Is it worth doing Mtech at IITs

Ever since I graduated out of college in 2004 as BE Computer Science, I had this at the back of my mind that I have to do my masters, perhaps an M. Tech from IIT. I dont know how and why mtech got into my head, perhaps it was the dream of studying at IIT or that I was too scared to go to US for MS or had that kind of money. Then I joined a Software company and started my professional career. 

But the more I worked for them, the more I realized that this is not the kind of work a computer scientist is supposed to do. This made my eagerness to go for m tech even stronger. Finally in 2008 I appeared for GATE, secured for myself a seat at IIT Delhi, left the well paying job and joined IIT delhi. 

Believe me, making this decision of going for mtech while I was working for a software company was not easy at all. I had not seen anyone going for mtech in flesh and blood, so making an informed decision was very difficult. Then there is so much stigma against mtechs that convincing everyone around me (and myself) turned out to be very difficult. I realized that the only way of finding out whether its good for me or not, is to go for it. Besides I was fairly confident that however bad this mtech thing turns out to be, I will still get some job, at least as good as I had before mtech. So I thought, lets go for it.

The intention of this blog is to give you some information about aspects of doing mtech at IIT. I hope after reading this, one should be able to make a more informed decision.

Quality of Education

Most people think that quality of education in mtech is not as good as in btech. This is incorrect as the faculty (and facilities) for mtech and btech is the same. In fact even some of the courses done my btechs and mtechs are same and for some of the courses I have attended classes with the btech guys. So if the quality is good for them, its good for mtechs too. As far as my experience is concerned, this is the first time in my life that I have seen really good faculty. Faculty in my btech college was horrrible. Here in IITs I have studied from profs who have Phds from Stanford, Cornell etc. and some have experience of over 20 years in teaching or industry. Its a great experience to learn from such people, something I would have never got in any other college.

Expenditure

Mtech from IITs is cheap. Although the fees has gone up phenomenally this year, it is still cheap. I think it will cost about 35K per semester for mtech in IITs. This includes your tution fees, hostel fees, mess dues, etc. In this amount you get to live in a quality IIT environment, and get to use all the facilities like labs, sports facilities, internet etc. Plus you get a stipend of Rs. 8000 per month (i think this could increase this year). So that almost covers your fees. Compare this with doing MS in a US university or an MBA.

Work Load

Most people think mtechs dont have to study much and they can relax for 2 years. This is not entirely true though it could be partially true. Here's how: Courses in IITs can be divided into roughly two categories:

1) Courses that are really very good but at the same time extremely tough. It is very difficult to get a good grade in such courses but you learn a lot. It is in these type of courses that you get the real advantage of being at IIT.

2) Courses that are very easy but mostly useless. You can easily get a good grade in these courses without much effort but they will hardly do any value addition.

So if you mostly take easy courses in your mtech career, you can end up with a good CGPA without working hard at all. But then your mtech would be a waste and you will struggle to get a good placement. On the other hand, you can take the tough but good courses, you will learn a lot, but believe me, it becomes very hectic. These courses will make you work so hard that GATE studies will look like a piece of cake. But at the end, it will be worth it. Same logic applies to your choice of project. As such how tough or how easy your mtech is will depend on how much hard work you are willing to do. Unfortunately, most people take the useless easy courses, dont work hard at all during mtech and then say doing mtech in IITs was a bad idea.

Placements

This is the million dollar question, literally. People have this perception that after doing an mtech, the only thing you can do is teaching. I dont know about other branches, but this is certainly not true for mtech in computer science. In my batch itself mtech people got placed in Amazon, Adobe, Morgan Stanley, Oracle, Citrix, Cisco, Mircrosoft etc. Some of these companies hired more mtechs than btechs. Placement in IITs depend very much on your caliber than on anything else. Companies that come for campus allow a lot of people to appear for their written tests. So one gets an opportunity to appear for a lot of companies. But if you cant clear their written test or crack their interviews, there is nothing anybody else can do about it.

But there is a catch. There is no separate placement for mtechs and btechs. This means an mtech has to compete with btech for placements. But if you have done your mtech seriously you can still compete with them. A lot of mtech guys do get better placements than btechs.

Other prospects

Apart from placements, an mtech from IIT also stands a chance for getting into a reputed university abroad for Phd. You would need a high CGPA and a good recommendation from a prof. at IIT. Also, some guys who do good work in their project, get their work published in reputed scientific journals. So you get an opportunity to do some real contribution. Besides the option of teaching is always open. With so many engineering colleges mushrooming everywhere in the country, you always have an option to opt for teaching.

Conclusion

I would conclude by saying that mtech is good only if you are genuinely interested in Computer Science and research and willing to work really hard for next two years. Otherwise you are better off going for a job.