One such course is Computer Applications (JCA) at IIT Delhi which I feel doesn't get the attention it deserves. In this post I will talk about the Pros and Cons of this course.
IMPORTANT: The course has been discontinued by IIT Delhi. Please refer the PG brochure of the institute for details. Refer CTech (EET) which is a similar course run by EE department.
Note: Please take the views expressed in this post with a grain of salt. These are my views and you may or may not agree with them.
Introduction
Computer Applications, or JCA as it is commonly known, is an inter-disciplinary M.Tech program jointly run by the following three departments at IIT Delhi: 1. Mathematics 2. Computer Science 3. Electrical Engineering
The parent department of this course is Mathematics. JCA being an inter-disciplinary course, students from a lot of backgrounds are eligible for it. Non-computer science students are offered some basic courses in the first and second semester, where as students with computer science background are offered more advanced courses. Apart from this, the students can choose various electives that are offered by the participating departments.
Note that the cutoffs this year could be significantly different from the previous year.
Get the cutoffs for year 2011 CS here
Get the cutoffs for year 2011 CS here
JCA vs MCS
This is a very frequently asked question. Although this is a subjective question and answer will depend on a lot of factors, I would say that if you belong to B. Tech Computer Science background, JCA is almost similar to MCS for you. You will have to do some Mathematics Dept. courses and labs, but apart from them you can take any course from the CS dept. You can also do your major project under a CS dept. prof. Also almost all companies that open for MCS are also open for JCA.JCA vs EET
Again, answer to this is subjective, but in my view, for B. Tech CS students, JCA is better than EET. The reason is JCA is an inter-disp course while EET is run by Electrical Dept. As such, EET is more oriented towards Electrical and Electronics. EET is better than JCA if you are a B. Tech Electrical/Electronics. Again this only MY OPINION.Placements
The million dollar question. The following table lists the number of MTech Computer Applications students placed in various companies in the placementperiod 2009-10.
| Company | No. Placed |
| Microsoft | 1 |
| Amazon | 1 |
| Oracle (Server Technology) | 3 |
| Strand Life Science | 1 |
| Citrix | 1 |
| Nagaro Software | 2 |
| Rakuten (Tokyo Posting) | 1 |
| Atrenta | 1 |
| Clickable | 1 |
| Singhania University | 1 |
| Itaas | 1 |
| Informatica | 1 |
On the other hand
The biggest drawback of this course is that its parent department is Mathematics. This is not the best dept. in IIT Delhi. If you are a CS background student, you have the luxury of avoiding this dept. by taking all your courses from CS. Still you will have to do a few courses there and you may not like it that much. Apart from this CS students shouldn't be affected and your parent dept. wont be a concern during your placements etc.
People with non-CS background have usually a hard time in this course. The structure is not very friendly towards non-CS students and they have to put a lot of extra efforts to cope up with the requirements.
In conclusion, I would say that JCA is a good course if you belong from B. Tech CS background. Personally I found that people with non-CS background find it difficult to manage in this course. Again this depends from person to person but this is a general observation.
Which subject i should prepare for JCA interview @ IITD??
ReplyDelete@Gaurvav,
ReplyDeletenothing specific, make sure your CS concepts are clear. maybe work on algo, DS, C and programming. perhaps they might ask you what is your fav. CS subject. whatever you say, make sure your concepts are clear in that subject.
how many students they take in JCA,M.Tech and MS program in CS and what is the ratio candidate called:seat @IIT D
ReplyDelete@janardan, sorry dude, not much idea about VDTT.
ReplyDelete@above, JCA has around 30 seats. of those half are for people with M. Sc maths only. That leaves 15 for other disciplines including CS, EE etc. This 15 is including reserved seats so there are really only 7 to 10 seats for open category.
Dont know about MS.
@naturegift
ReplyDeleteabout a week or 10 days. they might say 2,3 days but they will take some time.
exactly..they said the same 2-3 days..hehe :)...i was so worried about this because i can't afford missing this opportunity.
ReplyDeleteAnd a few more questions, how will they send the offer letter,i mean via speed post or through e-mail?
I am from cs background and selected in both eet and jca.If i am opting for jca,is it right to do so?
@naturegift,
ReplyDeleteboth through email and post.
As I have mentioned in the post, for CS students JCA is much better. you can make it look almost like MCS if you choose the courses correctly.
Just stay away from maths dept as much as possible :)
btw, who is the course coordinator of jca currently?
Great. As long as he is the course coordinator for JCA, there will not be any problems. he is a great prof. you can take his help for any problems you face in academic life in iit delhi.
ReplyDeleteYa..I have heard a lot about him..people say he's an awesome prof. :)
ReplyDeletewhat should one choose among following->
IIT Delhi M.Tech.(JCA) OR IIT Roorkee M.Tech.(CSE) ?
