NIT Raipur has not been ranked in international rankings because it still hasn’t reached the level where ranking bodies would consider it credible enough to be ranked. They consider a number of criteria while evaluating colleges such as Employment Reputation, Ph.D. faculty, Citations per faculty, Intentional students, and Intentional students. Sadly, NIT Raipur is way behind other NITs at least on the basis of the aforementioned criteria. 

Here is a short comparison between NIT Raipur and NIT Rourkela that will help you understand this better

• NIT Raipur was formerly known as GEC Raipur while NIT Rourkela was initially known as Formerly known as REC Rourkela
• NIT Raipur gained the status of NIT in 2005 while NIT Rourkela upgraded to the status of NIT in 2005
• NIT Raipur Overall ranking by NIRF is 101 out of 200 colleges in India in 2023 while that of NIT Rourkela is 37 out of 200 colleges in India in 2023 16th among nits
• NIT Raipur has a 100-acre campus while the new campus will be 300-acre. NIT Rourkela, on the other hand, has a 1200-acre campus that is the 2nd largest after IIT Kharagpur.
• NIT Raipur has a poor research culture while NIT Rourkela has an active research culture.

The above-stated points prove further why NIT Raipur hasn't been included in international rankings yet while NIT Rourkela has.

The placement percentage for NIT Raipur is around 70-80%. The average package ranges from 3.5 lakhs per annum to 5 lakhs per annum.

• The placements completely depend on your branch as CSE has seen 200% placement as well. On the other hand, the placement percentage for Biotechnology was around 70% to 80%.
• When we talk about infrastructure, the renovation is going on. The new campus has been proposed in Naya Raipur. Therefore, the infrastructure gets 5/10 marks.
• The campus is not completely equipped with Wi-Fi facilities but the proposal has been made. This will take around 1 or 2 years to come into existence. Wifi is available on the main campus, central garden, girls’ and boys’ hostels with a speed of 300 MB per 5 seconds. 
• Some areas like the Mathematical and the Biotech Department do not get satisfactory signals. But one can use LAN connection over there.
• The college is not equipped with sports facilities but a sports fest is held every year. In the Sports Fest, various world champions like Geeta Phogat have visited the college. Apart from this, NIT Raipur has bagged positions at various sports competitions as well.

There are enough extracurricular activities to meet your need. The college has Avartan, the Tech Fest, E-day celebration, Samar, the Sport’s Fest and Eclectica, the Cultural Fest where celebrities like Mohit Chauhan and Sachin – Jigar visit the college. There are also various teams dedicated to several activities – Sanskriti (cultural), Shaurya (sports), Technocracy (tech), Abhinay (drama), and Nrityam (Dance). All of them are considered to be the best on their own.

Biomedical Engineering is a branch of engineering that deals with the manufacturing of instruments that would serve medical sectors. So, if you have even a slight interest in Medical Science, go for it. If not, I suggest you consider other options. 

I feel choosing Biomedical Engineering is actually a bold decision as most engineering aspirants have a sheep mentality and prefer branches like CSE and IT only although they have no interest in them. All they care about are placements and many even regret later in life.

The sad truth is there is very little scope for the Biomedical branch in India and the placement opportunities are limited. The government also does not invest much in this field and only a handful of companies hire the students of this branch. Last year 21 offers were made to 37 students of the branch. 

Overall, NIT Raipur is a decent choice for Biomedical as there are several research options too. 

NIT Raipur has a great startup culture. Students and alumni of NIT Raipur have founded many well-known startups like 

• NiteFoodie- It was founded by Vaibhav Singh. It helps in serving dinner and late-night delivery service of food, dessert, utilities, and more in Pune.
• BlueBanyan: Founded by Mohit Sahu, this startup provides business consulting, information technology, and outsourcing services to corporates. It also provides vocational training to students of premiere institutes.
• Noww: Founded by Neetu Singh and Kamal Kant Kosariya, this startup is among India's first few social networks targeting global users, which helps you share all great experiences with your friends throughout the day. It has been featured on international startup platforms like Betapage, and Betalist.
• Crippd Technologies: This startup was founded by Vikas Ranjan and has several successful products running under the company. One such product is the Crippd | Read less, know more. This provides live updates of the most popular stories from the hottest sections of the news web every day.
• Foodinger : Another amazing startup founded by 3 students namely Aman Kumar, Aniket Singhania, and Apoorva Nyati. It claims to have the healthiest and fastest food delivery, in Raipur.

The above list is not exhaustive and there are many more startups founded by students and alumni of NIT Raipur. 

One of my close friends graduated from NIT Raipur Metallurgy and did not find the branch worth the money he spent. The placement opportunities were rare and no exposure was offered. Most of his batchmates had to go for non-core options because only that would pay them well. Another major issue is that there are no coaching classes available in Metallurgy for GATE. The workload is considerably less than other branches. There are a few professors with excellent profiles like Neha Gupta who will assist you in genuine research work. 

Honestly, I dont see a promising future in the field of Metallurgy so I will suggest you go for other options for branch change like Chemical and IT. Their placement scenarios are very promising and they are likely to be the next big thing after CS. In chemical, the GATE, and college placements have better vacancies while IT will help you in this world of Artificial intelligence. 

Coming to the next part of your question, regarding MTech in IITs, I will suggest you only choose between IIT Bombay. Moreover, your chances of getting selected for a PSU increase through GATE in comparison to core branches because the competitors are plenty. 

One of my friends studied at IIEST Shibpur. According to him, it is a better option for pursuing mining engineering after ISM Dhanbad.

• IIEST Shibpur has a great placement record. The recruiters include Jindal, Vedanta, Coal India, etc.
• The Mining Department organizes seminars, provides short-term courses in different fields.
• IIEST Shibpur also signed an MOU with the Mining Engineering Department and the Department of Natural Resources and Mines Queensland Government, Australia.
• The faculty of IIEST Shibpur is skilled and professional.
• IIEST faculties are multidisciplinary in their research areas. Including coal bed methane and shale gas extraction, geomechanics, carbon sequestration, etc.

In the following table, you will get the placement record of NIT Raipur and IIEST Shibpur.

IIEST Shibpur has students who are performing excellently in industries too. India’s top mining industries mostly recruit IIEST students. IIEST students also participated in technical festivals.

Therefore, if you are thinking of making your career in mining then IIEST Shibpur over NIT Raipur. As IIEST Shibpur has a good faculty, placement record, and student environment.

The question you should ask yourself is whether you can drop another year for your JEE preparation or not. If you are confident enough that you can rank higher in your next attempt and get a better college, you can definitely reject NIT Raipur. 

However, to think NIT Raipur won’t provide you with any jobs is incorrect. Though it is a tier 2 college and does not offer the same opportunities as top NITs, getting placed depends more on your hard work and caliber. Even IITians end up without jobs at times. So you have to take your future in your own hands. If you have the skillset you’ll get placed off campus if not on campus. 

Research about the branch you are getting at NIT Raipur, learn about your career prospects, and prepare accordingly. You can also join the institution and still give your next JEE Mains attempt. 

Thus, joining NIT Raipur is not a waste of time. You’ll have to learn to make the best use of its resources and facilities.