PEC Chandigarh ranks 68th among the top engineering colleges as per NIRF ranking 2020. It maintains a decent placement record of 80% and has been at the forefront of churning out software engineers with a high calibre. 

Chandigarh University ranks 84th among the top engineering colleges as per NIRF 2020 ranking. It provided 100% placements in 2019 by placing students in their dream companies. 

Tabulated below is a brief overview of the both institutions:

Admission Process

PEC

• The minimum marks required for BTech is 75% marks in 10+2.
• The students applying for UG and PG programs must submit JEE Main and GATE exam scores, respectively. 

Chandigarh University

• A minimum of 50% marks is required in 10+2 with a valid score in CUCET.
• JEE Mains qualified candidates will get themselves spared from the entrance examination. 

Placements

Chandigarh University

• The university recorded 100% placement rate
• Over 122 companies participated in the placement drive of Chandigarh University and recruited 2030 students. 
• The highest package offered to students was 35 LPA while the average package was 7.1 LPA.

PEC

• PEC maintains a healthy placement and many reputed companies like Microsoft, Google visit every year. 
• Approximately, 80% of the students get placed in top-notch MNCs every year. 
• The highest package offered to the students was 49 LPA whereas the average package was 9 LPA.
• More than 300 students were placed with 85 participating companies.

The top companies are Directi, Accenture, ZS Associates, Google, Deloitte, Microsoft, Philips, etc.

Facilities

• Chandigarh University promotes all kinds of sports and encourages students to participate in various types of sports activities. 
• The university has a total of 14 academic blocks and 14 libraries all together with over 120000 books.
• The central library of PEC has a collection of 1,19,830 books, research materials and other things. 
• PEC organizes a fest every year in November. 

PEC is the ideal and obvious choice than Chandigarh University for pursuing CSE. PEC provides highly qualified faculties with excellent placements. It is also a 100 years old college with a strong alumni base and provides top-notch cultures.

To change the branch from Civil to CS, you should have scored a CGPA of 9.8 or 10 in 1st year. It is not a big deal since the students are out of IIT preparations and you can easily do it. But there must be seats in the CSE branch and there are not too many people who are also opting for branch change.

If you lower your CGPA below 9.5 then it is difficult to get your branch upgraded in PEC. If you are doing only study and overcomes all difficulties or just mugs things up then there is more chance of getting the branch change because CSE students generally get 7-8 CGPA. 

You can also try to learn to code like hell while you are still in Civil and then you can surprise everyone by being the best coder ever being in the Civil branch. This will give you an upper hand among the actual CS student during any interview. 

There are several reasons for the downfall of PEC Chandigarh, including the improper efforts given by the institute for its development. These points state how the institute has lost its upper-level mark.

• PEC Chandigarh takes it as a matter of pride to be ranked 38 by MHRD in all-India rankings. The logic behind the celebration is that the institute is just below 16 IITs and 9 NITs, which is not quite an achievement.
• According to press releases, the institute gives all the credits for the 38th rank to its director Prof. Manoj Arora. Instead, there should be efforts for the development of the institute in the forward journey.
• It is considered that the faculties, alumni, and board members of PEC Chandigarh are too lazy to give efforts for its betterment, and have accepted its downfall in standards easily.
• The institute has not even accepted that there is a requirement of change for development, which is the first step towards betterment.

These are some of the factors responsible for the present conditions of PEC Chandigarh. There are a lot of efforts required in several institutional aspects, which would lead to some advancement of the institute.

PEC is in general considered as one of the finest colleges in Chandigarh. There are several advantages to being in a city like Chandigarh, including safety, being around civilized people, less pollution, etc. 

Though having a good environment, Aerospace Engineering is not very good at PEC Chandigarh. Due to the lack of experienced faculty members, some good lecturers come as guest lecturers, but almost 80% of the studies have to be done by the students themselves. The good thing is that students can fly RC planes. The infrastructure should also improve as Aerospace Engineering requires proper lab facilities.

The table below gives a brief overview of the Aerospace Engineering department of PEC University of Technology, Chandigarh.

