<p>I don’t know much about the education and syllabus of U.S. Universities, but I think Cornell, Berkeley, UIUC >>> NITs. I can give you some of the pros and cons of NITs.</p>
<ol>
<li>You will meet some of the smartest students like Olympiad winners, chess champions etc.</li>
<li>Government subsidizes NIT education. You don’t have to spend thousands of dollars and can save this amount for your higher education.</li>
<li>Availability of many workshops from different companies.</li>
<li>NIT brand name is next to IITs.</li>
<li>One of the best alumni network.</li>
<li>You will also meet some of the weaker students here(thanks to reservation) who just keep on failing in all classes.</li>
<li>Most students don’t have any interest in their major, they are just forced by their parents to study engineering. They just do things as they are told by their faculty, there is no self passion for the subject. Many of them aspire to pursue an MBA and get in financial, business & management jobs in place of technical jobs.</li>
<li>Lack of undergraduate research opportunities.</li>
<li>Professors here are not even comparable to professors in U.S. Universities. They are less qualified. However, they are much better when compared to any other Indian institutes (Except IITs & BITS).</li>
<li>No option for choosing any other non-engineering subject as your major or minor. NITs offer only engineering courses.</li>
<li>Non-availability of high end equipments and lack of practical training for students.</li>
<li>Syllabus taught here are outdated and are not in accordance with the present need of Multinational companies.</li>
</ol>
<p>@abhiga<br>
good points-and admirable efforts.
Was curious to know, are there any cases where US nri’s have gone to NIT’s under dasa ?
And how many seats are filled by these students ?</p>
<p>In my opinion: As for lab resources etc. most of the top colleges should have good enough labs. As for teaching and understanding subjects, I feel things are quiet different today then 15-20 years back. Today we have internet
to learn anything anytime at anyplace may be overstatement but that may be the case
in future. Can’t blame professors - they are also human beings.</p>
<p>The stated facts above are quite true, but the factor that outweighs all of them is that the level of undergraduate education at anyone of the NITs is far more superior than that of any foreign university, whether in US or anywhere. If we compare NITs purely on the basis of academics then it easily supersedes schools like MIT, ETH Zurich, Cambridge and Stanford (let alone CMU, Cornell and Johns Hopkins) </p>
<p>Really @Qwerty, you need proof?
How about HBS places IITs and NITs as the most represented foreign universities in its class profile? How about graduates of IITs and NITs go on to become presidents of the so school you wanna attend today (Harvard College, UChicago’s Booth school of Business), how about only 6000-7000 make it to IITs and NITs from a highly talented crowd of 600000-700000. If only academics is judged, no one beats the Indians, furthermore, no one beats IITians and NITians. The AP classes which are “college courses” and for which the Americans receive credit, we cover that and more than that just in our school leaving exams and finally, what we study at college, they study at graudate school. MIT, CMU, Johns Hopkins students may be bright, but any IITian at any time, date and place can make any of them eat dust! This is purely on intellectual basis BUT still I wouldn’t attend IIT and NIT even if I got accepted? Can you tell me why?</p>
<p>@peepingtom Well how about all the IIT people and NIT people who aspire to work for Microsoft, Google? I am sure that IITians don’t own such big companies? No one cares of only academics in the real world that is thing. You need creativity and ability to apply things to be successful in life. Who cares if the curriculum is rigorous when you are not going to use it in the future. In USA, through software and research internships EVERY YEAR the student is prepared to excel when out of college. I bet you can’t find those opportunities at NIT (not even 4th year students probably). Not saying IITs and NITs are bad schools though - remember that.</p>
<p>Plus do you know in U.S. high schools students are already taught programming languages if interested in CS. We are free here. We, CS majors, don’t have to torture ourselves with physics and chemistry and all that - it is simply useless. Believe it or not, I am 12th grader and I am proficient at Java, C, C++ and other web languages. In NIT (I saw the syllabus) they teach object oriented programming second year. That is hilarious, because most american high school students who want to major in CS know all of that and are going to have big advantage in the software side; plus with the communicational skills they are going make any of those Indian people eat dust as well (sorry, I am really upset after reading your post). In fact, I am ready to get a Oracle certificaltion in Java this summer. Can Indian education teach that? Do students there have the freedom to choose those courses. Simple answer: NO! </p>
<p>You can say whatever you want, but you can’t say Indian studies are better than American. Just because Indian curriculum is more rigorous doesn’t mean it is better. Just be honest. Even IIT-B doesn’t crack the top 40 in computer science let alone overall rankings. Just because you prepare for an IIT test for 6-7 years doesn’t make you the best. There are other things that are more important than just wicked smartness.</p>
<p>-I feel the knowledge gained to fight the odds is more important, and that many times makes the difference.
Also as a engineer physics/chemistry is needed, even though you are doing just CS. Else you will be limiting<br>
yourself, and don’t have to do engineering and can just learn programming languages
-My view is dasa scheme for nri’s is good because they can get not the best in the world but quality education at
reasonable cost. And chance to study with students from different school/highschool background.
not a bad thing to add in life !!! </p>
<p>@chalshane well they are important but u don’t use it real life. i bet no software engineer would remember anything about physics/chem. u need the basics but going too far is really not important at least for CS. That is what a US education promotes. Basics in things that are not important for major and strong, up to date curriculum in major subjects.</p>
<p>@agg999
you sure seem offended, I never said that NITs are better, I just said they’re best in academics (and anyone would back me up), I even said that I won’t attend even if I got accepted, but you took the topic somewhere else.
