<p>gnrfan - yes the Indian education system does emphasize rote learning too much but they don't have the resources or enough people to allow students to be creative and thrive as individual thinkers. However, IIT does change its question type frequently to discourage applicants from studying by rote.
IITs also have a very undistinguished record for significant research.</p>
<p>When you have 300,000 people applying, you have to make admissions extremely tough to make sure that only the talented hard-workers get in.</p>
<p>i'd like to see the source for that McKinsey stat.</p>
<p>also, my dad interviews alot of IIT kids for microsoft, and he says they are frequently brillliant but ininspired, kids who were bred to take exams but who utterly lack creativity.
if you lack creativity there will always be a glass ceiling for you in corporate life and in academia, not matter how brilliant you are. granted, you'll probably have a great job, but what separates you from the people in the boardroom is not intelligence but the capacity to be creative and take risks, an ethic that is definitely not part of the IIT culture.
this isn't to say that there are no IIT grads who exhibit leadership qualities, it just appears that the vast majority doesn't.</p>
<p>True. ITT may be the greatest school in India, but it will never have the same global projection and influence as the top US schools do. It is never the education of the individual that makes the difference, but his or her creativity and how it is used. Kids studying from 8th grade to get into a single college cannot be called creative minded. </p>
<p>The same things can be seen in other countries such as Korea or Japan, where students study their entire lives for a chance to enter top regional universities such as Seoul or Tokyo. The difficulty of education, or the competivity of a college cannot be indicators of a successful future.</p>
<p>ITT can be considered a great school, but in such an academically based school, leadership, creativity, and initiative are rare traits to come by.</p>
<p>IIT may be the most exclusive but still it doesnt make it the best .Besides getting into IIT means putting an end to personal family life friends fun ..............in short its just not worth the pains</p>
<p>IIT was not designed to breed creativity. But it does have significant global influence. IITians are highly regarded by most major companies. They occupy top posts in all the Fortune 500 companies. </p>
<p>Yes, IIT does not promise success but you have to think about it from an Indian perspective. For several generations, the only pathway to financial security in India was becoming a doctor or an engineer. The anti-entrepreneurial spirit in India discouraged creativity and innovation. IIT has been powerful in helping the talented rise. It is often held as the great equalizer in Indian society. Even now, most Indians lean towards sci/tech for future careers.</p>
<p>Sorry neutralnuke, but I'm going to have to disagree. I'm certainly not a communist (despite my username) but socialism isn't what was wrong with India. India's problem was years of racial/religious oppresion (hindus vs. muslims, Brits, etc) and lack of real technology. As you can see, Norman Borlaug's genetic engineering project literally DOUBLED India's rate of wheat production. This shows that engineers and scientists as well as entrepreneurs can stimulate an economy. Many leaning-towards-socialist countries, like Sweden, are doing fine (even though France and Bolivia, other socialisms are not). The main problem with socialism is that most people thing of socialists as like the Soviet Union (which turned out to be the opposite of what Marx wanted). China is enjoying a booming economy but its people are still suffering, now from the oppresion caused by...you guessed it...capitalists. Why d'you think the world has so many sweatshops?</p>
<p>Now that I'm done boring you, I'll get on with it. First of all, as so many people have said, IITs cannot possibly be considered on the same plane as the great American and Far Eastern universities (minus the technical ones). They're just too different in their foci. Second of all, to say that IITs will never bring any real change to India is just plain wrong. It may not bring economic change, but the fact that they are so famous for educating scientists and engineers (like Asok from Dilbert) proves that they do have a big scientific impact on the world. It's not exactly designed to churn out big CEOs (which is why it can't be measured on the same plane as many other colleges). Basically, it wont really affect India too much, but it'll leave a crater on the rest of the world. Sure, it has some major problems, but hey, who wouldn't want to go to a college that only charges $2000 and is one of the best in the world? And it's only some 55 years old (Kharagpur), so you can't expect it to measure up to MIT and Caltech in technical prowess.</p>
<p>Quick tidbit that doesn't really matter: Most of the IITs were set up with help from countries such as the United States, the Soviet Union, and West Germany.</p>
<p>agree to what you said in the 2nd paragraph</p>
<p>regarding socialist countries that are doing fine - only Sweden and other small Scandinavian types come to mind; and the center-right's victory clearly illustrates that all is not right in the kingdom of Sweden; unemployment is quite high and their labor market is very inflexible</p>
