BITS PILANI is a well-known institute for students who do not have good IIT or NIT scores. However, BITS GOA is not very good, and it will never be able to replace NIT Surathkal.

NIT Surathkal is one of the top three NITs in the country. Trichy and Warangal are the other two. Surathkal is substantially better than Goa for getting a seat. It also has good placements and a good coding culture. 

Here is a brief comparison of the two institutes.

Compared to BITS Goa, NIT Surathkal is definitely a better option. 

PES University, Bangalore, and NITK, Surathkal are both institutions that are recognized by UGC. The institutes are also approved by AICTE. Both the institutes have features that are unique to them and have their distinct advantages and limitations. One must compare these academic establishments properly before choosing one over the other.

A basic comparison has been provided below to help individuals with the same.

Infrastructure and Facilities

• PES: The campus comprises 3.5 million sq. ft. of built-up area and acres of open ground. The university offers facilities such as hostels, library, sports complex, labs, cafeteria, gym, amphitheater, seminar halls, healthcare, etc.

• NITK: Facilities including a central computer lab, bank and post office, healthcare, shopping complex, open-air theatre, auditorium, etc, are offered to the students.

Scholarships

• PES: Scholarships such as MRD scholarships, Distinction Award, etc are offered to students who are meritorious or belong to the rural background.

• NITK: Students are offered Merit and Merit-cum-Means scholarships by the institute. The value of the scholarships varies accordingly.

Placement Statistics

• PES: 851 students were placed in 56 recruiting companies such as Deloitte, Amazon, LinkedIn, EY, Honeywell, Nestle, Flipkart, Intel, etc. The highest and average package offered was 48 LPA and 6.8 LPA, respectively.

• NITK: 92% of the students were placed in 270 companies such as Bosch, Deloitte, Coal India Ltd., Indian Navy, Oracle, HSBC Bank, MMT, Coca-Cola India, Amazon, etc. The highest domestic package offered was 42 LPA.

Alumni

• PES: Notable alumni of PESU include Tony Luke (actor), Damacharla Janardhana Rao, and Sharath Kumar Bache Gowda (Politicians).

• NITK: Notable alumni include the likes of Thomas Zacharia (Computer Scientist), Rajeev Madhavan (Investor), and Suhas Lalinakere Yathiraj (Badminton player).

Whether one institution is better than the other is purely based on the discretion of an individual. A conclusion must be drawn keeping other factors such as faculty, academic quality, personal disposition and expectations in mind as well.

One of my friends studying at NIT Surathkal has provided the information about the college timings. As he is a BTech 1st year student he is only able to share his particular timetable. Though there might not be vast differences.

• National Institute of Technology Surathkal 1st year B.Tech class starts at 8 AM-5 PM.
• There is a one-hour lunch break from 12 noon to 1 PM
• NIT Surathkal easily gets two-three free hours during their class, depending on the schedule. 
• Free lectures also depend on class shifts and faculty mood. 
• For staff members, the timings are from 9 AM-1 PM and 2 PM-5:30 PM. 
• The timings for the library are usually extended till nights but it changes as per the demand of students. 
• Labs are usually scheduled from 2 PM-5 PM.

Therefore, the National Institute of Technology Surathkal schedule is not that hectic. Students easily manage their own time table between the lectures.

IT department is nothing less than just excellent. The faculty here is immensely experienced and talented with Ph.D. degrees from IISC Bangalore or some reputed foreign institute. 

• The heads of the department are well established and experienced in the field of Information Technology.
• A number of passed-out students from NIT Surathkal have gone abroad for future studies from the top international universities such as MIT, Stanford University, Yale University to name a few.
• The placement statistics of 2019 are a sight to the eyes! The highest package offered was 42 LPA and the company was Deshaw based in Hyderabad.
• Their claim of 100% placements is absolutely correct in every batch that passes out. Roughly 280 companies visited the campus recruitment with the average package being 18 LPA. 
• Some of the top recruiters here are Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Oracle, Uber, Sprinkler, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan.

23 students were also selected from NIT Surathkal for the google summer of code (GSOC) and it also scored 13th rank in the ICPC Asia contest. One of the most successful startups is PRACTO, which is a venture of NIT Surathkal alumini.

Both the colleges mentioned here are one of the most reputed colleges in the country and have excellent academic as well as placement records available. BITS Hyderabad offers a BE and NIT Surathkal offers a BTech program in mechanical engineering.

Admission- BITS Hyderabad conducts their own entrance exam called BITSAT while NIT Surathkal admits through JEE Main only for the BTech Mechanical Engineering program. The total fees for BITS Hyderabad and NIT Surathkal are 16.73 LPA and 5.39 LPA.

The closing cut off for Mechanical Engineering at these institutes are as follows.

• BITS Hyderabad – 275 in BITSAT

• NIT Surathkal – 8483 in JEE Main

Placement-

BITS Hyderabad- has been quite consistent in their placement statistics, also as the University is attached to Birla Institutes, the industrial exposure is very practical. The highest package received this year is 39.5 LPA and the average package was of 11 LPA.

NIT Surathkal – The placement rate of NIT Surathkal is very impressive. The highest package bagged by the students this year is 39 LPA and the average package was around 14.15 LPA. The top recruiters are Hero, Goldman Sachs, Amazon, Citi Bank, Deutsche Bank.

Some of the key points of these colleges are given below.

BITS Hyderabad:

• The institute focuses on practical knowledge and updates its curriculum from time to time to make the best out of it.

• Presently, BITS Hyderabad is having an expansion phase and plans to add a built-up area of almost 50% of the present area.

• Furthermore, it already has 65 research projects that are ongoing in the campus, most of which are supported by the prominent funding agencies from across India and abroad.

NIT Surathkal:

• It is an Institute of National Importance. Situated in Mangalore, this institution offers numerous PG and UG programs in various fields of science, engineering, and management.

• It consists of 11 support centers and 14 academic departments.

• NITK Surathkal was previously ranked 6th amongst the country's top engineering colleges by Outlook India, 16th by India Today, and 14th by The Week.

So coming to the question if the intention is to explore college life at fullest without having any financial constraints and want a good industrial exposure then BITS Hyderabad would be a better option. On the other hand, if one wants a campus that has an equal reputation and almost a quarter in fee structure then NIT Surathkal would be the better option.