Studying Computer Science Engineering at BITS Pilani is a unique experience in itself. The well-structured curriculum combined with an excellent academic environment will give you an experience of its own kind. Additionally, the qualified faculty and superior quality of students crowd to add to the overall learning experience.

Let’s consider these factors individually for better understanding.

Curriculum

• Focuses a lot on theoretical knowledge in courses like OOP, Logic in CS, Database Systems, and DSA.
• The curriculum needs to get updated since it still lacks languages like SML, Haskell, and Javascript.
• Discrete Math is extensive making it beneficial for Math + CS students.

Academic Environment 

• The semesters have a number of courses and the workload is high.
• There are too many assignments, quizzes, lab tests, etc which challenge some to become better while demotivating many.
• Students here are trained to work smarter, not harder
• BITS Pilani has no such coding culture so you can minimize your expectations in that aspect. 

Peer Group

• The quality of the peer group is what makes life at BITS vibrant and dynamic.
• Students with diverse backgrounds, interests, and talents study in one room enhancing the experience.
• The own common factor that brings the peer pool together is the interest in problem-solving, interest in programming, logical thinking, and commitment to stay up late and work. 
• There is tough competition among the students thus challenging the students to work hard.

Faculty

• The faculty is approachable if you want to clear some doubts
• A few faculty members might be a bit straightforward 

Overall, BITS Pilani CSE will be an excellent experience. 

Yes, it’s definitely worth coming to BITS Goa and Hyderabad campuses for your education. Anyone coming from a tier-3 college will find the stark difference with respect to 

• Faculty 
• Course Structure
• Relative Grading 
• Assignments
• Internship opportunities
• Crowd
• Placements

In case you fail to get into the old IITs, your first option should be BITS Pilani. It’s better than NITs and new IITs. BITS Pilani is known for its superior crowd quality owing to its no-reservation policy. Another significant aspect that makes BITS Pilani worth it is the Practice School program wherein you will get a summer and last semester internship based on your CGPA without an interview. 

So, BITS Pilani is definitely worth it!

Every coin has two sides. Similarly, every unique feature of BITS Pilani has both its positive side and its negative side. Let me break down this into a few components:

1. Hostels: The positive side is that you get your own personal space as the rooms are single-seaters. The bad side is that you might face trouble socializing and making new friends. Students tend to stay holed up in their rooms rather than exploring and making new friends.
2. Dual Degree program: The positive side is that you are taught pure science or economics thus making the path easy for you in both research as well as placements. You also get to choose your favorite stream of engineering and even can get the most coveted CS branch. Additionally, you get an extra degree too. But the bad side is that the coursework is very hectic and the 2 degrees are useless if your aim was CS and you failed to get it. Secondly, you can’t take a minor in Finance. You will also have to pay extra fees for 1 year.
3. No attendance policy: The best part about this policy is that the classes are so intriguing and knowledgeable that students themselves are motivated to attend them without any external pressure. The bad side is that some students who are overconfident don’t study and regret it later. The surprise quizzes are also very hectic.
4. Freedom: BITS Pilani certainly instills in you a certain level of freedom so you are of your own free will to decide your timetable, teachers, your labs, you decide your degree. The bad side is that you alone will be responsible for all the consequences.

Now it is up to you to pick which aspect, the positive one or the negative one!

Yes, BITS Pilani has plentiful internship opportunities for its students. The Practice School program of BITS Pilani offers the students a summer internship after 2nd year as a part of the curriculum and also a 6 months internship in the final year. For dual-degree students, the duration of the internship is 12 months.

BITS Pilani has ties with top companies like Apple, Amazon, Nutanix, Goldman Sachs, Texas Instruments, Adobe, American Express, etc. The stipend received by the students is in the range of 45000 to 1 lac rupee per month. Additionally, the students gain enough exposure and experience to kick-start a healthy career.

Students that are inclined towards research and want to pursue higher education are provided with a 6 months thesis in the final year instead of practice school. Students get offers from top foreign and Indian universities like MIT, USA, UIUC, CMU, INRIA, NTU and NUS Singapore, Harvard, ETH Zurich, EPFL, etc. to do their thesis.

Additionally, some students apply off-campus to various companies and research internships like DAAD, MITACS, Charpak, etc in the 3rd year.

In all, a plethora of internship opportunities are provided to BITSians and it’s up to you to make the most out of them.

Freshers at BITS Pilani are usually given 3-4 days to explore the campus after hostel allotment and before classes commence. Here are a few things you should do if you are a fresher here

• Explore the campus instead of staying holed up in your room and meeting new people. You will make friends for life here so don’t hesitate from interacting with everyone around you.
• Initially, you won’t be able to go to the common rooms so instead you can spend time at Red Chillies, Ice and Spice, or the institute cafeteria if you're craving something tasty
• Once the classes begin, make sure to attend the lectures and tutorials.
• You can explore the beauty of Goa during weekends but refrain from involving yourself in alcohol.
• If you are tired of mess food you can order from Domino
• You can also stay in your room and install a DC++ client to browse and download all content on the DC servers.

So, as a fresher, there are several things to do at BITS Pilani Goa campus but personally, I feel you should focus most on socializing and strengthening your network.

BITS Pilani is considered to be one of the top engineering institutes in India. It has a strong reputation for its academic programs and research opportunities. Let’s consider the following factors to determine if it’s a good place to study or not.

Academics

• The faculty pool is inferior to that of the top IITs with a few exceptionally good professors
• The professors deliver limited knowledge meant to just complete the course and not give an actual understanding of the topic at high levels.
• The overall academic ambiance is average 

Infrastructure:

• BITS Pilani infrastructure is considered good surrounded by natural beauty.
• The hostels are also great with big rooms and basic amenities. 
• The internet facilities here are amazing with a great DC++ Network. 

Peer

• BITS Pilani is widely known for attracting the best minds thereby maintaining the crowd quality.
• BITS has no reservation policy

Research:

• BITS Pilani is not a government-funded institute so to conduct research the funds here are limited thus a poor research culture.
• The quality of PhDs in BITS is pathetic and it will take some time to improve the research work.

Fees

• It’s a well-known fact that BITS Pilani fees are very high thus becoming a major reason why students from financially unstable backgrounds cannot afford to study here.
• Every year, the fees suffer a 15% hike which is not justified considering there is not much improvement in the facilities.

Placements

• The placements for the IT and non-core sectors are great and at par with old IITs.
• Core placements for Civil and Manufacturing branches are average.

In all, BITS has its weaknesses and you can consider it a good option if you are ready to overlook them.

Yes, I confirmed it with a friend and it appears that the zero attendance policy at BITS Pilani is true. My friend claimed that this policy helped her in many ways. She tried attending classes initially but failed to do so as she found them to be boring and monotonous. She however attended the lab sessions and some physics classes which she found to be very intriguing. 

The only disadvantage she faced was the surprise tests which she would often miss because of not attending classes. The simple solution for this is to ask one of your friends who attends classes to inform you if they feel the professor is about to conduct tests. But some professors still did not let her give these tests so she had to solely rely on her mid-semester and final exams.

Overall, she has no regrets for skipping classes as she feels she did quite well even without them and also saved a lot of time in the process.