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.