I have a few friends from NITIE so I can give you some information regarding admission to the institute. It accepts GATE scores for PGDIE, PGDMM, and PDPM courses. They shortlist students for GD-PI based on their GATE scores. The required cutoff for GATE varies every year, due to many variables. Here are the cutoff trends for 2021.

The GD-PI round will have 60% weightage for your final selection and the remaining 40% will include your GATE score, academic records, and your work experience if you have any. 

Hence, the GATE cutoff for every branch in NITIE is the same but you will also have to perform very well in your GD/PI round to get admission. 

Both PGDIE and PGDIM are very good courses for a mechanical engineer, but the syllabus for both these courses is different. 

PGDIE

1. It is a flagship course of NITIE which is more focused on industrial engineering. To get admission to this course, you have to clear the GATE exam.
2. As a fresher, you can make up with most of the students in your branch but you might not be able to contribute as much as the students who have significant experience, especially in class discussions and group activities. 
3. But there won't be many problems during placements as there are many companies who are looking for fresh candidates to join their team, especially in the FMCG sector. 

PGDIM

1. It is a management course that is equivalent to an MBA course, and to get admission in this course, you have to clear the CAT exam.
2. As a fresher, if you take admission in this course, you would probably be in the minority as most of the students would have some kind of work experience. 
3. There will be certain projects which would need some kind of experience and here your other batch mates can be a step ahead of you. 
4. You will have to do a lot of reading and communicating with all your batch mates, professors to learn how a business works. 

Both the courses are very different from each other and now it depends on you in which field you are interested in. If you want to pursue a management course then go for PGDIM or if you want to be in the field of engineering, then you can choose PGDIE. 

There is no fixed age limit to pursue the program. My sister did her PGDIE at 26 and she is now working at Amazon with a great CTC. As long as you are passionate about your career it doesn’t matter what your age is. However, before taking any decision, there are some important questions which you should consider:

• Know your future goals (professionally and personally) and how this program would help you to achieve them.
• Know your aspirations and be well aware of the opportunities you would get after completing the program.
• Does the program you chose to be recognized in the market where you want to make your career, as NITIE offers many specialized courses?
• Make sure that the ROI is good.
• Be well prepared if you lose your job and make sure you know how to tackle that situation.

Check some important statistics of PGDM at NITIE:

Consider all the above points before selecting a particular course or college. NITIE is quite famous among recruiters. Their frequent participating companies include Amazon, Flipkart, GlaxoSmithKline, Abbott Healthcare, Amway, Google, Vodafone, Nestle, and many more.

NITIE Mumbai is ranked 12th for MBA by the 2020 NIRF Ranking and it is considered to be in the same league with IIMS, IITs, and IISc.

PGDIE at NITIE- The PGDIE program at NITIE has a total of 140 seats and the total course fee is around 12.53 lakhs.

• The admission to the program is through GATE. Students with a GATE score of above 600 are eligible for admission.
• Various reputed companies including Hindustan Unilever Ltd, Nestle, Cadbury, Amazon, TCS, HP, Johnson & Johnson Consumers offer internships and placements to students of NITIE Mumbai.
• The highest package is around 27.39 LPA and the average salary package is 16 LPA.

IITs- At reputed IITs, the course fee is around 1.5 lakhs-1.20 lakhs per semester. The highest salary package of the IIT students remains to be around 30 LPA-35 LPA and the average package seems to remain around 17 LPA.

NITIE is an autonomous body under MHRD and has a legacy of over 50 years. The institute has a huge alumni base working in top MNCs across the globe.

Whether you should join NITIE or IIT depends on your choice of career. If you want a career in management then you should choose NITIE Mumbai PGDIE over IIT. However, if you want to work in the Engineering industry then choose IIT.