GATE 2026: Top Underrated Branches that can lead to High Paying Careers after MTech
Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering 2026 ( GATE )
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GATE Most Underrated Branches that lead to high-paying careers: Many students who are appearing for GATE exam always incline for popular streams like CS, EC, EE, CE, and ME. With 30 GATE papers, there are certain branches which are known to be hidden gems, which means that they can lead to high-paying careers. Want to know in depth? Read article below.
GATE 2026 most underrated branches that lead to high-paying careers: We all know that GATE is one of the most prestigious exam in India. However, out of 30 subjects, most aspirants move towards the popular streams like computer science, electronics, mechanical etc. While these branches have high scopes, but there are other branches out there that offer amazing job profiles, research options and lucrative salaries. So, in this article we have discussed about the most underarated GATE branches that lead to high-career paying opportunities.
GATE Most Underrated Branches that can lead to High-Paying Careers
Candidates can check below the most underrated GATE branches that have attractive career prospects and exciting research opportunities in the upcoming years.
GATE Instrumentation Engineering
Why is it underrated?
IIT Madras provides UG, PG, and doctoral courses. The courses include BTech, BTech-MTech (Dual Degree), BS-MS (Dual Degree), Integrated MA, MTech, MBA, MSc, MS by Research and PhD. IIT Madras has also started for an 8-week free online course on Data Science.
No, JEE exams are not mandatory for BSc admissions at IIT Madras. Candidates who wish to take admissions into the BSc course at IIT Madras must appear for IISER entrance examination. The admissions into IIT Madras BSc courses are decided on merit basis where, the scores obtained by candidates in the IISER entrance exam are taken into account to decide the admissions.
This branch is often overshadowed by GATE EE (electrical engineering). However, GATE IN is an indisciplinary field that blends the subjects and concepts of electronics, control systems and measurements.
GATE Instrumentation Engineering Career Scope and Opportunities -
Appearing and qualifying in GATE IN can get aspirants jobs in oil, gas, power plants, and in many manufacturing industries. Also, students can opt for PSU jobs with a GATE score above 700. If someone is willing to make a career in research, then they have great scope in automation, robotics, etc.
Emerging Fields in Instrumentation Engineering -
Here are some emerging fields that candidates can consider in instrumentation engineering -
- renewable energy, smart manufacturing, and biomedical instrumentation. Considering the GATE two paper combination facility, students can take the benefit and get into a global recognised career in the Green economy, sustainability goals, etc.
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IITs that offer GATE IN programmes
- IIT Kharagpur, offer MTech in instrumentation and integrated electronics with an average placement salary package of 43 LPA
- IIT Roorkee offers MTech in instrumentation and signal processing
GATE Instrumentation Engineering Cutoff
As per the last year GATE stats, GATE expected cutoff can be ranged between 23 to 25 (for the general category) and 17 to 20 (for the reserved category). Also, around 11935 candidates appeared for the GATE 2025 exam out of 14680 registered applicants in GATE IN.
GATE IN Average Salary Insights
- Aspirants can expect an average salary ranging from 6 to 43 LPA.
- IIT Kharagpur had the top package of 43 LPA, for firms like Yokogawa and Honeywell
Also read:
- How to get a job in FAANG companies through GATE: Check insights
- What is the salary of a GATE topper in a month?
- What is a good rank in GATE for IITs, NITs, and PSUs
GATE Environmental Science and Engineering (ES)
Why it's underrated?
GATE ES is quite new to field, however due to emerging debate on making a climate-conscious world, the course has several career opportunities. GATE ES is super underrated and hidden career prospects in higher studies and research.
GATE Environmental Science Career Scope and Opportunities
- Aspirants can get into government organisations like NHAI, ESG Firms, and MoEFC
- Candidates willing for research work roles can get into IITs, IISc, and NITs for research sectors in climate change, pollution control, and water management
- Also get into consultancy jobs with firms working in ESG (Environmental, Social, and Goverance) compilance
Emerging Fields in Environmental Science and Engineering
- Sustainable resource management, smart pollution control using AI, climate challenge, etc.
IITs that offer MTech programmes in GATE ES
Yes, the technology institute offers M.Tech in Computer Science & Engineering specialisation. Admission to the course is through GATE followed by COAP counselling. Candidates with a score as per the cutoff marks are selected for admission. Candidates with a BTech degree issued by a recognised university are eligible to take admission.
Yes, the institute offers a four-year integrated BTech-MTech course. The dual degree course is offered in only one specialisation, i.e., Bioengineering. Admission to this course is also done through JEE Advanced score, followed by JoSAA counselling. There are a total of 28 seats available for this course at IIT Mandi.
IIT (ISM), Dhanbad offers various undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral programmes. The courses provided by the institute include BTech, Dual degree (BTech-MTech), MTech, MSc MBA, MSc Tech, Post-Doctoral Fellowship (PDF), and PhD. under 18 departments. Also, for admissions to these courses, candidates need to clear the eligibility criteria. The entrance exams accepted for different courses include JEE Main + JEE Advanced + JoSAA Counselling, CAT GATE + COAP Counselling, IIT JAM + CCMN counselling, etc.