@mh2753
ReplyDeletefinally i got selected in JCA...
can u please give me ur mobile no, i want to know some details about the course.
if u can't post it here please mail me at
anujdagar07@gmail.com
thanks for giving right info at right time...:)
@naturegift
ReplyDeleteprof. naveen garg told me.
also my frnd checked the list @maths deppt.
here is the names:
https://www.gatementor.com/viewtopic.php?f=377&t=7261&start=0
if u r interested in embedded system then EET is better option for u, otherwise JCA is better.
reply me at anujdagar07@gmail.com
@naturegift
ReplyDeletein my *OPINION*, JCA is better. the reason is the CS dept. of iitd is much better than iitrs. i have heard there is not a single good prof in iitr cs dept.
Hi sir..
ReplyDeletewhen i was giving interview for EET, I asked a senior doing EET there about placements. He told me that EET has better placements than JCA. At present, JCA doesn't have good placements. It was hard to believe him. Is it true that due to maths dept, JCA people dont get much opportunity??
@Gaurav, as i have mentioned in my blog, placements depends on the students than on anything else. This year there was no CS student in JCA, all were MSc maths background. Thats why their placement was not good.
ReplyDeleteyou can look at the placement table above to see what kind of placements JCA students got last year. Maths dept. does not make much difference.
hi sir,
ReplyDeleteI got offer letter for JCA. n there is a chance for me to get select in IIT madras.
pls suggest, it is better(jca) than iitm cse.n wt abt than iitr cse also
pls tell me...
thanx......
definitely go for IITM if you get iitm.
ReplyDeletein case there is a choice between jca and iitr cse, then JCA is better.
may be thats the reason why this time JCA placements were not good..
ReplyDeleteI have finally made up my mind to go for JCA as it is related to comp dept and i love studying algos.. Thanks a lot for your help.. :)
anyways what is the highest package offered to a JCA student??
by that i mean what was the highest package offered 2 years back..
ReplyDeletehighest package was 12L (Microsoft) for india placement. One student had a direct Tokyo placement. His package was 18L INR.
ReplyDelete@mustafa
ReplyDeletethanx,,,,,..alot, for suggetion
one thing also I want to say ,I m frm UP(allahabad) n my some friend tell tht in madras living is very difficult for north indian.can u suggest me abt this..
@shailendra,
ReplyDeletethis is very subjective question. But let me tell you, Madras is a very nice city. People are very good there. The problems a north indian might face in madras are weather, language and food. living in iit, i dont think language will be a problem as you will have people from all over india.
weather is hot, but its comparable to delhi. I mean delhi's weather can no way be called 'good weather'.
food could be a problem. but all iits have horrible food in hostels, so dont worry.
so there will be problems, but i think it would be worth it.
Hi ,
ReplyDeleteI have an offer from IIT Delhi and IIT Kanpur. I wanted to know what do u feel which one should i take. I would be grateful if you can answer the following questions
1) What is the difference in placements . I mean i talked to one IIT Kanpur student and they told that average was around 7 lk . How is the scenario in IIT Delhi
2) How is the quality of faculty over there. Are they research oriented and supportive.
3) Any other thoughts on which should i choose
@harish,
ReplyDeletei know only about iitd. what i know about iitk is only what i have heard from others. anyways here is what i know:
placements: iitd is considered much better. more no. companies, higher avg. packages etc.
faculty: faculty at CS dept at iitd is certainly good. how is it compared to iitk faculty, that i dont know. but there are some really good profs in iitd.
apart from this, mtech at iitd is more course oriented (about 12 courses) vs. at iitk which is more thesis oriented (only about 6 courses).
do you have any specific area of interest in CS?
I am interested in Algorithms and Networking. Can u tell me some good professors in this area who are very supportive to students.
ReplyDeleteOne of the feedback i got from 4-5 students at IITK is that prof's here many times ask students to come up with their own problems and do not give adequate guidance. How is the situation in IIT Delhi. How was your experience in your final project wrt guide.
@harish,
ReplyDeletethere are a lot of good profs in these two subjects. you will know about them once you join.
my experience was good. my guide was very much involved in the project. in fact he used to come to his office 7 days a week and was always available. he helped me throughout the project.
In my recent talks with many Mtechs, i am facing problems on what should be the correct expectations from your guide or Prof.
ReplyDeleteIs it correct to assume that they will help us by giving us a problem to solve or will they ask us to come up with your own problem. If we are told to come up with our own problem, then isn't it difficult with no research experience before
How did you deal with your final year thesis. Was it a new problem or did your guide help you in that
i dont know of anyone here who had to come up with a problem of their own. most guides had a set of problems and they asked students to work on them.
