College of Engineering, Trivandrum

The institute admits students based on the following entrance exams.

Undergraduate programmes

• Kerala Engineering Entrance Examination, KEAM conducted by the Office of the Commissioner of Entrance Exams run by the Government of Kerala.[6]
• BTech Lateral Entry Examination, LET conducted by Joint Controller of Technical Examinations by the Government of Kerala.

Postgraduate programmes

• MTech Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) conducted by the Indian Institutes of Technology, IITs.[7]
• MCA Kerala MCA Entrance Examination, conducted by the LBS Centre for Science & Technology.[8]
• MBA Kerala Management Aptitude Test (K MAT) is an entrance examination conducted on a state-level, KMAT is organised in offline (Pen & Paper based) mode for the candidates seeking admission in MBA programmes, CAT conducted by the IIMs and CMAT conducted by AICTE.[9]

College of Engineering, Trivandrum was ranked 85 among engineering colleges by the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) in 2020.[10]

Architecture department of College of Engineering, Trivandrum was ranked 11 among architecture colleges by the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) in 2020.[11]

The Indian Society for Technical Education Student Chapter is the largest technical society in the college with more than 80% of the student body as its members. It provides a platform for students to showcase their talents. Ever since its formation, ISTE Students Chapter has helped its members scale heights of technical excellence through the numerous events it has conducted. The ISTE Student Chapter has successfully organised intra-collegiate tech fests such as Prarambh, Exodus, Semfiesta and Persona along with several talks, workshops, quizzes and business events every year. There have been two National Level techfests 'Aavishkar' in 2006 and 2009. ISTE CET is the best ISTE student chapter in India.

IEEE activities in CET were initiated on 15 June 1983 as student branch under the Kerala section. It was revived in the year 2008. As of January 2012, CET IEEE Student Branch has around 100 student members. The Student Branch has a library. One affinity group called IEEE Women in Engineering is running under this Student Branch and six societies. The student branch won many prizes as well as represented the college in many international avenues, including the best website award in the Asia Pacific region in 2010, represented Kerala in the Asia Pacific Student Congress at New Zealand, won prizes in the student poster and paper contest at the Global Humanitarian Technology conference at Seattle etc. The team of student branch officers consists of chair, vice-chair, treasurer and secretary.

CET also has a student chapter of SAE- the Society of Automotive Engineers, the century-old society Thomas Alva Edison, Henry Ford and numerous other greats were members of. Students from CET have participated in SAE INDIA National competitions like the Baja[13] and Efficycle.[14] SAE INDIA CET regularly holds educative sessions on automotive technology- from bicycles and skateboards to trains and rockets. The student chapter also trains students in CAD.

The Institution of Engineering and Technology is one of the world's leading professional societies for the engineering and technology community, with more than 160,000 members in 127 countries and offices in Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific. The Institution of Engineering and Technology Students chapter in College of Engineering was initiated in 2009. The IET CET http://ietcet.org has a library and an embedded systems research lab at the college. It has over 125 members in the college. The IET Chapter in the college won the Best Chapter Award under the Chennai Local Network in 2009. The chapter's activities include conducting workshops, seminars and technical competitions. Innovation Challenge is an annual event hosted by the chapter to ignite the innovation passion among the engineering Students of Kerala.

The Innovation Centre is a lab facility operated for the students by the students of CET.[15] It was established in May 2012 and has become the den of geeks and Greeks in the college. Unlike most other technical organisations in the college, Innovation centre is government funded (by CERD[16]). The Innovation Centre is open 24 x 7, with supervision. The facility also organises talks and training sessions in technical activities and also acts as a think tank where students meet to discuss their ideas on technical advances. In addition to it activities within the college, Innovation Centre CET hosts EUREKA, a statewide project competition annually. It is also a guidance center where students get advice and help for their projects and tech related activities. Working in unison with the IPR cell and the Technology Business Incubation (TBI) facility, the Innovation Centre also helps students in patenting and marketing the technologies they develop.

The Entrepreneurship Development Cell (EDC) is a fully functioning student body registered under the Technology Business Incubator of the College of Engineering Trivandrum. The club provides a platform for students with ideas to convert them into business reality. The stated aim of EDC is to foster a student start-up culture in the institution. Club activities include seminars by firms such as Blackberry, classes on the basics of the Stock Market, sponsorship activities, talks with prominent start up ventures and trips to events all over India like Hackathons and Entrepreneurship Conferences. The Entrepreneurship Development Cell, started in late 2011, already has 3 start-ups registered under it.

The National Service Scheme primarily stands for channelising the student youth for building the nation. The youth in all ages has been in the vanguard of progress and social change. On 18 October 2006 NSS CET (with unit no. 147) was inaugurated. NSS is now the most active organisation in the college. NSS cet is now capable of conducting even more than 25 programmes a year in midst of a busy academic schedule. Also from a bunch of students at the time of formation, the number of NSS volunteers is now more than a hundred. Also NSS cet is now an established one with a website and a special room for its activities. Last year NSS even came up with an Alumni section, a rare thing for an organisation in college. As part of the new requirement of A.P.J. Kalam Technological University, a new unit of NSS was started.

RoboCET is the robotics club of CET formed by a group of robotic enthusiasts among the students of the college. RoboCET was established in April 2008. The activities of this club include conducting classes, workshops and exhibitions on robotics. RoboCET has organised various robotics competitions inside and outside the college.

FOSS Cell CET consists of students and faculty from College of Engineering, Trivandrum who strongly believe and support the concept of Free and Open Source Software by sharing their knowledge on opensource programming languages, frameworks, customisation, all under the platform of GNU/Linux.

The official photography club of College of Engineering Trivandrum, to promote creativity through photography, to share and critique the photographs of peers, to educate and improve technical skills, and to spread the love of photography throughout the CET community.

CETALKS is the original in- house talk show of College of Engineering, Trivandrum. It was a talk series program that was founded in January 2015 during the 75th anniversary celebrations of the college. Eminent personalities from various fields of expertise address the college audience under this program. CETALKS is a regular dose of inspiration to students and faculty alike. Societies such as SAE INDIA CET, IEEE SB CET, Innovation Centre and STEAM tables have organised professional discourses under this banner.

Cetalks is also the name of the college's official radio. New shows are aired occasionally at 9 pm on weekends.

The official film club of College of Engineering Trivandrum, which conducts student film festivals, panel discussions, film reviews, short film competitions, etc. in the college. The club has an active presence among the students through the social media.

STEAM tables is an intra-college research oriented discussion platform that is devoted to promote technical discussions and to identify niche problems in different arenas that could be solved by engineering. The objective is to improve the quality of research and student projects from the college.

CET Quiz Club is one of the oldest and most active club in CET. CET QC conducts weekly informal sessions and other regular quizzing events in college. The club also organizes the inter college and open quiz competitions during Dhwani (Cultural fest) and Drishti (Tech fest), among others. One of the most awaited annual quizzing event, Eroteme, is conducted by the QC and attended by quizzers in and out of the state. Quiz Master Major Chandrakant Nair has hosted all 4 editions of Eroteme.

                                                                                                                                                                                     ===NCC===                                                                                                                                                             A Naval NCC unit was formed in 2020 under 1(K)naval battalion with allotted strength of 50 an year.