MCA is a Post graduate degree course which is of 3 year long duration. MCA course is offered to students in most of the Universities and colleges in India. The students who want to pursue a career in the software field can take up MCA course after a graduation. The MCA course offers excellent job opportunity for talented students in software firms and also in Multinational companies with excellent salary.

Eligibility Criteria for MCA

The students who wish to join an MCA course is required to have a Bachelors degree in Computer science, information Science, IT etc from a recognized university. The candidates who pose a PGDCA from a reputed university or its equivalent course are also eligible for MCA.

The students who are applying for MCA must also have studied maths as a main subject in 10+2 level are only eligible. But some university offers students who haven’t studied math’s to join the course if they are willing to do an additional subject in the 1st semester of MCA.

Admission Procedure for MCA

Usually, as to join an MCA course students will have to take part in an entrance test. Some universities also go through a group discussion and interview process for the candidates who qualified in the entrance test. The selection of students in reputed colleges is purely based on the written test, interview and the group discussion. Universities carry out Entrance tests independently for the MCA course. The numbers of seats available in reputed universities are vey limited and so students will have to score exceptionally good marks in the selection process.

Top MCA Entrance exams in India

• All India MCA Common Entrance Test
• Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham MCA Entrance Exam
• Birla Institute of Technology Mesra MCA Entrance Exam
• Delhi University MCA Entrance Exam
• ICFAI School of Information Technology MCA Test
• IIT JAM - Indian Institute of Technology Joint Admission Test
• Integrated Common Entrance Test, Andhra
• Jammu University MCA Entrance Exam
• Jawaharlal Nehru University Entrance Exam
• Kerala Entrance Examinations for Admission to MCA
• Lucknow University Computer Science Admission Test Lucknow University Exam - LUCSAT
• Maharashtra MCA Common Entrance Test - MAH MCA CET
• National Institute of Technology MCA Common Entrance Test  - NIMCET
• Pune University MCA Entrance Exam
• Punjab Admission to MCA Common Aptitude Test - PAM CAT
• Rajasthan Master of Computer Application Admission Test - RMCAAT
• Thapar University of Engineering and Technology MCA Entrance Test - TIET
• Vellore Institute of Technology Entrance Examination - VIT MCA Entrance Exam
• West Bengal Joint Entrance Exam - WB JECA Exam

How to fill in MCA Entrance Application form

The various Application form along with prospectus can be get hold of in person from the office of the admissions of colleges. Some of the MCA Entrance Application forms are also available in the official websites. Candidates can either apply online or offline depending up on the type of entrance exam. The application fee of most of the MCA form will be in a range of Rs. 300/- to Rs.800/- which can be paid in the form of DD or through credit/debit cards in applying online.

Applicants will have to fill the application form very carefully and must provide correct information about age, gender, education background, contact information etc. It would be better to make a photocopy of the application form and fill the correct information in that first and then fill the actual copy to minimize the errors. Always make sure to paste the resent passport size photo in the application form.

MCA Entrance Exam Pattern:

The MCA entrance exam is purely based on math’s and reasoning ability. The questions will be entirely objective type. Even so, for the most part of the MCA entrance tests have objective questions, few universities mix up patterns of objective as well as descriptive short and long answer style questions.

The entrance test will be carried out normally within 2-3 hours. The questions will have equal weight age and also there will be negative marking for each wrong answer. The syllabus of the MCA entrance exams will consist of intellectual reasoning, English language and math’s of 10+2 standards.

Coaching Centers for MCA Entrance Exam

As to prepare extensively and systematically for the MCA entrance exam, students can seek the help of different coaching centers. These coaching centers offer students with good study materials and guide them all through the entire process of admission as to score high marks in the written test, group discussion and also in the personnel interview. Some of the very popular coaching centers which offer training for students in the MCA entrance exam are:-

• Ascent in Tamil Nadu
• Impetus Education Services Bhopal
• Trajectory Education, Delhi
• VPM Classes, Kota
• Career Launcher
• T.I.M.E
• Brilliant Tutorials

