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The original poster misquoted the 60 Minutes segment. Lesley Stahl of CBS on 60 Minutes said: "Put Harvard, MIT and Princeton together and you get to an idea of the status of IITs in India." She referred to the prestige that comes to those who attend IIT, not necessarily to the academic rigor or academic excellence of IIT.
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<p>This is true. And some of the things atleast one of the guests on the show said are suspect, ie, its very easy to take them way out of context.</p>
<p>What a nice and wonderful discussion, imbued with national pride and intellectual deliberation.</p>
<p>Well....When I think of what I have over here and the amenities of my life....I can't compare to some of the poor Indians who must invest all thier time in studying to move forward in life. Thankfully, I have a great life and do not want to spend most of my time studying and answering questions.</p>
<p>HYPM and other universities are great, but IIT may be better in some respects like math and science. But, when I think of intellectual prowess, East Asian schools come to mind like Seoul National University.
And, much to Harvard Genius's dismay, an Asian student from Seoul said that the students at Seoul were more intelligent and that Harvard just gave more work when she went there (she went to Harvard for like a semester or something).</p>
<p>Overall, the average American's perspective and an average Indian's perspective will always be different. I'm just glad I don't have to live in an environment where everything depends on an exam for college.</p>
<p>Quote: "Im not saying the smartest students in India arent twice as smart than the average of america. I dont care where your tutor went to, I go to Harvard and I can tell you that we are the most intelligent people in the world"</p>
<p>I can also tell you that u are extremely biased and take too much pride in attending Harvard....but apparently, there have been occasions where 'the most intelligent' students from harvard have been outperformed by counterparts from other good universities..even from IIT</p>
Overall, the average American's perspective and an average Indian's perspective will always be different. I'm just glad I don't have to live in an environment where everything depends on an exam for college.
<p>i agree i dont have an authoritative source for the NASA numbers, i got it from a powerpoint presentation about India that was being sent around. It may not be 36%, nevertheless, I'm pretty sure that there are alot of Indians for working for NASA and alot of the doctors in the US are Indians</p>
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</a> but numbers can always be made to lie. I would bet the 36% claim was related to scientists or engineers or at least professionals. The impression I get from the quote above is that the 5.7% number is from all employees and I'd bet the % of facilities, administrative support, finance clerks, mail clerks, etc that are Indians is very-very low ... and that the percentage of engineers & scientists is well about 5.7% and disproportionate to the overall Indian population in the US (and I'd also guess it is quite a bit lower than 36%). Any time I see numbers described at such a high summary level I get very cynical because we almost never have the info at a level of detail that we can draw any meaningful conclusions!</p>
<p>yes, but the page had further details on how the top 3 engineering fields had ~7% Asians.
Overall, it cannot be denied that Indians are overrepresented in the top science and medical fields in US.
Well, and those gas stations and motels</p>
<p>For all the indians reading this, I'm a Bihari from Jamshedpur (in the state of Jharkhand).</p>
<p>true....indian are so widespread across the globe...
some are filthy rich..others work in gas stations, airports..(watch the 'terminal') esp in Changi airport in singapore...most the people that do the 'dirty' work such as cleanin the toilet..etc are indians...
we should be proud of some indians, while at the same time embarrassed about others</p>
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I'm very familiar with IIT and yes it is the best in the world for engineering-no doubt/hands down
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<p>The amount of engineering research papers that come out of IIT is extermely low, maybe comparable to a U.S. school around rank 100. Until IIT can start publishing papers and beef up its research, it can only be considered a workforce trainer, rather than an innovator. Also, IIT does not have a very large list of nobel prize winners or field medal lauretes.</p>
<p>ah..Flavian..
u've also got to realize the budget restraints that the IITs have. They charge only 2 gran a year, inclusive of boarding..etc..now compare that to the 40 gran that alot of top privates in the US charge..
Until IIT can get enough funding to conduct research on the level that american universities do..we cant except alot of nobel prize winners or publications from IIT.</p>
<p>Right, and that's why I don't think IIT can be considered as good as some of the top American or British Universities because graduate research is a huge factor in terms of recognition from academics. </p>
<p>Likewise, UC Berkeley is not that selective for its undergraduate programs, but they have an excellent reputation internationally because of the graduate research that goes on there. That's why the Times ranked them as the second best University in the world, at the dismay of elitist undergraudates at prestigous undergraduate instutition who look down on Berkely's low SAT average, etc.</p>
<p>yes..i agree with you...each university has its own plus points...while IIT may lack research...they excel in their academic rigor..at the same time..berkeley has excellent research but their academic rigor is not as high as IIT</p>
<p>each iit was founded at different times. iit guwahati is the newest institution, started in the mid 90s. Roorkee was an established institution which was given iit status very recently. </p>
<p>The oldest (kharagpur) started sometime in the early 60s. Kanpur soon after that.</p>