ReplyDeleteyou are right that its not reasonable to expect us to come up with a problem when we have no prior experience.
my guide had a few problems in mind and he gave me one to work on. it was a pretty good research problem (probably worthy of a phd). he had a fair idea of the kind of solution he wanted. he kind of guided me in that direction. and i did my best to implement what he wanted.
Sir,
ReplyDeletedid you convinced amazon too to recruit from JCA?? And do we have to choose our guide our self or they choose us??
we didnt have to convince each company. we simply sent an application to placement dept. to allow jca to appear for every company that opens for mcs.
ReplyDeletewe have to choose our guide. sometimes during second sem, we have to talk to profs and ask them if we can do our major project under them.
hi...this is pranav....really nice blog..
ReplyDeleteif u have a job in infi(4 lakh) or a mtech at iit delhi ....which one should i opt for accordinh to u.....
hi..I have been selected in IITD eet(computer technology) and IITR CSE. Which course should I opt for? Could you please reply asap.
ReplyDelete@pranav,
ReplyDeletei have given all the information in this blog about mtech, like what is the quality of education, what are the opportunities after it, what kind of companies come for campus etc. based on this you should be able to take this decision yourself. only you can decide what is more suitable for you.
@vikas grover,
ReplyDeletethis is hard for me to say. from what I have heard about iitr, it is not that good. eet at iitd is ok. electrical dept. has some good courses and profs. you can also take some courses from CS dept, which is really good. placement opportunities at eet should be almost equal to mcs or jca (few companies might not allow). plus you get the tag of iitd.
so it looks like eet is better. but i dont know much about iitr. i have only heard that it is not good. please talk to as many as people as possible before taking the decision.
pranav..
ReplyDeleteif the placement is good enough in iitb and iitd so that one could get a package arnd 12lakh..its better than to go for mtech..rather than doing job after btech with 4 lakh package..........
there is a college iisc bangalore .......mostly people go for iitd or iitk...how is the mtech(cs)
ReplyDeleteof iisc and about its pplacements............
I m in my 4th year B.tech(IT).. i m preparing 4 gate-2012...bt i want to know wheather its gd to go for Mtech from IITs or a job after Btech in any MNC...do rply..thnx.
ReplyDelete@above,
ReplyDeletethe answer to that depends on your interests. i have told you about the challenges of doing mtech at iits, and the opportunities you get after it (jobs, phd etc.). now its up to you to decide what do you want in the long term. i cant make that decision for you, but, through this blog, i have tried to help people make a more informed decision.
sir
ReplyDeletei'm in final yr doing energy eng can i apply for jca at iitd through gate and should i aplly for it?
@above,
ReplyDeletewhether you can apply or not, you should clarify from the Admission office or call the Maths Dept. at IITD.
JCA has different courses for CS and NonCS people. The NonCS courses are not very good in my opinion and unless your CS fundamentals are very good, you will have a very hard time in JCA. Besides after JCA, you will be eligible for CS companies only. Hope that will help in making your decision
sir , i got 984 Rank with 657 gate score belonging to obc category ...
ReplyDeleteWhat are my chances in iits for mtech . In which iit i should apply ??
anupam.3985@gmail.com
Hey do u have any idea for IISC computational Science(super computer and research) . Please post if u can help
ReplyDeletesorry bro, dont know anyone at IISc, will post if i get to know something
DeleteSir, I got Rank 308 ( OBC). what are my chances in IITM,IITD,IITB,IITK . I got call letter of iisc computational science.
ReplyDeletesir,
ReplyDeletei got 64.33 marks in gate(2012-CS),with AIR-344
what are my chances at IITD.
one more question i seen on the website of IITH avg pkg was 11.5lpa.is it better for iitr and iitg.
Package purely depends upon your performance in placement interviews. You surely have interview chances for MCS and JCA at IIT Delhi.
DeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteI have been shortlisted for MCS at IITD. They asked for our priority order in choosing the projects.. the projects are like
Teaching Assistantship
Cloud Computing
Compiler Optimizations Targeting Low Power on Android
Algorithms for uncertain data
and some other on networks and security..
Please guide me which one is to be given higher priority, is it better to take direct project than Teaching assistantship.
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ReplyDeleteComputer Education
ReplyDeleteIts is really an interested & informative blog. Thanks for sharing with us..
Even students with Math background can opt for courses in CS dept and no one stops you from doing extra courses. Even major project can be entirely in CS.
ReplyDeleteThere are many instances where people with non-CS background have performed much better than CS students, infact better than MCS students. They got better placements also.
ReplyDeleteI am working professional in Reputed IT company (from last 15 year) and planned to do M Tech from IIT-D in 2014-15 session. I filled up application for JCA. I don't need to produce GATE scope. I have 73% marks in BE. Hence, I need to be prepared for Written Test / Interview. Could someone please help me the written test paper pattern??
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ReplyDelete