BITS Pilani
Pilani, Rajasthan, India — www.bits-pilani.ac.in
- QS Ranking
- #481
- Founded
- 1964
- Type
- Private Deemed University
- Students
- 15,000+
- Acceptance Rate
- ~2% (BITSAT — BITS Admission Test, India's most selective private engineering entrance)
- Founded
- 1964 (Birla Trust from 1929) — G.D. Birla and Gandhi's educational vision
- QS Rank
- #481 (2025) — India's top private engineering university
- Flipkart
- Sachin and Binny Bansal (Flipkart founders) — India's #1 e-commerce origin story
- Practice School
- Mandatory industry semesters since 1968 — India's original 'experiential learning' program
Overview
Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) Pilani, established as a degree-granting institution in 1964 (the Pilani campus was a Birla educational trust from 1929) by G.D. Birla (one of India's greatest industrialists and a close associate of Mahatma Gandhi — the Birla House in New Delhi, where Gandhi was assassinated, was the Birla family's home), is India's premier private engineering university and ranked #481 in QS 2025. BITS Pilani is India's equivalent of MIT in the private sector: admission through BITSAT (BITS Admission Test) is among India's most competitive engineering entrances (second only to JEE Advanced), and BITS graduates are disproportionately represented in Silicon Valley, global finance, and India's startup ecosystem. BITS Pilani's distinctive features: the unique 'Practice School' system (students mandatorily work in industry for two full semesters — a system that predates modern internship requirements and is among the world's most comprehensive mandatory work-integrated learning programs), the flexible dual degree system (students can combine any two programs), and the location in Pilani (a small Rajasthani town in the Shekhawati region — famous for its extraordinary painted havelis, the frescoed townhouses of merchants who made fortunes in Calcutta during British rule) create an academic culture unlike any other Indian university.
Admission Process
Indian citizens: BITSAT (online test — physics, chemistry, math + English and logical reasoning). International students (BITS Dubai campus): direct application (bits-dubai.ac.in). BITS Pilani does not accept JEE/GATE scores — only BITSAT. Dual degree applications are part of the same admission process. Deadline: May–June for BITSAT; BITS Dubai rolling.
Programs at BITS Pilani
- MSc Computer Science (Master's) — 5,000 USD/year
- Master of Business Administration (Master's) — 8,000 USD/year
- MSc Data Science & AI (Master's) — 12,000 USD/year
- Bachelor of Engineering (Computer Engineering) (Bachelor's) — 18,000 USD/year
- Master of Science in Engineering (Master's) — 5,000 USD/year
- PhD in Natural Sciences (PhD) — 8,000 USD/year
- BSc Computer Science (Bachelor's) — 3,000 USD/year
- BSc Business Administration (Bachelor's) — 5,000 USD/year
- BSc Economics (Bachelor's) — 8,000 USD/year
- BA International Relations (Bachelor's) — 12,000 USD/year
- BSc Mechanical Engineering (Bachelor's) — 18,000 USD/year
- BSc Civil Engineering (Bachelor's) — 3,000 USD/year
- BSc Electrical Engineering (Bachelor's) — 5,000 USD/year
- MBA Healthcare Management (MBA) — 1,113,220 INR/year
- MSc Human Resource Management (Master's) — 719,381 INR/year