What you said the CS major is quite true, but the thing is, I was not even arguing about it. The Indian education system strives to lay down a good foundation (that’s why each school has such stringent core requirements), US is known to let kids specialize even in early years, both methods have certain advantages and disadvantages and I will not waste my time and energy arguing about it.
My prime conclusion stills stands: IITs have smartest people in the world.</p>
<p>@peepingtom Colleges in America can recruit the smartest people as well. But guess what? The admissions are holistic and not just based on merit (people who are smart and talented in other things). Even though IITs have smart people, they can’t beat the top 20-30 engineering universities in USA. Don’t cut yourself short. You said many things including “If only academics is judged, no one beats the Indians, furthermore, no one beats IITians and NITians” umm. go look at International Computer Olympiad contests, International Math Olympiad contests, Physics Olympiad contests and tell me how the IITians or NIT people or other Indian toppers fare against China or even the Americans? Not saying they are bad. Indians have got immense talent but the resources available in USA and the right foundation makes people who are studying abroad very competitive internationally. </p>
<p>@agg999
I really have no idea what are you trying to say/prove. "Colleges in America can recruit smartest people as well but guess what, they have holistic admissions"
Then why the heck do they have holistic admissions? Your argument is baseless, how can you be so sure that they can recruit smartest people when they haven’t done so up until now?? Are we supposed to take your word for it?</p>
<p>"umm. go look at International Computer Olympiad contests, International Math Olympiad contests, Physics Olympiad contests and tell me how the IITians or NIT people or other Indian toppers fare against China or even the Americans?"
How the heck do Olympiads relate to IITians or MITians? High schoolers participate in Olympiads, not College students, again your argument is baseless.</p>
<p>What I’m trying to say is, keep your head down and don’t take it personally, it has nothing to do with you, you’re just embarrassing yourself by trying to counteract my conclusion with your baseless arguments, I think we both can agree to disagree until there’s a standard unit for intelligence measurement!</p>
<p>I believe that IITs and NITs ( IISc, BITS as well) are the best in India, in terms of teaching,academics,research,etc. </p>
<p>When you compare it with other world-class institutes, top IIT and NIT students excel academically ( maybe due to the fact that right from 10th or 11th grade,they grow up in an environment which is dominated by competition).</p>
<p>The other aspects like teaching and research are definitely not comparable to other world-class institutes.</p>
<p>I also feel that the IIT and NIT brand is due to the brilliance of the students, and not the institute.</p>
Holistic Admission - I was trying to say they don’t necessarily take in the smartest people. They take in people who are smart and also have other wonderful talents. Not my problem if you misunderstood me.
About the Olympiads - uh. don’t get what you are saying. People who represent their countries in Olympiads are mostly IITians and MITtians who are most likely rising seniors in high schools or about to go to college. Can’t say everything explicitly. Not my problem if you can’t infer either.</p>
<p>@agg999,
I find myself unable to reason with you. Your reasoning is poor and your statements are pointless. I could scrutinize each of you posts and tell you exactly what’s wrong with them but it’s clearly apparent that you don’t believe in logic! So, with a little hope, I’m posting a statement by a professor at an American University (to be unnamed here) and you can know in his words what he thinks about the matter:</p>
<p>" The truth is that there are very few US students prepared for a career in science or engineering. The few who are (and they are very good) go to MIT, Caltech and Stanford leaving the tier IIs and tier IIIs burdened with those who might have done better to major in basket weaving instead of engineering. I have had undergraduates in my classes who never had a physics class or a math class beyond trigonometry in high school and yet decided to get a degree in electrical engineering. I have almost never had a domestic student in a graduate class. I have seen high school sophomores who cannot add 11 and 24 in their head and yet aspire for STEM careers (how did they pass elementary school?). Our labs will close without the Indians and the Chinese since our own stock who have been brought up on smiley faces and gold stars despite pathetic performances (lest their self esteem be damaged) cannot do anything. In one semester I had to fail 60% of my undergraduate class in solid state device engineering because I was honestly alarmed to turn them loose on the unsuspecting population with a certificate. Yes, we have some of the best universities in the world (see the QS rankings), but we also have some of the worst high schools in the world turning out illiterates masquerading as literate. Obviously many, if not most, of our own high school graduates are not in a position to populate our universities. Hence the Indians and the Chinese to the rescue. This is not by choice, but by compulsion. There is no foreign aid involved here, and if there is, the US may be the recipient in some sense. If this has to change, then our high schools need to put away the gold stars and start dishing out “F”-s where they are deserved. Maybe then they will have raised the bar to the point where students entering universities are actually prepared for the rigor."
You can find this statement published in the Scientific American magazine.</p>
<p>@peepingtom You think I will read all of that? I too can argue to the maximum extent for most (I am not going to be extreme like you and say all) of the points you are making. I still think my point holds. Maybe we are just arguing about different thing. Anyway, I don’t have the time nor energy to talk to you anymore. Good luck!</p>
<p>Can anyone please brief me about how the counseling procedure works for the DASA scheme? Do you apply for a specific NIT or are you allowed to take a shot at any NIT your score merits? Also, do they give you an option to fill in 2nd preferences too in case you weren’t allotted your top choice? Thanks a bunch!</p>
Not at all!
The Tuition fee us still the same. Instead of paying 7000$ for the whole year, you now have to pay 3500$ per semester
So, you’ll still have to pay 7000$ a year
And my personal opinion: Don’t even consider this option. This might seem like a good opportunity to you, but it’s not. The NIT’s are just not meant for us DASA people. You’re better off joining other ‘recognized’ engineering colleges abroad
I came to NIT Kurukshetra & had nothing bit regret from Day 1. Don’t make the same mistake
may be overstatement but that may be the case
</p>