My brother has graduated from NIT Surathkal in 2018 and completed his BTech in Information Technology. According to his experience, the department had helpful and brilliant students, although the faculty was a mixture of average and good professors. The CSE and IT departments are the most sought after and have an average placement rate of 90%-100%, so here are some more facts regarding the same-

• The faculty is not that good due to two factors, firstly because it is not as dedicated to research as are those in IITs. For instance, IIT Bombay is excellent in research initiatives.
• Secondly, the department requires 15-20 full-time faculty members, but currently, there are about 10-12 assistant professors on an ad-hoc basis, some of them do not even possess a Ph.D.
• Lastly, the teachers are not very adept at communicating better. Some seniors had been much more helpful in the understanding of concepts by students.
• However, the department is free of petty politics unlike the CSE department, where there's a bit of tiff between the teachers and students.

The following table shows the placement data for IT at NIT Surathkal-

The good point about the IT Department is that it has an excellent placement rate only second to CSE. Scoring good marks also is not an issue if you're able to rote learn for subjects like Data Structures, also if it could be taught using Introduction to Algorithms, then it'll be easy for students.

Considering this question, the first thing that can be highlighted is that both of these institutes cannot be compared at all. However, studying IT in IIIT Allahabad is far better as it offers several opportunities, as well as institutional environment and infrastructure to assist the student in their career growth appropriately.

However, CSE at Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) is not so secure considering the programming prospects and study culture that the student will get at IIITA. This choice is easy enough for the student to make as per their career perspectives. 

The following table gives a brief overview of these two institutes:

Thus, considering the above facts, it can be stated that between these two institutes, the student must go for IIIT Allahabad, as VIT can’t be compared at all.

Yes, IIIT Lucknow has a better package for CS and IT students than IIIT Allahabad and IIIT H. However, it will not give you a guarantee that you will get placed after completing your studies from IIIT Lucknow.

The following table will show you the placement record of IIIT Lucknow.

IIIT Lucknow has been established over many years, and is one of the oldest campuses of IITs. The Lucknow campus is from one of the top 5 campuses of IIT and probably the best one. It grew fast as compared to any other institutes 

The average salary offered to IIIT Lucknow students is INR 18.42 LPA, while the highest package goes to INR 43 LPA. The Median package is INR 15 LPA, and the minimum package offered is INR 10 LPA.

Seeing the current scenario, in future also, IIIT Lucknow will give good placement to its students. 

Therefore, if you are thinking of joining IIIT Lucknow then go for it. Because apart from having similar faculty to other top institutes, IIIT - L provides students to improve their technical and soft skills. And that improves the chance of their placement.

According to the 2021 WBJEE cutoff, the required cutoff for CSE at Heritage Institute of Technology is 3434 (general). So, it will be difficult to get admission in CSE with your rank. As an alternative, you can go for IT at Heritage. It offers similar career prospects as the CSE branch. 

With 4.5k rank, you can also try for KGEC EE/JGEC CSE/GCECT CSE/GCELT CSE/IEM IT/ GCETTS CSE.

At this rank in case, if you are getting a Govt. college don’t go for it as there is a very low chance of placements.

My younger sister has enrolled in the CSE program at NIT and it has excellent facilities for the program. The brand name of NIT and IIT is still more popular for some of the engineering aspirants because they lack awareness. Even my sister thought so before admissions, but NIT ranks #16 on the NIRF Engineering scale, IIIT A ranks #103, and IITs are usually in the top 5 in the same. 

Furthermore, your decision may change based on the following-

• The location of IIIT Allahabad is a factor contributing to its low popularity. It is located in a small village area called Jhalwa. There are no recreational facilities around and the only eating outlets are MacDonald's and Dominoes, which harm in the long run.
• The placement statistics of IIIT A show that it has a good 96% placement rate, but not many top companies come to visit because of the location. Networking is not an issue, but an institute in a developed area would have easy accessibility, lectures by renowned faculty, spots of refreshment; which are not present here.
• The hostels are not very good and those who reside in them, face difficulties related to social outings.
• Another fact of importance is that this institute has only two departments: Information Technology and Electronics and Communication.

You can see below, the comparatives of the institutes:

As you may see, IIIT A and NITs have excellent placement rates. The faculty will be more brilliant at IITs but students are dissatisfied even there. So you can see for yourself according to location, placement scenario, and brand name if that matters.

A semester-wise view of the syllabus is discussed below. 

Semester-1: 

This is the general semester, where you have to study subjects like Physics, Chemistry, Engineering Drawing, Computer Programming language, etc along with labs and tutorials.

Semester-2:

In this semester you study advanced versions of subjects like Physics, Maths, Chemistry, Ecology, etc along with labs and tutorials.

Semester-3:

• By the 3rd semester, you get into the department and then you get to study your branch-related subjects.
• In this semester the courses are Data Structures, Discrete Mathematics, Electronics Signal Processing, and other IT-related subjects.

Semester-4: 

• As the 3rd and 4th semesters are crucial, you are taught major stream subjects in-depth such as Algorithms, Graphs and Combinatorics, Automata Theory and Computer Organization, etc.
• There will be labs and tutorials related to the courses in the 4th semester.

Semester-5:

Here you learn important courses like Operating Systems, Computer Networking, Cryptography, and Object-oriented modeling, and computer graphics.

Semester-6:

• In this semester courses such as, Database management, scientific computing, multimedia technology, Software engineering, etc are provided to the students.
• Also by the end of the 6th sem, you are allotted the mini-project.

Semester-7: 

• In this Sem, you get to opt for electives.1 open elective and 1 professional elective choice. And other subjects like Digital Image processing, Professional Ethics, Service-oriented software Engg are taught.
• These subjects are very easy and quite scoring. But you will need to work a lot on the project. 

Semester-8:

• In this semester, the department offers 1 open elective and 2 professional electives
• Apart from these, the courses are Privacy-preserving Data publishing, Research Trends in IT.

You should start coding and learning the basics of programming languages on your own. This will help you get prepared for internships.

During your years in MNNIT, I would advise you to maintain good pointers and pay attention to coding and competitive programming. Score well in subjects and try to focus more on highlighted courses because companies ask questions from those courses. Also, make good projects.