Post GATE document/scrutiny stuff for COAP

Question

Generally the timeline of GATE is like

1. GATE exam finishes by first week of Feb
2. Result by Mid march.
3. COAP starts by end March or first week April. 
4. College Forms closing dates around mid April
5. COAP first round around Mid may
6. Report for Doc verification/admission around first week of July.

This blog is not about deciding which college form to fill and all but I will be providing a list of popular worthy courses to apply in top institutes.
This blog will be on different documents/scrutiny related issues faced by many. 

Docs asked by different institutes : 

1. Photo and Signature (Compressed)
2. X, XII mark sheets/passing certificates
3. DOB Proof : X marksheet / Birth certificate
4. Nationality Proof : Voter Card / Passport /Birth certificate
5. Aadhar Card
6. Caste Certificate : OBC/SC/ST
7. UG Degree and semester marksheets
8. GATE Scorecards (Some asked for all scorecards including previous year’s)
9. Other details institute specific: 

Some have also asked for

1. Resume (IITH )
2. Bank account details (IITG)
3. UG Thesis details (IITD, IISc)
4. Semester wise CGPA details (IITK,IITD)
5. Medical certificate (BHU)
6. Migration (ISM)
7. CGPA to Percentage Conversion Certificate (mostly available on UG college website)

As soon as the exam finishes you should get started preparing for documents. 

1. Apply for Passport/ Voter Card if you don't have (e-Epic was not accepted)
2. Apply for OBC/EWS after 1 March if you don’t have a year old OBC/EWS
3. Apply for College Transcript, Character Certificate and Migration (if they are not costly)

Tools you can use:

1. Image Compression (offline 10MB) Riot: https://riot-optimizer.com/ 
2. Pdf related tasks (both online/offline 300MB) pdf24: https://tools.pdf24.org/en/

Application Fee : 

1. Each institute has a different fee. 
2. You may have to fill multiple forms for the same institute. Like in IITD,IITH you have to fill different forms for CS and AI. 
3. Application Fees vary a lot like IITD-200 , IITR/B- 300 ,IITK/H/KGP - 500 ,IITM/G - 600, IISc/Indore -800, Patna - 1000. 
4. For a Gen Male candidate applying only to top7 IITs + BHU,Hyd,IISc will cost around 8k.

B Tech Degree/Consolidated Mark sheet :

1. First of all make sure your UG degree is eligible for the MTech course you are applying for otherwise it will just be a waste of money.
2. If you have not yet received the degree, Check FAQ of all the institutes you are applying to.
3. Either get a transcript issued from your college or you should just make a pdf comprising your Btech Degree+All semester mark sheets.Compress and use it everywhere.
4. You need to make sure that there are college officials signatures/stamps on degree and semester marksheets.There were some students who got a scrutiny message for re-uploading because of no signature/stamp of college officials on the semester marksheets.

OBC/EWS certificate and format :

1. OBC and EWS certificates should be of central level instead of state level.
2. Some institutes asked for OBC/EWS issued after 1 April 2023 but there were some that asked for OBC/EWS issued after 1 April 2024.
3. If you were not having OBC, you can still upload an undertaking during the form filling. But they will contact you very soon to upload your new OBC certificate.
4. For EWS they were very strict about the issue date so you should mail and ask.
5. Each institute has provided a format for OBC certificates. It is not written anywhere like it is mandatory to have OBC in that format but it is advisable to get your obc signed in that format(it just takes 5 min in SDM office to get it signed).
6. Make sure you mention your original OBC certificate no in that format and make a combined pdf of OBC in format + Original OBC and submit that pdf.
   Some OBC were rejected in ISM as they didn't enclose their original obc in the submitted pdf.

Undertakings : 

1. For those who don't know what Undertaking is. It is something that you upload if you don't have that document.
2. In most cases you will find undertakings in the Info Brochure or Application portals. Also it is not mandatory to use only that undertaking. You can use any till the institute name is not mentioned in undertaking. Like the IISc undertaking for OBC/EWS was generic so you can use it anywhere. You must avoid uploading a undertaking specifically mentioning some IIT to another IIT.
3. Do not try to edit the pdf and paste your signature. Get a printout, manually sign it.

Some common scrutiny errors are :

1. Document is not readable.
2. Some issue with the signature dimensions.
3. Uploaded OBC/EWS are not of Central level
4. You forgot to write/select the resolution no in OBC certificate
5. Your UG degree is not eligible for the MTech program you are applying
6. Upload scorecards of all years in a single pdf
7. Aadhar/PAN are not a nationality proof. Upload Birth certificate or Voting Card or Passport.
8. UG degree/ semester grade cards are not having any signature/stamp of  institute officials.
9. COAP number or GATE Registration no entered is invalid

Previous year trends

1. Like Jossa here you will not get any official date for opening closing ranks. Since you have a lot of time, go through all institute websites for any data available.
2. Not all colleges provide their MTech placement details
3. Not all colleges provide their MTech seat matrix
4. If anyone provides some kind of data, only believe it if it is from official sources not from some YT channel or coaching.
5. Go through previous COAP data collected by students/mentors.
6. You need to check each institutes webstite to know whether they will take admissions directly or will conduct test/interview.

List of must apply Mtech courses wrt GATE CS paper:  

1. IISc CSA
2. IISc AI
3. IISc CDS
4. IITM CS
5. IITD CS
6. IITD Minds (Yardi ScAI)
7. IITB CS
8. IITK CS
9. IITKGP CS
10. IITKGP AI
11. IIT Roorkee CS
12. IIT Roorkee AI (Mehta School)
13. IIT Roorkee Data Science (Mehta School)
14. IIT Guwhati CS
15. IIT Guwhati Data Science
16. IIT Guwhati Robotics and AI
17. IIT Hyderabad CS
18. IIT Hyderabad NIS
19. IIT Hyderabad AI
20. IIT BHU CS
21. IIT Jodhpur CS
22. IIT Jodhpur AI
23.  

Info related to Institutes :

1. Most tests and interviews will be held in the last two weeks before COAP Round 1. And yes the dates of interviews may clash with each other and you can't do anything about it.Choose wisely which to give.
2. IIT BHU will call for Document verification even before the start of COAP Round 1.
3. Some institutes may conduct their own test online (like IIT Jammu on google forms.) and some offline too( IISC AI, IITD Minds).
4. IITD took same common test of 3 hrs for MS, Phd and MTech for Minds.

Everyone should go through the COAP brochure and college admission brochure at least once. Do not just rely/wait for some YT videos.

 

Comments

Hey man, this is an incredibly useful post. Can't thank you enough for taking the time to put it in a structured format and post it for everyone. All the best to you!