what i have from my own experience is every one treats technical courses like a mathematical function.
Go through course Y and you will be more smarter than people from course X.I always keep hearing stuff like "Brigding the gap between industry and acedemia" which i never seem to understand. Trying to do something other then mentioned in your ciricullum is considered taboo. Most of my friends have "outsourced" thier final semester academic projects to a institute which prepares it for them. Dont trust me? have a look at this http://goaltechnologies.in/new/?page_id=13