My GATE Score is … Which college should I apply for M.Tech (or Master of Engineering Degree)???

This is the most commonly asked question to me since GATE results are announced. This is not really easy question to answer nor very difficult. First let me put my view about Master of Engineering Admissions in India. We usually try to optimize our admission race to the best possible Top Engineering colleges in India. I consider IITs are best, Then NITs and then Central and State Universities and at the last I consider for Deemed or private univities and colleges for Master of Technology Admissions.
Now let me put the Admission Analysis based on a question,

My GATE score is XXXX and AIR is YYYY GATE percentile is ZZZZ and to be more specific my My marks are MMMM and my paper was PPPPP Engineering. Now Zahid TELL ME WHERE SHALL I APPLY????

I receive the similar set of more than 2000 questions from all the students from every coroner of India. Let me put my views honestly with few assumptions.

• Few good students will for sure for jobs in industry. (Job market is good this year)
• Few of them may go abroad for higher studies too.
• Few missed out a top college because of clash in institute written test or interview dates.
• Few go to IISc and save our lives. ( few for sure go there)

These assumptions are just to be too optimistic and try our luck for admission in Master of Engineering or Master of Technology Degree (M.E/M.Tech).
I will start with two questions: We usually look for GATE Cutoff Scores for M.Tech admissions doest they really matter for admissions? What is more important for M.Tech Admission, is it GATE Score, Percentile or All India Rank?
There is no straight answer to first question because I may be yes and no. To me it totally depends on difficulty of GATE papers. If we have cutoffs of two years one in which GATE paper was tough and another in which it was not very tough, then looking and comparing GATE scores may help. But comparing cutoffs of difficult paper with easy paper may lead to wrong conclusions.
For example
In GATE 2009 for CS paper 670 GATE Score had around 280 AIR
In GATE 2010 for CS paper 670 GATE Score had around 898 AIR
Now if in 2009 some IIT had 670 as last admission in CS does it mean that someone this year with similar score have a chance for IIT, with the above stat the answer seems to be NO..
In this scenario what matters most is AIR (my personal opinion)
Now considering that all 7 IITs ( as I don’t have information about new IITs yet) 30 around seats in CS ( few have more and few don’t fill all). We have 210 seats considering few have other fellowships and admission quota, the total number of seat can go up to 350. with this we can make the assumption about where to apply if you 1000 plus AIR. Similarly of NITs.
If you AIR close to following I strongly suggest you to try, in either cases you are free to apply anywhere once you are GATE qualified.
For Admissions to computer Science M.Tech Admissions:

Institute	AIR
IITs	700
NITs	1200
Central Universities and reputed universities
Good State Universities
IITs ( few offer admission based on GATE)

For other Engineering Streams:

Institute	AIR
IITs	900
NITs	2500
Central Universities and reputed universities
Good State Universities

These are my personal calculations. You are in better position than me to judge. These don’t stand for any legal obligations. You need to be wise to take decision about where to apply for admission. I will only advice and try to help you. Wish you a great luck with M.Tech Admissions.

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