Yes, NIT Raipur does have the provision for Merit-cum-Means scholarship. The scholarship is awarded to students who belong to economically weaker sections of society and have demonstrated exceptional academic performance. The scholarship aims to provide financial assistance to deserving students so that they can continue their education without any financial burden.

To be eligible for the Merit-cum-Means scholarship at NIT Raipur, a student must fulfill certain criteria such as:

• The student must have secured a minimum of 7.5 CGPA in the previous semester/year.
• The student's annual family income should be less than Rs. 4.5 lakhs.
• The student should not be receiving any other scholarship or financial assistance from any other source.

If a student meets the eligibility criteria, they can apply for the Merit-cum-Means scholarship by filling out an application form and submitting it along with the necessary documents to the concerned authorities at NIT Raipur. The scholarship amount is usually disbursed on a semester basis, and the amount may vary depending on the student's academic performance and financial need.

Overall, the Merit-cum-Means scholarship at NIT Raipur is an excellent opportunity for economically weaker students to pursue their education without any financial burden and achieve their academic goals.

A few of my friends pursued CSE at NIT Raipur and DA-IICT, and here are some tips for you, based on their experience.

DA-IICT is a better choice and the reasons are as follows.

• Faculty- The faculty members are good who teach very well.
• Course curriculum- The campus offers great coding culture and a unique course structure that emphasizes programming from the beginning of the course.
• You get the option to pursue an honors degree in Computational Science that offers unique courses like High-performance computing, computational finance, etc. This gives an edge over computer science students.
• Placements- DA-IICT has 100% placement. The average salary packages are INR 10 LPA and the highest salary package offered was INR 40 LPA.

However, at the NITs, you have to study Physics and Chemistry again and subjects like Engineering Drawing that have no relevance with Computer Science as the first year are common amongst all branches. Only the top three NITs- NIT Trichy, NIT Warangal, and NIT Surathkal are better than DA-IICT.

NIT Raipur’s mechanical engineering department is better than NIT Patna. In the below table you will get information about NIT Raipur and NIT Patna which help you compare the two.

NIT Raipur mechanical engineering department was established 40 years ago and the ME department is the founding branch of NIT Raipur. It also has better faculties and lab equipment. NIT Raipur’s Electrical Department is equally good. It is a well-recognized department and gives students proper exposure.

NIT Raipur also holds a good placement record. At NIT Raipur both the departments are good. You can choose any of these as per your interest.

Therefore, if you are thinking of joining the Mechanical or Electrical department then NIT Raipur would be a better choice between NIT Patna and NIT Raipur.

Both the colleges, BIT Mesra and NIT Raipur are two profound colleges of the nation but comparing them based on different branches is not justified.

Talking about the mechanical and computer science branch, the scope of computer science is the higher and mechanical branches.

Choosing between the two, opt for NIT Raipur, CSE branch due to the scope of the particular domain.

My brother attended NIT Raipur and here’s what he had to say about CT.

• Go through the content your teacher has taught in class to know about the general topic.
• Take proper class notes.
• Ask your seniors to share the old papers so that you get an idea of what you would face. Also, ask the seniors about any pattern to follow while writing the paper.

After completing the topics and talking to your seniors it should be easier to go through the test. CT definitely plays an important role during the initial stage as well as during the placements. CT gives you extra credit if you need it in any subject which is a huge benefit to keep since it helps scoring full marks in your internals or the exams.

CT is also very helpful as it generally consists of only a few chapters rather than the whole syllabus so it becomes quite easy to score high while just studying 2 chapters instead of the whole book.

Among these two, NIT Raipur will be a better choice. Here is some insight about the institutes.

• VIT Bhopal: In recent years, admissions in VIT were open for VIT rank > 1 Lakh, and even after that, the seats remained empty. As this is a new institute the infrastructure and faculty base is not that strong. It lacks good infrastructural facilities. There is no alumni network.
• NIT Raipur: On the other hand, NIT Raipur is one of the most popular colleges in our country and you will have good faculty there. The only concern is your choice of branch. Choose B.Arch only if you are truly interested in Architecture.

Here are the recent placement statistics for the courses mentioned in the question.

Hence, choosing NIT Raipur over VIT Bhopal will be a very good choice as it is a much better college and it will help you to shape your career and future.