No, +2 marks are not included while calculating CUSAT rank. Being a student here I can say that the only thing that is taken into account while calculating the rank is your CAT exam score.

However, there is a dependency on which category you belong to, that is, your category such as general, OBC, SC, ST, etc has an impact on the rank.

After completing the ranking process, allotment is done which involves 5 steps. A particular number of students get selected for each allotment. As the number of allotments goes on increasing, your chances of getting selected also increases.

The final step is spot admission. It is conducted directly from the college for those who fail (if any), to report during the admission process.

I have a few friends at CUSAT, so I think I can give you an idea about the placement opportunities available for their Fire and Safety department.

Fire and Safety Engineering can be quite challenging. If you are serious about your studies and put in the required effort you will definitely have enough opportunities at the time of placements. But if you are not that serious about academics and end up having backlogs the faculty will not help you during placements.

If you are sincere you can get packages similar to the ones offered at reputed IITs and NITs. Here is a brief highlight of the recent placement statistics for the branch.

• Highest CTC - 14 lakhs
• Major recruiters - BPCL, IOCL, JSW, etc.

Also, it is worth mentioning that CUSAT is NBA Tier - 1 accredited. Other than CUSAT, only IITs and NITs have NBA accreditation. So, CUSAT is definitely a worthy choice for a B.Tech in Fire and Safety Engineering.

Both the Cochin University of Science And Technology (CUSAT) and Federal Institute of Science And Technology (FISAT) are very good institutes and have almost similar rankings in the state of Kerala. Now you can compare both the institutes on various parameters. I have taken two broad and the most popular parameters for this comparison.

Placement - In this regard, the School of Engineering (SoE) of CUSAT is better than FISAT. According to the recent placement statistics, the average and highest CTC offered at CUSAT is 4 LPA and 15 LPA respectively. Cochin University College of Engineering Kuttanad (CUCEK) campus of CUSAT is also similar to SoE in terms of placements.

Infrastructure - Here FISAT takes an upper hand and has better facilities than both SoE and CUCEK. SoE is slightly good and is comparable to FISAT but CUCEK lacks a lot of facilities compared to both.

So it totally depends on you and what your priorities are. If you only aim for placements then choose CUSAT. If you want good infrastructure, then FISAT is preferable.

In Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT) engineering is offered by SOE (Kochi) whereas in CUCEK engineering is offered by (Alappuzha). Having friends studying in both the colleges, I can say that they are equally good.

• When it comes to the IT sector CUSAT introduced IT in India and is considered a pioneer for the IT sector.
• The IT branch is well facilitated in both CUCEK and SOE and is considered a good course to opt for here.
• Both the institutes are well established and have created a name for them.
• Faculties in both are well trained with a lot of experience.
• Both of them have world-class labs with the latest equipment and technologies to equip students with the latest inventions.
• Placements are also good for IT. Mostly they get placed in the southern region of the country like in Bangalore, Hyderabad and etc with good packages.

There’s not a single reason for not opting IT in these colleges. IT is a demanding branch and has potential to grow in the future as do these colleges.

An M.Tech in Polymer Science from CUSAT is a good option if you are planning your master’s and doctoral programs. It can offer you the hands-on experience of your subject. But the chances for the placements for the MTech student are very less from CUSAT. As most of the companies prefer BTech students rather than the students who completed their master’s degree i.e. MTech.

M.Tech students do not get enough placement opportunities. If you go through the past placement records, you will see that only one or two companies allow MTech students. Although, in 2020, MRF tires have invited only MTech students for the 2021 placements.

The industry also starting to recruit more M.Tech students as most BTech students after doing the job for almost two years pursue higher studies that in turn is a great loss to the company as the company spends long hours teaching them various skills to give their project a successful ending. So most of the companies are preferring students who have completed an MTech degree and are ready to work for their professional career only. This is a very big advantage to all the students pursuing MTech polymer sciences from CUSAT.

You may know that in M.Tech the second year is project-based both in college as well as in the company you are pursuing your internship. If you can even show your efficiency, you may get recruited by the company, once you complete your master's degree.

So, securing a decent job offer depends a lot on your skills and efficiency.

Some of my friends are from CUSAT. Whatever information I have gathered from them, I will share as this could help you understand the question a bit more. Here are some placement statistics you can consider as far as CUSAT placements are concerned:

• The quality of students also differs and it has become drastically different from before.
• The cutoff from the last few years has also gone up by almost half.
• Some really good companies also visit the institute for placements.
• These include Oracle, Google, and other e-commerce companies like Amazon, Flipkart, and Snapdeal.
• However, you should know that only a few students will qualify through the interview round and secure a job.
• You will have to be a good programmer and maintain a CGPA of 8.5 at least.
• Many students don’t do well in interviews if they lack programming skills and do not have that sort of GPA.
• But, in every case, there is an exception. Some exceptional students are able to crack these interviews and get placed in decent companies with really high packages.
• For example, back in 2016, a student cracked the IBM interview and secured a pay of INR 36 lakhs per annum.
• Many other students also have got good placements in off-campus recruitment so you can try that too.

You don’t have to be too worried about being placed. Once your overall course is complete many companies will continue visiting the college and students will get placed in the future.