According to my knowledge, College of Engineering, Pune is not that popular. When you do a basic google search, most suggestions say it is a good college. Many people have also compared it with VNIT Nagpur while a few also say that it is probably better than VNIT.

• When these two colleges are compared to NIT Surathkal, it makes NIT Surathkal the best. This institute ranks as one of the top 3 NITs in our country – NIT Trichy, NIT Warangal and NIT Surathkal. 
• If placements are your concern, they are pretty good. Additionally, the average packages are also increasing every year.
• Even if your grades are low, you will still land a job in some company. However, It is advised to study hard if you want a plethora of opportunities to be open for you. 
• There are quite a few top notch companies that pay higher salaries every year. 
• Most packages are 10+ and increasing even now.

Here are some basic facts about both the colleges - 

As of 2021, the highest international package offered was INR 83 LPA with one student receiving a domestic package of INR 49 LPA, with more than 286 different companies visiting the institute. The top recruiters here include Oracle, Uber, Amazon, Goldman Sachs and Google.

A major plus point is also the beach is quite close to the college. If you are looking for a drawback, it is probably the food. You will find a north Indian and south Indian mess but the food is nothing to boast about.

Overall, you will definitely have a good time at NIT Surathkal. You will have to research a little more about Pune.

For a candidate with a GATE score of 611 and a rank of 5900, admission in design or thermal mechanics at NIT Surathkal is not possible in general. But, there are chances of admission of such a candidate in the present years as most candidates with similar ranks are either from IITs or NITs. 

The points below give some insights regarding the scenario of admission.

• A candidate with a rank of 5900 has some chances of admission in design or thermal mechanics but in the spot counseling rounds.
• There are usually zero to very few placements in such departments at all institutes in India, whether it is an IIT, NIT, or any private college. The GATE coaching centers mislead students by telling them about fake placement records and so, students jump into its preparation. There are very few jobs in PSUs for such subjects, which is an added disadvantage.
• For students interested in applied mechanics or design mechanics, BARC is a better option than M.Tech. But, there are instances of injustice in interviews and very little selection of candidates, which leads to excessive competition.

These are some key highlights regarding the admission in design/thermal/applied mechanics at institutes like NIT Surathkal and MNNIT Allahabad and the outcome of such courses.

NIT Surathkal is AICTE and UGC approved and is ranked 13th for engineering by NIRF 2020. The Civil Engineering department of NIT Surathkal offers undergraduate programs, post-graduate, and research programs. The department is also recognized as a QIP center for the training of faculties from other colleges. DTU is an Institute of National Importance and is a member of AIU.

Rankings:

• DTU has been ranked 1st and NIT Surathkal has been ranked 4th for Engineering by Times 2020.

• DTU was ranked 36th for Engineering by NIRF 2020.

Admission:

• Admission to B.Tech program at DTU and NIT Surathkal is done on the basis of JEE Mains score and percentage at 10+2.

• Whereas admission to M.Tech programs is done on the basis of scores obtained in the GATE Entrance test.

Achievements:

NIT Surathkal Civil Engineering:

• A team from the NIT Surathkal Civil Engineering department won 2nd prize in the Design Event at the Technical Fest, “SASTRA”, of IIT Madras.

• Final year student from NIT Surathkal of Civil Engineering department has been awarded for the best technical paper by the International Conference of Earth Science and Engineering.

DTU Mechanical Engineering:

• The department of Mechanical Engineering at DTU has been awarded by the Dept. of Health and Environment Govt. NCT Delhi for its research work on the production of biodiesel from waste cooking oil.

• The SAE Student Chapter of the Mechanical Engineering department is first in India and considered to be the largest in the world.

• Students from the Mechanical Engineering department of DTU have participated in many international competitions conducted by NASA such as CHANDER YAN, MOON BAGGI, etc.

Placement:

Placement statistics for Civil and Mechanical branches at the institute are as follows.

Top recruiters at NIT Surathkal include Adobe, Amazon, Capgemini, CenturyLink, CITI Bank, Deloitte, Goldman Sachs, while recruiters at DTU include Brain and Company, Bank of America, Bloomberg, Apple, BCG, Qualcomm, Sandisk, etc.

Alumni:

• Notable alumni of NIT Surathkal include Rajeev Madhavan- Founder of Magma Design Automation. Other notable alumni include Thomas Zacharia who is a renowned Indian-American Computer Scientist.

• Notable alumni of DTU include Vinod Dham- known as “Father of the Pentium Chip” and is the founder of the NEA-Indo-US Ventures.

Both the departments are of high repute with mass placement drive. However, you should go with your choice of interest.

Among these two courses and colleges, you should probably choose EEE at NITK. Having to know some people studying in both these institutes, I can say that the infrastructure and facilities provided at NIT Goa are very poor, it is also below NITK in terms of rankings. 

• The campus of NITK is very beautiful with lush green surroundings. NIT Goa is much smaller and might be built inside a state government-run college. Students can enjoy leisure time along with their studies. 
• The faculty is very talented and highly experienced. 
• The course curriculum is updated according to the recent industry trends.
• The placement opportunities are excellent. A lot of companies visit the campus for interviews. 
• NITK is also better if you want to do higher studies like machine learning, etc.

Hence, choosing EEE at NITK will be a better option as the faculty, infrastructure, and placements of this college is great and there is also a very good scope of higher studies.