In this post I talk about the choice between going for M. Tech or M. S at CS department at IIT Delhi. Although this article compares M. Tech and M. S. at IIT Delhi, these considerations are valid for comparing between any course intensive program and a thesis intensive program as explained below.
This blog is about M. Tech in Computer Science at IITs, through GATE. I have tried to answer the most frequently asked questions by IIT aspirants.
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Saturday, January 19, 2013
M. Tech vs M.S at IIT Delhi
Definition
When I say M. Tech in this article, I mean any program that has a major emphasis (greater than 60%) on courses and less emphasis on Major project. On the other hand, when I say M. S., I mean any course that has major emphasis (more that 60%) on thesis part.
Who should ideally go for M. Tech
M. Tech CS at IIT Delhi is very course oriented. You spend 2/3rd of your credits doing courses by different professors of your
choice and only remaining 1/3rd percentage working on your thesis.
If you are a person who is interested in CS, but has not chosen a particular area for research, M. Tech could be more ideal for you. Since M. Tech allows you to do so many courses, you can select courses on different topics and get a feel of everything before you decide what is that interests you the most.
I was of this type and found everything in CS interesting. I didn't have any particular "favorite" subject so I took a lot of different courses at IIT Delhi. I did courses like Advanced Data Structures, Image Processing, Logic and Functional Programming, Discrete Maths, Computer Graphics, Numerical Optimization, Computer Networks, Algorithms for BioInformatics. Finally, my major thesis was on Computational Biology problem.
Pros of M. Tech over M. S:
- You get to do a variety of courses. Flexibility at IITs mean you can choose almost anything you want.
- Doing so many different courses means you get to work with a lot of different Professors
- Since M. Tech has a smaller thesis component, it almost always finishes within the stipulated two years time.
- M. Tech is less demanding as for all the courses we have a fixed syllabus and a fixed grading scheme. It is has a similar pattern to our school and college.
Cons
- Since you are doing so many courses, you cannot concentrate one subject if you want to.
- Since you do dedicated thesis work only for one semester or so, you cannot expect to achieve path breaking results or make a great contribution to Computer Science.
- It is difficult, if not impossible, to have any worth while publication/patent etc. when you are not focused one problem.
Who should ideally for for M. S.
M.S in
CS or IT, on the other hand, is very thesis oriented. You spend 2/3rd of
the time working on your thesis and take very few courses (that too
related to the topic of your thesis).
If you are the kind of person who exactly knows where his interest lies and wants to dedicate a couple of years in it, you should consider going for M. S. There are problems in every area that require years and years of work to solve. M. S. provides you this opportunity to pick up such challenging problems and work on them.
Another subtle consideration while going for M. S. is that you also have to choose your IIT carefully. Not all IITs have expertise in every subject. For example, till the time I was in IITD, it was not a great place for Databases or Artificial Intelligence. So if you wanted to work on Databases for example and went to IITD for M. S., you would end up disappointed.
Pros of M. S. over M. Tech
- Because you are dedicated to one subject, you can accomplish some really great results.
- You can spend all the time dedicated to your favorite subject and not bother working on anything else that does not interest you.
- There is a better chance of coming up with papers/publications/patents as you have ample time
- M. S. is a great stepping stone for a PhD, in India or abroad. Since the way you need to work in M. S. resembles the type of work needed in PhD, it can be considered a mini PhD.
Cons
- Since there is huge thesis component which is variable, M. S. usually takes more than 2 years to complete.
- As the majority of your time is spent with just one professor, choosing a good professor is very important.
- M. S. can be very demanding as it does not have a fixed syllabus or a fixed grading scheme. You just work on one very tough problem that probably no one has ever solved. It takes a little while to get used to working in this mode.
Placements
There is no difference in M. Tech and M. S. when it comes to placement opportunities. They compete for the same companies and are mostly measured on the same scale. Though since M. S. usually requires an extra year to complete, M. S. students may have to wait for another year for joining.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I would say that choice of M. S vs. M. Tech should be ideally based on your preferences. It is not a very good idea to go for M. S. when you cannot get admission into M. Tech. Since not every one is prepared for the research like mode of working required in M. S., it may not be for everyone.
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ReplyDeleteSir i'm huge fan of ya blogs that was really gud information....i have questions
ReplyDeleteQ1. Does M.S requires 3 years ?
Q2. M.S admission is also done thru GATE ?
Sorry Nikhil, I am not aware of these details as I never applied for a part time course. You should get these details on the website or you can call the CS dept if you have any specific questions. The level of entrance should be comparable to any full time masters course at IIT.
ReplyDeleteI'm from Nepal and thinking of MCS what are the pre-requirements of the course? My Bachelor's is in Business information system where 40-45% of my course was Computer Science
ReplyDeletewhich iit is good for MS in artificial intelligence????
ReplyDelete