out and enjoy college life (like most people there) or work hard on your own (few but really talented people). It has “non-technical culture” making it a better choice for people planning to give Civil Services Exams or do MBA/any non-technical course afterwards. Most of the jobs portfolios that are being offered are in consulting or management arena.(PS: people do get into very good companies for tech. and good colleges for MS but the overall ratio for it as compared to IIITD is really poor.)
IIITD has a more(a lot more!) academically rigorous environment which naturally makes one hard-working. Naturally, people are a bit more ambitious which can be clearly reflected in the number of students getting selected for GSoC, ACM-ICPC Nationals (even World Finals!) and in various top-tier institutes for MS and PhD programmes. Since it is a highly research oriented institution, the number of research papers produced every year and the involvement of b.tech. students in it is phenomenal.
Faculty
Like everything, even the faculty at NSIT was a bit tired from the non-cooperative administration and lack of basic facilities, naturally the learning experience of students (including mine) wasn’t really great and had to attend classes for the sake of meeting minimum attendance criteria. There were some good professors at NSIT too but they were a handful few 😔 . Things at IIITD differ greatly here and probably this has made all the difference. All of the professors at IIITD are PhDs from top tier universities from all over the world and are actively involved in research. IIITD works in a way similar to most universities abroad wherein they have a system of TAs(Teaching Assistants), TFs(Teaching Faculties) and Instructors(Professors). I believe, this creates a distribution of work load and all the small queries are handled at lower level before reaching the profs. None of this exists at NSIT, which is sad.
Other Facilities
IIITD has internationally acclaimed research labs such as PreCog, Weave Lab and lots more. NSIT has just one decent(the only one)research lab, CEDT lab, so the difference can be clearly observed. Also, recently a new Center For Design and New Media was inaugurated by the CTO of TCS. Both colleges have student WiFi with fairly decent speed. IIITD has various other things for entertainment such as Fussball tables, air-hockey and a 24x7 common room for both genders with tables, comfortable couches and a flat-screen TV with Netflix to work and relax. The common room has all kinds of board and cards games (including some like Jenga, Poker set and Cards Against Humanity). NSIT has Nescii lawns which is a great place to chill and provides great views of sunset and sunrise.
Overall Verdict
If you’re not sure about what you want to pursue as your career and want to explore various tech and non-tech fields then go for NSIT, but if you’re sure that you pursue a career in Computer Science or Electronics and are willing to spend your next 4 years with very little sleep then IIITD is the place to be :)
Being someone whose interest lies deeply in Computer Science and Electronics I chose IIITD over NSIT and am looking forward to 4 challenging years ahead.
PS: If you need any more on ground information related to these colleges, drop me a line at srijanjain1207[at]gmail[dot]com
I never wanted to post these images/videos on a public platform but since a lot of my friends urged me to do so in the name of public awareness, here they are. All of the images are purely unedited and are first-hand accounts of my friends and peers at NSIT/NSUT:
