I will try to give an unbiased comparisons between both these great institutes, because I have been through that phase when one has to make a decision and trust me it’s tough.
- Campus: VIT>RIT
No comparison at all, VIT hands down. I still miss those greenery and long beautiful walks from hostel to Academic buildings. Ramaiah as a whole(including medical, Pu college, school) is huge but RIT is comparatively small, if you wish to have a good look and campus feel you need to go near Ramaiah hospital which is besides RIT.
- Fees structure:
Vellore institute follows a system where your annual fees depends upon the round in which your seat is alloted. Approximately, 1st round: 2 lakhs, 2nd round: 3 lakhs, 3rd round: 3.75 lakhs and so on.
Ramaiah takes admission in 3 ways, KCET (60k per annum and only home state people are given admission), ComedK(2 lakhs per year, all india level) and management quota (approx 25+ lakhs for 4 years for CSE, ISE, ECE. Lesser for other branches, it’s not official data only rumours).
All this is excluding the hostel fees and mess fees, which is about 70k to 1.5 lakhs in both the colleges.
- Hostel life: VIT>RIT
In RIT, I am a days scholar but I have heard from few of my friends that food isn’t that great(edit: recently there has been some changes and the quality of food had been increased). Hostels for freshers is good and well ventilated. Most of the hostels for 3rd sem onwards are old and not well furnished(there are a few good ones and getting those depends upon your CGPA). There are a few hostels outside the campus but managed by the college itself, they are a bit expensive but are well maintained (mess remains the same tho).
In VIT, food was good and it has 20+ hostels inside the compus. Hostel allotment is based on your CGPA but you can choose your choice of mess (there are multiple mess and you could also change mess once in a month).
- Faculties: RIT>VIT
In Information science department atleast, most of my faculties are very friendly, supportive and very much approachable. Some of they even encourage us to go for hackathons, extra curriculars, etc.
Personally, I didn’t get the same vibe from teachers at Vellore (although I had only a few of them and I might be wrong).
- Facilities: VIT>RIT
Due to the virtue of having huge strength, VIT has a lot of clubs, you name it and it’s there. Be it coding, robotics, drama, theatre, etc and sometimes there are multiple clubs in the same field too.
RIT does have a lot of extra curricular clubs too but it’s limited to one club in most departments.
VIT has very good sports facilities inside hostels and inspite of that you hardly see an empty basketball court or a volleyball field(due to population). Here, we have 1 basketball court, 1 badminton court, 1 tennis court and a football field (a km away from the campus).
- Academics: VIT~RIT
Both are two of the best colleges in South India. Faculty good to bad ratio would probably be the same. VIT has a small edge with FFCS system, where you can choose your teachers but again that comes down to luck because you should be fast enough and have excellent internet connection.
(A reader pointed out: getting good teachers in ffcs is determined by your class attendance and cgpa and students subdivided into timed slots and not always good internet speeds.)
In VIT, it’s relatively grading but it’s absolute grading at RIT. So obviously it’s difficult to score good CGPA in VIT when compared.
- Competition: VIT>RIT
VIT has way too much strength, more than 2000 people in CSE and IT alone where as the same in 300 odd in RIT. For anything you wish to do, there will be a lot more competition in VIT.
In RIT, there is a better chance to express yourself and at least your department teachers will be able to recognise you. For example, if you wish to get into the college football team it’s lot easier at RIT than VIT.
- Outside campus life: RIT>>VIT
Staying in Bangalore has its perks. Vellore is a big town but clearly Bangalore wins in this aspect. Outside RIT, there are many restaurants where you can get great food and place to hangout. You can go for competitions in different colleges and have tons of places to visit in Bangalore. There is a large probability that you might end up getting a job in Bangalore, so you could have a lot of time adjusting to the culture here if you join RIT.
- Placements: RIT~VIT
Bangalore being the IT hub of India and RIT being one among the top 4 colleges here attracts a lot of companies. VIT welcomes more companies but they also have more strength. If you in CSE or IS(or IT) in any of the colleges and work a bit hard then you can have a good job at the end of 4 years.
- Leniency: RIT>VIT
VIT, opposite to public opinion, has many strict rules related to unethical things. From attendance by biometric, ID card everywhere, huge punishments if you don’t follow rules, etc. Over-all VIT is more strict than RIT.