It is really exciting that people are interested in thermodynamics and fluid mechanics. There are many other topics in chemical engineering that you will start loving when you start reading them. 

If you are genuinely interested in the subject then it will completely be your effort in approaching the professors to learn and to study more. 

There are not many professors in the department. Most of them are Ad-hoc teachers who will be teaching the subject. If you wish to go for higher studies, it will be your effort in asking the faculty to help you out. 

If you talk about the placement scenario, there are only a few core companies that visit the campus along with a lot of non-core companies. Overall, college life is good in the department of chemical engineering.

I have a few friends from NIT Calicut and they talk about how great the coding culture is on campus. Here is what I gathered from my conversation with them. 

• Of all the programming languages available, C is the one you will learn in your first year and most of your B.Tech journey will include it. This is the most basic programming language so if you are good at it, you will be able to get by easily.
• There are a few compulsory lab electives that include data structures and algorithms, assembly level programming, DBMS, Software Engineering, and many others. You will be able to explore these in different semesters.
• You should also choose electives according to your interests and what you plan to do in the future. You will be able to learn about tech and software from projects as well as programming in the electives.
• Many groups, clubs, and associations also conduct hackathons and coding competitions.
• If you are looking into competitive coding, you should interact with students who discuss problems from CodeChef, topcoder, Hackerank and Hackerearth.

You will be able to explore a lot in NIT Calicut if you are interested in Coding. 

Both the colleges are really good and come with their own tags. In one, you will have the NITian tag and the other will give you a BITS tag. In the end, you will have to make a choice between the branch and which one you like more.

If you are interested in coding and electronics, ECE will be a good fit for you. If you are good with fluid mechanics, thermodynamics and like hands-on work with machines, mechanical is another really good option.

With ECE, you will probably end up working in core firms that are IT-based. You should figure out what kind of life you are looking for and what field you want to study. 

According to the rules laid down by the college, you will not be allowed to get a laptop for the first year of your college but many bring laptops anyway. It will help you with your presentations, assignments as well as design. Your work will become quite simple and effective.

You can also use it for recreational purposes like watching movies, shows, and series. Over the weeks, the rule is relaxed pretty much and students will start getting their laptops to class over the second semester.

From the second year, the restriction will go away entirely. Although having a laptop in the first year is against the rules and regulations of the hostel, they don’t usually object if you bring one. 

One of my friends is in his last year and hasn’t experienced anything related to ragging. Although there might be some fun interaction with the seniors but no extremities that hurt.

Here are some insights of NIT Calicut in the context of ragging.

Dress code ragging

• Although earlier you needed to be careful about wearing fancy clothes and accessories, now it's not a thing. 
• You can wear anything while being careful about your belongings which is common in every college.

Physical abuse

• In the past incidents of beating up were heard but now due to proper affidavit and law enforcement, you won’t face anything like that. 
• If you are a fresher you might be asked to dance or do sit ups, etc. 
• Sometimes the seniors will tell you to address them as Sir’s and Maam’s.
• However, if you see anything is going out of hand, a complaint can be lodged anytime and strict action will be taken.

Academic performance

• Sometimes you will find seniors asking you to do their assignments, bunk classes, or not to take any part in any club activities, etc. 
• On the contrary, you can also find seniors who do not let you go out of track and prepare you for the upcoming workload.

My friend has done assignments and called his seniors sir but nothing more than that. Nobody is forced to do anything if somebody does then he will be subjected to strict punishments as mentioned above. Even the assignment thing doesn’t last for long as there have been many instances where teachers could identify the handwriting and many students have been caught in this act. So, you can relax as there are no chances for extreme ragging or bullying of any kind.

This will entirely depend on your interest as you are comparing two different colleges and two different branches. If you are interested in one particular branch, don’t decide between the two colleges as they are both NITs.

You should first see where your interest lies and choose an option accordingly. If you are not sure, I will suggest you take CS in NIT Patna which is the better option. Here are the recent placement highlights for NIT Patna. 

Regarding civil engineering, let me tell you that even if you land up at an NIT, you will have to prepare for GATE or ESE exams since the placement scenario is not that great.

With civil engineering, you will have to do a lot of hard work but with CSE, you will be able to enjoy college life and get good placements at the end of your degree unlike civil. 

In the end, it boils down to your interests and what you are looking for.