Both Mechanical and metallurgical engineering at Thapar and PEC Chandigarh have their own pros and cons. Let's list them out to opt for the best college for you. 

PEC Chandigarh:

• PEC Chandigarh has a better brand name compared to Thapar University. But Thapar is surely not far behind.
• PEC has an amazing culture that prepares its students for future career challenges.
• One can prepare well for their further MBA, Mtech, or MS entrance exams while being at PEC Chandigarh.
• Being a government college, PEC is doing a great job in its placement department. There was a 28% hike in their placement record in 2020 despite the pandemic situation.

Thapar University:

• Thapar has an amazing placement record and coding culture.
• As a brand name, it's growing up to the heights of PEC.
• If you opt for metallurgical science, you will limit yourself to few core companies or steel and other manufacturing firms.

Unless you are into metallurgical sciences it's better to opt for mechanical engineering as you can even jump into both technical and non-technical firms. 

Quick comparison:

Out of the above two, ME at PEC seems like a better option. PEC being a government institute has half the tuition fee of Thapar University which saves you a lot. If you plan on an MBA further, it's better to opt the best out of two and start preparing from the first year of your college itself.

Indian Institute of Technology's (IIT) is among the top Institutions of India. The admissions in all these Institutes are done through national level examinations.

Ranking

• IIT Bombay has secured 4th position in Overall category and third position in 'Engineering' category by NIRF in 2020
• IIT Bhubaneswar is ranked 11th among the IITs and 22nd among the engineering colleges by NIRF in 2020. 
• IIT Indore ranked 10th in the engineering category by NIRF in 2020.
• IIT Gandhinagar ranked 24th in the engineering category by NIRF in 2020.

Admission:

Metallurgy Engineering at IIT Bombay

• The candidate should have passed 10+2 with the Science stream
• The candidate should have scored at least 75%
• The selection of the candidate is based on JEE Main and JEE Advanced

Electrical Engineering:

• The process for admission is the same for all the IITs. It is a four-year degree program.
• Admission in these Institutes are based on their scores in JEE Main and advanced followed by JoSAA counseling.
• Students need a 75% or above aggregate in their 10+2 exams in the science stream.
• Candidate appearing for the final examination can also apply.

Placements:

IIT Bombay:

• The Metallurgy course has a placement rate of almost 80 to 85 percent. 
• It has received placement offers from more than 265 companies.
• The highest salary of the institution is INR 1.16 CPA while the average salary is INR 20.14 LPA according to the placement statistics.
• Top recruiters of the metallurgy course are Micron, JSW, and many more.

The Electrical Engineering course has a placement rate of almost 80 to 85 percent in these IITs. 

• Every year more than 100 companies visit IITs for placement.
• Average CTC offered of IIT Bhubaneswar, IIT Indore, and IIT Gandhinagar range between INR 12 LPA to INR 16 LPA
• Some of the top recruiters of these IITs are HPCL, Microsoft, Amazon, CodeNation, and many more.

Choose the course and institution that best suits you based on your interests and preferences and for Electrical Engineering your preference should IIT Indore first than IIT Bhubaneswar and IIT Gandhinagar.

IIT BHU is the oldest institute in India to introduce Metallurgical Engineering. All the top metallurgy departments across India have a connection with IIT BHU. The main focus of the IIT BHU Metallurgical Department is on Alloy Development and Extractive Metallurgy. All the research equipment are well maintained and up to date.

The faculty members always solve the doubts of students regardless of their areas of interest. Many professors here are famous in their respective areas of research and teaching. Their research papers have been published in various journals across the world. Since the department is very old, it has a vast network of alumni. The young researchers can always seek guidance from them. After the conversion of IT BHU to IIT BHU, students get a lot of opportunities to attend conferences, guest lectures, and seminars to stay updated.

If you want to do research in polymers or ceramics, then it is better to join some other department or institute. But if you want to research on Alloy Development and Extractive Metallurgy, then you can go for IIT BHU. The research culture here is quite active and one can get a good research environment and supportive colleagues here.

Metallurgical Engineering at IIT BHU is the first and largest in Asia. The department offers bachelors, masters, and doctoral degree programs. The eligibility criteria for pursuing a B.Tech in metallurgical engineering are at least 75% in 10+2 with JEE advanced and the course fee is INR 2.28 LPA for first-year. In 2019 the JEE Advanced closing cutoff rank at IIT BHU was 6026.

The department has a dedicated group of highly qualified faculty who are well-experienced in their respective fields and most of the faculty members are actively engaged in various research and consultancy projects. The department has 13 labs and a workshop well-equipped with state-of-art instrumentation.

IIT BHU has an excellent placement record for almost all departments. In 2019, 71% of the students got placements in many MNCs. For metallurgical engineering 44 students got placement offers out of 47 students who registered. The average package for metallurgical engineering was around INR 9 LPA. The top recruiters were Microsoft, Uber, Oracle, Flipkart, etc. Many students also receive internship offers in international institutions like Harvard University, Yale University, University of Tokyo, etc.

Both the branches are totally different from each other so first decide what you want to study for the next 4 years. Both the IITs are new and there is not much difference in them. Metallurgy is a sub-branch of mechanical and civil is a core branch. Civil engineering has better job opportunities if you compare it to metallurgy engineering.

The average package at IIT Indore for the year 2019 was 16.05 LPA and at IIT Bhubaneswar it was 11.44 LPA. If you want to get a job in the core-sector then it would be a bit difficult because both the branches have very low placements in the core sector. Students usually go for higher studies and others for non core placements. Civil engineering will give you a better opportunity if you want to go for higher studies.

The suggestion will be that you should focus on what branch you are more passionate about and choose that. Don’t go compare colleges, both are IITs therefore are equally good and offer similar facilities.

The department of metallurgy is one of the best departments at IIT Bhubaneswar. After the CSE department, the metallurgical department got 90% placement from IIT Bhubaneswar in 2019. The metallurgy is the only department in which the 2nd year students get internships. IIT Bhubaneswar also signed MoU with Shanghai Jiao Tong University exclusively for metallurgical students. As Odisha is blessed with minerals there is an abundance of field trips. The institute has experienced professors in the department in their respective background and currently, the faculty members are engaged in various research projects sponsored by Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of Orisha, and also few consultancy projects for companies like Tata Steel Limited, Tata International Limited, etc.

The department of metallurgy at IIT Bhubaneswar has well-furnished laboratories equipped with state-of-art instruments. The environment is also research-oriented. Further, many students have also gone abroad for further research.