I completely agree with you.
But I very well know that fact that Manipal is definitely one of the better engineering college of the country.
I am choosing Manipal CS after dropping many NITs. I wasn’t getting CS in top NITs like Trichy, Surathkal and Warangal but was getting CS in other NITs like Jaipur, Surat etc. So, I compared the placement and alumni of both the colleges. I used various sources like facebook, linkedin etc. to search for them and there is no denying that MIT, Manipal’s alumni are at the same level as those of several NITs or BITS Hyderabad or even some new IITs. I was also more inclined towards MIT because NITs have many reserved students and to be honest I would never prefer such people to have as peers who have very easily made their way to the college. For this reason only I didn’t even give VITs entrance test.
But yes, people’s response hasn’t been favorable towards my decision. It is a typical Indian mindset. A random person only knows about IITs, NITs etc. and thinks that every other college is waste. So, I think one should immediately ignore such people and not let those people degrade your morale.
And I have taken this decision to join Manipal (leaving NITs) after a lot of research. I am confident that my decision will yield me a fruitful result.
(PS: Fees isn’t a problem for me, if you are short on money, NITs are always better.)