<p>according to you, India's ethnic strife and "lack of rael technology" (what do you mean by this?) were the two main reasons for the hindu rate of growth -> India's economic boom only started after the economic liberalization policies imposed in early 90's; ethnic strife has not changed too much
Socialism is not the sole cause of India's problems but it has been a major cause for the much-deplored Hindu rate of growth</p>
<p>and you refer to Sweden favorably: i'm not going to bash the tax rates there but I'd just like to point out that the Swedish economic model cannot be applied to countries with huge populations</p>
<p>I stand by what I said: socialism has mostly gone hand-in-hand with economic stagnation and failure while capitalism has been correlated to high standards of living and economic growth</p>
<p>China's people are still suffering from the sweatshops but which option do you think they'd prefer: to work in a sweatshop or to die hungry
China is booming b/c of cheap labor; if the proletariat starts getting too uppity about wages (which the Chinese gov't will vigorously prevent), foreign firms will move out and China will lose</p>
<p>you stated that you're certainly not a communist. a socialist then, tovarisch?</p>
<p>From shanghai jiao tong & london times rankings</p>
<p>Indian Inst Tech - Kharagpur:
SJTU Rank: 404-502
London Times Rank: 41</p>
<p>Harvard University:
SJTU Rank: 1
London Times Rank: 1
USNews: 2</p>
<p>Nobel Laurates:
IIT: 0
Harvard: 82</p>
<p>IMO, the most impressive IIT graduate in the business world:
Vinod Khosla Delhi 1976 Co-founder Sun Microsystems </p>
<p>IMO, most impressive Harvard grad in the business world:
Bill Gates (graduated in 2007, lol)
CEO of Goldman Sachs is also a Harvard grad</p>
<p>IIT = H + P + M ??? True, but only in terms of competition percentage, which means next to nothing, especially when India's population is 5 times that of the U.S. and there are very limited amount of 'good' universities in India while in the U.S. the top 50 are all recognized worldwide</p>
<p>/Just my opinion. I couldn't resist to criticize the ignorance of the person who posted this... IIT = H + P + M ???? just preposterous</p>
<p>Why is noone mentioning Seoul National University?</p>
<p>Students study more than 15 hours a day from an early age, going straight from school to prep academies just to get into the prestigious school. It's hands down the best university in all of korea, and yields many graduates that become the dominant leaders of Korea's booming technology and industry.</p>
<p>One of the arguments that the original poster makes is that IIT is better because of its amazingly low acceptance rate. I think that's mainly attributed to the fact that IIT has low funding, and the very very very large population of India results in a giant pool of applicants</p>
<p>Funny how times/geographical factors change opinions. Back in the days, my parents thought Moscow State University Lomonossov was the most academically rigorous University (research focused also) as far as math and physics are concerned. It saw incredible scientists being churned out into the academic world like Kolmogorov, Alexandrov (not sure spelling), Lavrentyev.</p>
<p>By the way, about 200,000(not 5000) people write the IIT entrance exam(JEE-joint ent. exam), and about 5000 get in, and say about a 1000 people get the course of their choice. So, I'd say they're (there are 7 of them) pretty hard to get into-( i would know..i'm trying to study for it..i maintain..TRYING) In addition, no calculators or anything of the sort,unlike ap calculus and stuff,which makes things a wee bit harder. The foci are different in iit and the top schools in the US, mit included, and i would agree that it doesn't mold you fully as an individual-lot of iitians(not generalizing) lack social n leadership skills.Plus, you need to sacrifice A LOT-2 years of craziness all down to one exam..and IIT is nowhere near as prestigious as MIT or Harvard..(way harder to get into, definitely)and everyone knows that!!But here in India, it still means a lot, and maybe rightly so, because the standards are rather good- and if you can convince yourself to toil really hard for a couple of years and finally get in, then there's little you can't do- except maybe climb mt. everest or something- but, sorry to deviate from the thread- a sherpa recently climbed it for the 18th time-WOW!! Take a moment to be inspired. He's moved to salt lake, by the way, so his kids get a better education, maybe even go to harvard or mit or something..;-) ..its a small world, eh?</p>
<p>My great uncle was the head of the chemistry department at IIT Madras, my uncle matriculated, and my father got accepted. According to my father, he didn't study for the test, but w/e... From this firsthand knowledge, let me tell you that the IIT school system, though not as well funded as HYP, graduates students that are extremely talented academics wise, more so than HYP students. But the truth is, they are just that - academically talented (sorry dad). Seriously, a lot of those kids have no EC's, play no sports, etc. So while they may have insane academic credentials, a lot was sacrificed to reach that level of genius.</p>
<p>IIT is CRAZY hard to get into... although both my uncles did manage to get in.