Though the course is not up to the mark, your life in Chandigarh will be extremely comfortable and a lot safer than in other cities in the country.

Due to less population in Chandigarh, there are quite fewer vehicles and more trees inside the city. This results in very little pollution and almost no traffic in the streets.

Therefore, firstly, aerospace engineering is not a very good choice which is evident from the placement percentage stated above. Coming to life in Chandigarh, it is excellent with an amazing environment all around.

Everything depends on your interest and expectations. If you are particularly interested in placements, then you must check the statistics of the institute beforehand.

The following table gives an overview of placement facts of these two institutes:

• If you are from a strong economic background and want good internship opportunities and placement; then, it is better to prefer CSE in Thapar.
• Besides, if there are some issues regarding fees and you are interested in core rather than software, choose PEC.
• Being situated in Chandigarh, PEC will offer you great opportunities and open up your vision.
• If you are interested in PEC Chandigarh, then it is important to note that you will have ample time to learn new technical skills.
• If you maintain a CGPA of 6.5+ in Thapar University, then you can definitely receive great placement offers.

One of my friends was confused, but he chose CSE in Thapar, as this institute offers the best placements. Both of these institutes have similar placement scenarios, but the college infrastructural facilities in Thapar are also very modernized.

No, upgrading an institute to an IIT is a long and difficult process and therefore the presence of IIT Ropar, IIT Delhi, IIT Roorkee within the vicinity doesn't help its cause.

One of my friends have studied there and the following are his comments on PEC Chandigarh:

• Its recognition by scientists and academia worldwide is a different story altogether. Earlier, due to its recognition under Panjab University, foreign scientists have judged and supported PEC students. They might put students from the institute on an equal footing with their peers from IITs or NITs. 
• Now that the institute has become a deemed university, the situation has been changed. No one is ready to acknowledge the merit of scholars of this institute.
• The absence of a consistent nomenclature is hurting students of PEC. It is making it very difficult for them to secure admission to universities and to convince the committees of the importance of their alma mater. 
• PEC Chandigarh is constantly upgrading its curriculum and has modified it at par with IITs. 
• PEC has performed excellently and attracted the best students from the nation. It's been continuously ranked among the best technical institutes in India.

The institute administration has continuously been making demands for upgrading the institute to an Indian Institute of Technology, without any success. This is an issue that both faculty and students are looking forward to being resolved. 

The IIIT Guwahati has been established quite recently. And the second batch of the college has backed an average package of 7 LPA. So, it can be imagined how the college is growing in terms of its placement percentages. 

• The coding culture of the college is also very good. 
• The college follows the curriculum of the one of top colleges i.e. IIIT Hyderabad. 
• It has got one of the best directors i.e. Dr. Gautam Barua who was the director of IIT Guwahati and Patna. 

In terms of brand value, infrastructure, and quality of education the IIIT Guwahati is much better than PEC Chandigarh. PEC Chandigarh is not recommended by the students because of its environment. But do research more on the method of teaching and management of the college before getting into any college. Hope this answer clears up some of your doubts. 

The college orientation is generally a whole-day event in which seniors welcome the new batches. It generally happens for 3-4 days. This program informs you of each and everything required for the 4 years journey in the college.

• The first day of orientation is completely an official one. The Director of the college gives a speech, and other Functionaries perform their sessions by introducing PEC in front of the fresher students.
• On the 2nd day, the HOD of each department gives a speech, which is quite boring. After that, a session of PECFest starts, which is the biggest and the most interesting session of this institute. A departmental tour is happened, which familiarizes the newcomers with their respective departments. In the evening, several club functions are performed on the college campus.
• On the third day, the college secretaries give a speech about the extra-academics. They share various internship experiences with the freshers. 6th semester is known as the internship semester, as graduation completely depends on the internship report of students. 
• However, you will also get a chance to do internships in a foreign location called a dream internship. The best thing is that you will get an opportunity to interact with the US, the seniors of this institute.

Besides, the orientation program is entirely managed by the students of all semesters, which gives an insight considering the events of the orientation program of PEC. It also represents that the students are very hardworking here. 

You must attend the orientation program; it is just an awesome event.