Reference Books for MCA Entrance Exam

• IGNOU OPENMENT Entrance Exam by V.V.K. Subburaj
• JNU MCA Entrance Exam Guide By RPH Editorial Board
• Mathematico for MCA Entrance Examination By Amit Choudhary Neelam Choudhary
• MCA Entrance Exam Guide By Rph Editorial Board
• MCA entrance examination book written by J.V. Subramanyam
• MCA Entrances By Amit M Agarwal
• S. Chand’S Guide for M. C. A. Entrance Examination
• TANCET MCA by V.V.K. Subburaj
• The Pearson Guide To MCA Entrance Examinations By Edgar Thorpe

Top 10 MCA Colleges in India

In India there are lots of Government institutions which put forward recognized MCA programs. The top 10 universities and institution offering the MCA course includes

• Pune University – requires 50% marks in Graduation.
• Delhi University – requires 50% marks in graduation along with one compulsory Maths paper and either one Statistics or Computer Science subject.
• J. N. U., New Delhi – requires 50% marks in Graduation.
• R.E.C. Trichy – requires 60% marks in graduation with Math or Statistics.
• MNNIT, Allahabad – requires a Bachelors degree in any subject along with Math at +2.
• B.H.U – requires 50% marks in graduation along with Math at +2 level.
• IIT Roorkee – requires 60% marks in B.Sc or B.C.A
• ICSE Indore – requires 50% in graduation and Maths at +2 level.
• V.J.T.I., Mumbai – requires 55% marks in graduation and Maths at +2 level.
• Jalgaon University – requires 50% in graduation with Maths at +2 level.

Other Reputed Colleges/ Universities offering MCA program:

Besides the top 10 colleges in the hierarchy, there are a range of additional institutes of standing which offer MCA course. A number of these colleges are mentioned below:

• Anna University
• BITS Mesra
• Cochin University
• GNDU Amritsar
• Goa University
• Gujarat MCA
• H.P.Shimla University
• Hyderabad Central University
• Indraprastha University
• Kurukshetra University
• Madurai Kamaraj University
• Mangalore University
• Nagpur University
• Pondicherry Central University
• PSG Coimbatore
• Punjab University
• REC Rourkela
• REC Surathkal
• REC Warangal
• RIT Jamshedpur
• Thapar Institute
• University of Rajasthan
• Vellore Engineering College

Course Structure of MCA course

The MCA course structure has all together 6 semesters. The 1st semester has more over all the common subjects which are the core basis of MCA course. From 2nd to 5th semester the core subjects and electives take up the entire lot. These subjects basically will provide the students an in depth knowledge about the subjects and will help to build expertise in few fields of personnel interest. The 6th semester is mostly devoted to the summer projects and evaluation and applying the acquired knowledge of the students in the professional field of information technology.

MCA Specializations

The MCA students are given an option to have specialization on any core area during the final semesters. Few of the MCA specialization includes,

• Application Software
• Hardware Technology
• Internet
• Management Information Systems (MIS)
• Networking
• Software Development
• Systems Development
• Systems Engineering
• Systems Management
• Troubleshooting

MCA Projects

During the last semester students are required to do a project which will test the knowledge of the students and the various type of possible application of the subjects. The MCA Projects can be developed on the basis of various computer understandable languages like C++, ASP.NET, JSP , PHP, MYSQL, Java , VB etc.

The C++ Project Ideas for MCA includes:-

• Bus reservation system
• Enterprise Resource Planning ( ERP)
• Handwritten Document Analysis using DIP
• Image Viewer and Editor
• Library Management System
• Matrix Calculator
• Media Player Classic
• Program with 3d array and logic to solve rubric cube.
• Proxy
• Student Information system

The Java Project Ideas for MCA includes:-

• An XML interface to the Java Object Library Toolkit (JOLT) Spreadsheet
• Day Planner
• Electronic voting System
• Home banking system
• Hospital Information System
• Library management System
• Online Web Conferencing
• Video Rental System
• Web-based Photo Album Viewer

The VB Projects Ideas for MCA includes:-

• E -Voting System
• Easy Web Browser
• Hotel Management System
• MetaSearch Engines
• Student Information System ( on demand)
• Voxx Speech Recognition project
• Web loan Calculator

MCA Course Evaluation

Each MCA subject will have a total mark of 100. The main evaluation criterions for each of the subject are the Assignment and the Term end exams. The students will have to submit the Assignments as and when the lectures ask them to and this will be added to their internal marking system. The students will also have to prepare for viva from these assignments. The term end examinations are carried out only once, which will be by the end of each semester.