If the IIT entrants were to take the AMC and AIME, EVERY SINGLE ONE of them would
make USAMO, since the syllabus includes knowledge of proofs, and advanced algebra tricks, etc.</p>
<p>And the physics section is no joke.
Compare it to the olympiads here in the US and you'll see what I mean.</p>
<p>I have attempted for IIT - I did prepare for it since my 8th standard - as per a plan 2hrs a day.
There has not been a day - which is lost due to prep of IIT, I excelled at the exams and got a seat in BHU.</p>
<p>1: In terms of admission, IIT is far less competitive than Tsinghua University or Peking University in China and the Chinese college entrance exam and Subject competitions in China are much more rigorous than those in India. Think about who always wins international Olympiads, not even a comparason. Therefore Tsinghua>IIT. </p>
<p>2: There’s a recent news that the person who got the Highest Score on the Chinese college entrance exam in Beijing got rejected by all 11 U.S. universities he had applied to. What does this mean? Being good at test taking is far from being good at real Academics. Scholarship is about understanding, connection and innovation. Being familiar at writing out test solutions doesn’t mean anything. This makes any top American Universities >> IIT.</p>
<p>As of 2010 AD, any top American University>>IIT. This is consensus among the educated.</p>
<p>Frankly speaking IIT aspirants are the most hard working people on the face of this planet. There is no doubt about it. But still IIT’s are way behind schools like MIT and Caltech is simple. More than half of those who get into IIT’s are not there because they have a genuine interest in the sciences or like to play with things around them using there brains. They are there simply because of the false belief that only engineering offers them a good and prosperous life. And also because of the admission policies as well. Just slog for two years and enjoy the rest of your life. This seems to be the notion that IIT’s seem to indirectly encourage. After a student has a degree then he pursues something in which he’s really interested in. Why engg then? In contrast the crowd at MIT and Caltech are like completely different. There you don’t have to overwork yourself preparing for some entrance exam. Just let your creative mind and rational thinking take control. For example consider this. Suppose a guy in India is a child prodigy in programming. In his 10th grade he’s an active programmer for linux kernel. Naturally he’ll start prep for the JEE. But aren’t you killing his creativity and talent by making him learn things which he probably doesn’t even need to learn like some stuff in chem. This pretty much explains the problem with IIT’s. Another problem which I believe IIT’s share the blame for is lack of research. A friend of mine who transferred to MIT after “suffering for two years”(his own words) at IIT Madras, told me that he was very interested in doing research and had lots of projects in mind. He was however laughed upon by other students. Professors who were also interested in research said that their own projects for which they applied over a year ago and still didn’t get green signal and funding(which was just around Rs 600000, compared to the billions of dollars spent at Harvard). Whenever a person of Indian origin wins Nobel prize we feel happy and also wonder why couldn’t he do his research in India. The answer is pretty much simple-we Indians are the kings when it comes to creating just plain human machines but we are worse when it comes creating humans with minds.</p>
<p>IIT kids KNOW AND LIVE AND BREATHE their Math and Science.
IIT graduate, MIT graduate. IIT grad will DEFINITELY HAVE more knowledge about their subject. MIT grads on the other hand have a better personality. Hands on, you see.</p>
<p>I know this is from a while ago, but I just wanted to add that the quote from 60 Minute that the OP refers to is this:</p>
<p>“IIT. Put Harvard, MIT, and Princeton together and you get an idea of the status of IIT in India.”</p>
<p>[url=<a href=“- YouTube”>- YouTube]Documentray</a> on IIT on an American TV Channel. MUST SEE FOR ALL IITIANS.avi - YouTube<a href=“see%20:53”>/url</a></p>
<p>That is far from IIT=Harvard+MIT+Princeton.</p>
<p>So, the claim and title of this post is extremely deceptive.</p>
<p>Technically, Tsinghua and Peking, Seoul National University, Tokyo University are all the “Harvard, Princeton, MIT” of their respective countries. That is not to say they are as good as Harvard, Princeton, MIT.</p>