- IIT Delhi and IIT Bombay offer MTech in Environmental Science
GATE Environmental Science and Engineering Cutoff
- GATE cutoff ranges between 23-26 (for the general category) and 17-18 (for the reserved category), as per the last year
- 6631 candidates appeared for the GATE 2025 exam out of 9073
💸 GATE Environmental Science Engineering Salary Insights
- Salary typically range from 6 LPA to 16 LPA (depending on skills and experience)
GATE Engineering Sciences (XE)
Latest Updates: IIT Guwahati has introduced a new paper under GATE Engineering Sciences for GATE 2026, called Energy Science. The paper code is XE (I).
Why it is underrated?
Many aspirants neglect GATE XE thinking that it has no value due to its curriculum and paper combinations. However, GATE XE can be termed as a versatile subject with many career opportunities in ME, MTech, and research field.
GATE Engineering Sciences Career Scope and Opportunities
- Students can get into fields like materials science, nanotech and polymer technology which have high scopes in future.
- Many PSUs like DRDO and BARC offers careers in research and development.
- Students have also opportunity to get into research-based scholarships and higher education abroad (GATE accepted score universities)
GATE XE Emerging Fields
Aspirants can get into research and innovations in solar, thermal energy, industrial robotics, nanodevices, etc.
IITs that offer MTech in Engineering Science through GATE
- IIT Bombay, IISc Bangalore, IIT Madras, IIT Delhi, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Guwahati are some of them.
- Other institutions like NIT Trichy, Jadavpur University offer MTech in Engineering Sciences
GATE Engineering Sciences (XE) Cutoff Scores
Based on the last year stats and previous year trends, the GATE XE cutoff mostly ranges between 31 to 26 for general category and 23 to 24 for reserved category. Last year, 11156 candidates appeared the GATE exam out of 14937.
GATE Engineering Sciences Average Salary
- Entry-level salaries for GATE-qualified in XE can range from 4 to 8 LPA in public and private sectors depending on skills and experience.
- However, in PSUs, students can expect a salary range between 20 to 32 LPA (again, depending on skill set and experience) with perks and benefits.
| Here's a bonus tip: Qualifying GATE XE can be easier due to low compeition and with smart subject selection, students can lead to high-career paying jobs. |
Also read:
Why Choosing an Underrated Branch Might be a Smarter Decision in GATE 2026?
- Less Competition, Higher Ranks- Very less candidates appear for these GATE papers, thus there are high chances of getting a good rank in GATE exam
- Interesting Career Opportunities- These streams are quite niche, hence less crowd of students with more career options and opportunities
- Research-Focused Future- If you are interested in getting into research field, then these underrated GATE branches can be the best option for you
So, if you’re preparing for GATE 2026 or 2027, try exploring its benefits and career prospects.
Upasana Pradhan is an Mtech graduate in Electronics and Communication Engineering from DTU who specialises in curating postgraduate and undergraduate engineering entrance exam content, such as GATE, TS PGECET, KCET,
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Student Forum
Anything you would want to ask experts?Answered Yesterday
Candidates can check their offer status using their login ID and password obtained during COAP registration. GATE COAP offers will be displayed on given date and time only, where students have to confirm their choices.
I
Contributor-Level 7
Answered Yesterday
The COAP counselling is done online only. For registrations, students need to keep the following details ready-
- GATE application details
- Scores secured in GATE exam
- Mobile number and email address
P
Contributor-Level 7
Answered Yesterday
Candidates who have qualified GATE exam will be eligible for GATE COAP counselling. The counselling offer admission to IITs. The admission counselling registration is online and is done in multiple rounds depending on seat availability.
A
Contributor-Level 7
Answered a week ago
GATE CCMT counselling is expected to start in June/July. Students who have qualified in GATE exam 2026 and want to take admission in NITs and other engineering colleges must register and participate in CCMT. The dates will be updated here for each round.
B
Contributor-Level 7
Answered a week ago
GATE 2026 COAP counselling dates will be released in June/July after the announcement of results. Students who want to take admission in IITs must register through COAP for counselling.
T
Contributor-Level 7
Answered a week ago
GATE 2026 Electronics and Communication paper will be conducted on February 15 in the first shift. Students who have regsitered for EC paper must download their admit card on January 2.
H
Contributor-Level 7
Answered a week ago
IIT Guwahati will conduct GATE CSE exam on February 8, 2026 in two shifts. The CS1 will be held in first shift and CS2 in second shift. The exam timings can be checked below-
- CS1 paper - 9:30 am to 12:30 pm
- CS2 paper- 2:30 am to 5:30 pm
A
Contributor-Level 7
Answered a week ago
Students can check GATE exam dates on IIT GATE Guwahati website- gate2026.iitg.ac.in. The dates have been released for GATE admit card, branch-papers, and results. Dates for answer key and counselling will be made available soon.
S
Contributor-Level 7
Answered a week ago
The Panjab University accepts the GATE cutoff score for admission to the ME/ M.Tech courses. The GATE Cutoff 2023 ranged from 363 to 387 score for admission for the General category under the All India quota. The toughest and the easiest specialisation was M.E. in Electronics and Communication Engin
N
Contributor-Level 10
Answered a week ago
No, the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering examination takes place once a year. Every year, different IITs and IISc conduct exam on rotational basis. GATE is conducted online for three hours for 30 branch papers.
U
Contributor-Level 10
IIT Bombay is one of the top Engineering institute in the country. It is ranked by various bodies. National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) has ranked IIT Bombay, #3 in the "Engineering" category. BTech is the flagship programme of the institute. Moreover, the institute also offers MBA programme. IIT Bombay is also well-known for its Management course. It has secured #10 position in the NIRF 2024 rankings in the Management category.