According to the general system almost 75% of the marks will be devoted to the term End Exams and 25% of the marks will be from the assignments and viva. Both the scores are added up as to determine the final marks of the students. However, students will have to separately score more than 40% of marks in both the assignment and Term End exam in order to clear the exam. In the MCA, students will also have to prepare a Mini project during 4th semester and also a Final Project for during the 6th semester.

MCA Text Books

• Advanced Data Structures by Peter Brass
• An Introduction to GCC by Brian Gough, Richard Stallman
• Artificial Intelligence by Stuart Russel, Peter Norvig
• Artificial Intelligence II by David Marshall
• Computer and Network Security by Steve Zdancewic
• Computer Graphics, C Version by Donald Hearn, M Pauline Baker
• Computer Networks, by A.S .Tanenbaum
• Computer Organization and Architecture 6th Ed by William Stalling
• Cryptography and Network Security by Stallings
• Data Mining – Concepts and Techniques by Jiawei Han and Micheline Kamber
• Data Structures Through Yashwanth Kanithkar
• Handbook of Information Security Management by Micki Krause, Harold F. Tipton
• Industrial Strength Programming Techniques, C ++ by Bartosz Milewski
• Introductory Probability and Statistics by A. Kozak, C. Staudhammer, S.Watts
• Management Information System by O’brien
• Microsoft Visual C#  by Patrice Pelland
• Operating System Principles by Abraham Silberchatz, Peter B. Galvin, Greg Gagne
• Operations Research by Sharma, J.K
• Operations Research by Taha, H.A
• OS- Internals and Design Principles by W. Stallings
• Practical UML: A Hands-On Introduction for Developers by Randy Miller
• Professional C#/VB .NET Coding Guidelines by Steve Sartain
• Programming with the C++ by Steve Heller
• Software Engineering - A Roadmap by Anthony Finkelstein and Jeff Kramer
• Software Engineering by Ian Sommerville
• Software Testing Techniques by Boris Beizer

What to do after MCA?

Students who have successfully completed MCA can go for higher studies. Students with MCA can easily join M.Tech in Computer Science or M.Tech in Information Technology, if they qualify in the GATE exam. Another option is to do a PhD in Computer Science. Students can also go for an MS in various foreign Universities. There are also additional certification courses which MCA students can opt for, which will give them an added advantage in their career.

Job and Career options for MCA

Students with an MCA have plenty of jobs available with Software and IT companies in India as well as abroad. In reality, companies all over the world have been recruiting candidates with MCA qualification regularly. This itself is a huge acknowledgment to the eminence and value of course and its students.

An MCA graduate can easily enter in to a career as a junior programmer and rapidly climb up the ladder to become systems analysts or even a project leader. Given that, the course is furthermore designed towards the research part there is excellent scope for students for pursuing higher studies.

The application of MCA in various areas include banking sector, order processing in stock and share market, E-commerce, networking and communication, embedded technologies and many more. With an MCA degree a person can hold certain job titles which includes,

• Software Application Architect
• Software Consultant
• Software Developer
• Software Engineer
• Software Programmer
• Systems Analyst

Remuneration after MCA

As far as salary is concerned in IT industry there is no set standards. The salary offered to each student will vary and will depend up on various factors like the educational background, institution which the students have passed out and the level of the company. If the candidate have passed out from a renowned college then the possibility of receiving a high pay package is good. Some of the companies like ORACLE offer freshers a pay package of 25 to 30 K a month. The students must update them self in technology and also according to the company. If the candidate is proficient in ERP, embedded systems, DSP etc then the chance of receiving high salary is more.

At present an MCA fresher who get a job placement through campus will get around 15,000 -25,000 PM and others will get a starting salary from 8,000 - 15,000 PM. Candidates with more than 1 year of experience in the relevant field is worthy of getting a salary more than 20 to 30 k per month.

The salary for MCA candidates will also depend up on the designation they are holding. A Sr. Software Engineer or a Developer or Programmer is entitled to receive a salary ranging in between Rs. 427,293 - Rs 622,799 per year. A Software Engineer, Programmer or a Developer will easily get a salary from Rs 152,308 - Rs 427,293 a year. A Project Leader, IT will receive Rs 456,862 - Rs 885,107 according to the current market. A Quality Assurance Engineer can get a salary in between Rs 191,024 - Rs 508,682 and a Project Manager (IT) can get a whopping salary from Rs 623,270 - Rs 1,169,970 a year.