I have a friend who recently graduated with M.Tech in VLSI Design from NIT Calicut. According to him, the placements are great. According to recent placement highlights, the average CTC offered at the institute is 11 LPA.

In order to secure decent placements, all you need is the following. 

• Knowledge of EDA tools of Mentor or Cadence or Synopsys.
• Be skilled in RTL, Verilog coding.
• Know basics of verification and design parameters for speed vs power vs area.

You also should have sound knowledge of Place and Route; extract parameters to compare or adjust design parameters with layout changes. The demand in this field is high. Work hard and you will succeed.

It is not just KJ Somaiya, but every college you decide to go to, find out the following, especially for post-graduate studies:

• Qualifications of the professors in your college
• The crowd of the college and scope for securing internships on different topics
• If there is any research going on in the college and if so, how is the research cell? Many M. Tech students wish to do something new and collaborate with people having the same interests as well.
• Opinions of others about the college. When you interact with the students you will come to know what places are nice and where you can hang out

A friend of mine completed her M. Tech from KJ Somaiya and her experience was average. The research cell is not great and some teachers are well versed in their subject whereas others struggle with basic knowledge.

If you are concerned about placements, those are definitely improving over the years and this college will only be a good option for you if you are not looking for placements. 

My brother goes to NIT Calicut so I can give you some insight into their M.Tech VLSI and EDT course. Here are the glimpses of the placement record for the year 2020.

• The placement percentage for the programs MTech Microelectronics and VLSI Design has been 100%. All the 12 registered students got placed.
• The placement percentage for the program MTech Electronics Design Technology has been 71.4%. 10 out of 14 registered candidates got placed.

The average CTC offered to both of these programs is almost similar. Also, the course has a good ROI. M.Tech Microelectronics and VLSI Design is in great demand and it is turning out to be one of the best courses at NIT Calicut.

NIT Goa has a good teaching faculty for the VLSI stream. The faculty has done their PhDs from IITs and the campus also has very well-equipped labs so it provides a great learning experience.

Here is a brief overview of the NIT Goa. 

Talking about the placements and internships part, Intel, NXP semiconductors offered a lot of internships in the past and there are still chances of these companies visiting again in the future. If you wish to get admitted for MTech in an NIT, it would be a better option if you opt for older and NITs first. If not, NIT Goa is also a good option.

To decide a course’s worth depends not only on the subjects dealt with but also on the aptitude/expectations of the student. 

It would be good to keep in mind that power electronics is quite a vast field. Electronics Design and Technology is like any other specialization offered by NITC.

If you go in-depth you get to know that this course is a blend of VLSI and embedded/system design.If you are interested in the VLSI domain, then EDT is definitely your way. Most of the subjects are shared with Microelectronics & VLSI branches.

Okay, let us take a look at the placement scenario:

• Placements are a bit off for M.Tech students relative to B.Tech students at NITC.
• Several core VLSI companies (TI, Broadcom, Nvidia, Synopsys, etc) end up hiring mostly B.Tech batch.
• It also depends on your academics too. 
• Intel usually hires interns during the second year. 
• These internship opportunities are available only to VLSI and EDT students mainly.

Though, the chance for placement in core companies directly is relatively less. But, if you manage to maintain your CGPA on or above 8 you have a chance to get into a good internship opportunity. There will be internship opportunities available in companies like Broadcom, Intel, and Cypress.

Most of these guys selected will be converted to full-time after one year of internship. You can do an internship and Second-year M.Tech main project at the same time. If you are really good you can also try for an internship from other branches like Telecom and Signal Processing.

According to my friend at IIT Ropar, the first batch of Microelectronics and VLSI Design was from 2019-2020, where there were only 10 and 7 students for the M.Tech and Ph.D. course respectively.

• The faculties of IIT Ropar are young and energetic. 
• It’s quite early to predict placements and hence should wait for some time. 
• Being an IIT, the college is well developed, the infrastructure is decent, and the academics are great.
• The faculty of IIT Ropar for Microelectronics and VLSI Design branch of 1st semester includes 1 professor from IIT Delhi and 5 professors from IIT Bombay and Guwahati.
• The courses for the 1st semester for the Microelectronics and VLSI Design includes a total of 5 courses, 1 lab, and 1 seminar session. 
• These include Digital IC Design, RF Engineering, CMOS Analog IC Design, Semiconductor Device Physics and Modeling, CAD for VLSI Design, Circuit Simulation Lab, and Seminar Session.

Some industries visit IIT Ropar in the first semester and the selected students have to choose to work with them. The 2nd year project can be completed in any company also if a student wishes to. The department helps the student to find the company if the student wants and if not then he/she can do the project on the campus itself.

Basically, a comparison between the colleges can be made according to the choices and interests of the students. The various factors are taken into consideration when we are choosing M.Tech in VLSI. 

• NIT Goa owns a very attractive and appealing infrastructure. 
• At the same time, the college usually focuses on the holistic development of students rather than just focusing on academics. 
• Also, NIT Goa has well-qualified faculty members imparting quality education to all the students. 
• Also check the fees, placement statistics, and the number of students who got placed in various companies. 
• The course fee for M.Tech students is affordable, unlike many other popular colleges.

NIT Goa has affordable fees and decent placement offers can be a preferred option for many. So before making the choice weigh all the pros and cons before getting admission in the college.