Dear Vivek,

Congratulations for scoring 888 in GATE CS 2019. This a good score, and if used properly can fetch you good IITs or even IISc Bangalore. You have very good chances of getting into top NITs like Trichy, Wrangal etc.

So, for getting admissions and utilising the rank properly you need to understand few things here.

1. The top institutions:

Hands down, IISc Bangalore tops the list followed by IIT Bombay, Delhi, Kanpur, Madras, Kharagpur, Roorkee (not in any perticular order). Lets call this group 1.

Group 2 institutions : IIT Guwahati, Varanasi, Hyderabad, Dhanbad, IIIT Hyderabad, IIIT Bangalore, IIIT Delhi, BITS Pilani, Top NITs like Trichy, Warangal.

2. Higher Study Programs:

After qualifying GATE, there are basically three catogery of programs available.

• M.Tech
• M.S. by research (MS TA & RA)
• PhD

3. Type of programs:

• Program in core specialization in which GATE exam was given.
• Interdisciplinary Programs (Auronautical Engineering, Nano Technology, Bio Medical Engineering etc.)

Since your GATE rank is 888, the chances of getting core M.Techs in Group 1 institutions is almost zero. You can still fill up these in your top choices in COAPs.

But you can still apply for Teaching Assistantship and Research Assistantship prorgams, the cutoff for these are usually lower then M.Tech. The slight catch here is, you will be called up for a test and interview and the program is usually a 3 year program as compared to 2 year M.tech program. But the placements are equivalent to M.Tech placements and coursework is more research oriented as compared to M.Tech which more industry oriented. For this every IIT has different cutoff score, for IITB is you have something around 600+ you will definately get a call for written test. You have to check respective IITs websites for cutoff marks for different IITs.

In Group 2 institutions, chances of getting M.Tech in IITs is low to medium, it varies from year to year. For BITS Pilani, you can get admission into M.E. Software Systems and Computer Science directly based on your GATE score, but you have to apply seperately on it's website for admission. For NITs, you have good chances to get seat with this rank, same goes for IIIT Bangalore. For IIIT Hyderabad, you will have to appear for a interview based on your GATE score/IIIT Hyderabad admission test.

You can check the previous year GATE cutoff here:

https://engineering.careers360.com/articles/gate-cutoff-for-cse

In case if you are interested in interdisciplinary programs, through GATE CS, you can apply to different branches given below. This is a list for IIT Bombay, this is more or less the same for almost all the IITs, you have to check every IIT website for the same.

• Bio medical Engineering
  
• Energy Systems Engineering
  
• Geoinformatics and Natural Resource Engineering
  
• Industrial Engineering and Operations research
  
• Educations Technology
  
• Communications Engineering
  
• Control and Computing
  
• Electronic Systems
  

These are for 2 year M.Tech programs.

You can also apply for PhD programs, which usually lasts minimum 5 years, you will have to appear for interview and written test depending on department in which you apply for PhD.

Hope this helps.