Andhra Pradesh   

All the pluses of US, minus the cost

R. Ravikanth Reddy

The MSIT course is project-centred, with focus on real-life requirements

A Master's programme in the United States is prohibitively costly. But an equally quality degree earned in a similar academic environment is on the offer here at an astonishingly low cost. And the icing on the cake is the recognition granted to the course by the world-renowned Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), US.

The Master of Science in Information Technology (MSIT) being offered by the Consortium of Institutions of Higher Learning (CHIL) formed by the AP Universities in collaboration with the CMU has proved that American education environment can be successfully created in Indian institutions.

The success of the course in the last three years reflects in the 100 per cent placements the students got in premium IT companies.

"It has been specially designed to provide industry specialists who have hands-on experience, understand business needs, work patterns and deadline pressures of the corporate environment," says M. Gopi Krishna, Director, CHIL. The programme combines the strengths of sophisticated educational technologies and personalised mentoring with a focus on projects involving real-life requirements.

Since the content is designed by the CMU and experts from universities across the world, students can be assured of the quality of content.

Evaluation

The course follows a non-conventional teaching methodology. Students are evaluated based on the work done in the given tasks and there are theoretical examinations like the conventional courses. "MSIT offers a corporate work simulation, where all the courses require the students to work in teams. The main emphasis is on learning-by-doing," says Mr. Gopi Krishna. An important aspect of the curriculum is that it is project-centered. It focuses on projects that are inspired from corporate scenarios. The students work in teams and they are guided by expert mentors.

The tasks are developed by the mentors involving the students. Though teams complete tasks, mentors ensure smooth teamwork and interpersonal dynamics.

MSIT provides each student with an independent workspace and PC with high speed Internet connection for the entire duration of the course.

Where it is offered

The course is offered at the International Institute of Information Technology (80 seats), JNTU Hyderabad (100 seats), Osmania University (30 seats), Andhra University (30 seats) and Sri Venkateshwara University (30 seats). Students can seek admission in any university and the host university would give the degrees. Carnegie Mellon University gives a companion certificate recognising the content and the assistance it provides during the course.

The course is open to B.Tech or B.E graduates or those with a P.G. degree in Computer Science, Mathematics or Statistics. The Stage I of admission consists of Graduate Aptitude Test (GAT). There are two modes for taking the GAT entrance tests. Students can either avail one or both the modes of testing. However the best of the scores in all the attempts would be taken into consideration for final ranking.

Walk in

They can directly walk-in to the testing centre at the Eduquity Career Technologies Pvt Ltd at Myhome Sarovar Plaza, Secretariat road in Hyderabad on every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday from March 1 to May 17. It can be taken multiple times. But a time gap of 30 days should be there between any two successive attempts.

The fee for every attempt is Rs. 500. The regular entrance test will be conducted from May 22. Candidates can apply online also by logging into www.msitprogram.net

The next phase

Only those candidates qualifying in Stage I will be called for Stage II of the entrance tests consisting of Listening Comprehension and those qualifying it will be called for counselling the same day. Candidates qualifying in Stage I & II have to join the preparatory course of eight weeks duration. Only those clearing the preparatory course will be allowed to join the MSIT programme. The preparatory course consists of an IT workshop where students are required to assemble their own PCs, install hardware and software, troubleshoot their own PCs when required, programming primer and learn the basics of MS Office (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, HTML).

However, candidates with a GRE score of over 1,100 in Verbal and Quantitative sections and 3.5 and over in Analytical Writing or GATE score of over 90 percentile can apply directly for the Stage-II of the test. Those candidates with TOEFL score of above 213 would be exempted from taking the Listening Comprehension test in the stage II of the entrance test.

Details can be had on www.msitprogram.net and the last date for applying is May 15. Fee for the two-year course is Rs. 1 lakh per annum.

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