At the end, I was faced with the decision of Mechanical in NITK, CSE in Manipal, IT in VIT, Manufacturing in BITS Pilani or taking a drop.
I was pretty tired of solving endless objective questions. And I was a year behind my peers anyway, being born in 98. So that ruled out the drop option.
Yes NITK is a great college but I feel that the branch is more important. So I went with Manipal and now, after an year, I feel that its one of the best decisions I made at that stage.