International Institute of Information Technology - [IIIT], Hyderabad

No, I don’t think so. To be honest, my friend who is an IIIT Hyderabad student is much happier and more satisfied than his friends at IITs. He claims that he is in a better position compared to many of his CS and Non-CS counterparts at the IITs. IIIT Hyderabad certainly renders better opportunities in terms of research paper output, coding competitions performances, placements,  and Internships. So he is actually grateful for giving up his seats in IITs for a seat in IIIT. In fact, some of his friends had to go to non-CS branches in top IITs just because their ranks were not good enough for IIIT Hyderabad CS.

I hope this made it clear that people joining IIIT Hyderabad have no regret looking at their IIT counterparts whatsoever. If anything, they are grateful for the rare opportunity. 

Yes, one of my cousins decided to go for IIIT Hyderabad although he had the option of an IIT. The reason he made this decision was because he was certain of a career in CSE and wasn’t getting CSE in the top IITs. He was well aware that the IIIT Hyderabad CSE course is one of the best and toughest in India. 

Today his father is proud of his bold decision. He claims the college ration the students in stress management through strict attendance even in games or yoga. The students are always busy with some or the other assignment. 

However, the infrastructural facilities are great and the accommodation is quite comfortable. There are laundry services, good eateries, sports facilities, and a very friendly faculty pool. 

The best part is the crowd quality as IIIT Hyderabad has no reservation policy. Initially, the compulsory attendance rule may seem a bit rigid but you will realize it does make your life disciplined. 

All software giants are aware of the quality of students here and flock in groups to recruit the best minds. The institute has a record of 100% CS placements as it has the best CS course in the entire country with enough focus on research.

So, don’t hesitate from giving preference to IIITs instead of IITs just for the tag. 

My brother is an IITian and his best friend is an IIITian and he has great respect for his friend. Although his friend had poor academic records and even had a disciplinary committee on him, he was a pro in coding. His skills even got him an offer from Goldman Sachs, but he did not accept the order and started working on his start-up for 2-3 years. Currently, he is pursuing his MBA from a reputed  B School.

My brother was impressed by his friend's decision to give up on the lucrative offer to pursue his dream of a start-up. His passion impressed him and he realized that it actually stems from the ethics he learned from IIIT Hyderabad. 

The three IIITs mentioned by you, namely IIIT Hyderabad, IIIT Delhi and IIIT Allahabad have no connection with one another. Only IIIT Allahabad is a member of a collective known as the IIITs.Out of the remaining two, IIIT Hyderabad stands for The International Institute of Information Technology Hyderabad, and IIIT Delhi stands for Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology Delhi.

All these three are prestigious institutions and I would disagree that they are underrated. IIIT Hyderabad is very difficult to get into. It has high cutoffs which are at par with some of the top IITs. IIIT Hyderabad is considered as one of the best institutes to study CS. The same is evident through their CS placements, a number of entrants in GSoc, and their participation in competitive programming. As far as IIIT Delhi is concerned, the institution has grown tremendously in the past few years. It has cut offs comparable to NSIT and DTU. 

All these institutes are relatively new and have the tag of “Research Institutes” attached to them. These might be an obstacle to their fame. This is because in India, students choose those institutes that promise the best industrial career prospects and not the ones driven by research.

However, because these institutes are research-driven, the quality of their course content is top notch and they attract some of the best faculty. This also works to increase your overall development and opportunities in the industry. The popularity of these institutions is thus growing rapidly. 

Therefore, all three institutions are really good choices to pursue your higher studies.

The preconceived notion that competitive programming or CP is the only way you can survive in a coding-driven institute like IIIT Hyderabad is actually not true. The reason most people believe this is because the media covers only the achievements of CP and ICPC. There isn’t much publicity about the research culture here which is a big reason research enthusiasts consider this institute a good option.

You will be surprised to know that on average, only 5% of UG students do CP regularly, outside of the regular CP-type programming assignments in the first year. If by survival you mean getting noticed then yes, not doing CP may not get you famous here. But that does not mean you cannot survive here. 

The ones who aren’t into CP, are busy maintaining systems that actually help in making our lives easier. They work on open-source libraries from all around the world and conduct qualitative research. They publish papers in diverse fields like security, linguistics, vision, robotics, etc

If you are a student here who isn’t interested in either academics or research, you can still survive through minimal efforts.