<p>Which is better for undergrad engineering: NUS or IIT Bombay?</p>
<p>NUS for sure considering the rankings and research opportunities.But both are equally difficult to get into.</p>
<p>Are you sure you’ll get into both?? :O</p>
<p>NUS if you consider research opp./global exposure/diversity. </p>
<p>IIT - B if you consider cost/faculty/homesickness! :p</p>
<p>@rishav17
How do you know that IIT’s faculty is significantly better than NUS? Glancing through faculty productivity index and peer assessment scores, I couldn’t find any obvious advantages that IIT had, and the little research I conducted last year on the IIT Math Dept., when I was considering applying to IIT, did not bode well for the IIT-B faculty in general.
Otherwise I agree with your list but would add “better education” for the NUS column. “More fun”, “better whether/city/location” etc. are of course implicit.</p>
<p>Needless to say, my vote would go to NUS, but I’m not the most informed CC’r when it comes to engineering.</p>
<p>Frankly speaking…IITs(Mumbai,Delhi and 1-2 other) are better than any university in the world in terms of education. If you would google many of the IIT alumni, you will find that people who went to foreign for further studies after graduating from IITs were cruising through the course in their respective universities( take the founder of Sun Microsystems). Although, it is true that IITs are very far behind many foreign universities in terms of global rankings …but that is because …IITs don’t admit foreign students,low funding for research and a few other things …but the quality of students(entrepreneurs,inventors, scientists,engineers) they produce ,are in a league of their own</p>
<p>I think the fact that Narayana Murthy’s son couldn’t get into IIT-Delhi computer science , and therefore HAD to go to his SAFETY college - CORNELL UNIVERSITY …should be enough to prove my point</p>
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<li><p>Get off your high horse. Cornell was by no means Narayan Murthy’s son’s “safety” college. It was just another college he applied to, but where he managed to get in. My friend got into Duke, but not Northwestern… Does that make Duke his safety? That’s just induced hype (see: [How</a> indian kids use IVY LEAGUE as Backup colleges.mp4 - YouTube](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BK3rX1sg5kg]How”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BK3rX1sg5kg)). Not an entirely uncommon malpractice that media indulges in.</p></li>
<li><p>If I’m not mistaken, the aforementioned kid (to futilely avoid the tedium of having to say Narayan Murthy’s son) did get into IIT. He just didn’t get the subject he desired (which only 100 kids manage every year). That is like saying UT Austin is harder to get into than Cornell, because Plan II honors is more selective than Cornell as a whole is.</p></li>
<li><p>Are you honestly advising someone to go to a college because one person (who BTW had Cornell as his safety, which tells you something about said person) had it as his top choice? I know people who have ND as their top choice, and would (and do) pick it over Harvard, but to cite that as a reason to turn down Harvard (or any other college) for ND, is myopic to say the least.</p></li>
<li><p>Cornell, though a wonderful institution, is not quite at the top of the educational food-chain in america.</p></li>
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<p>
I don’t mean to hijack the thread, but don’t be under the misapprehension that US universities are a walk in the park as compared to their indian counterparts. While generally true, there are several american institutions that are faaaar more rigorous and far more selective than IITs. And most american colleges would give you a far better education, not to mention, better career and research prospects than IIT. They have average faculty, appalling living conditions, poorly structured courses, and students who do excel at test taking, but not much more. How many nobel prize winners/fields medalists have they produced? And don’t underestimate the advantage of having a monopoly on students of an entire country at your disposal… Also, IIT does worse in more criteria than you mentioned (practically all of them tbh)…</p>
<p>@jak321 -
1.what am trying to say is that the quality of students at IITs in terms of academics is better than most of the top colleges of USA as they prepare for probably the most difficult entrance exam there is for undergraduate admissions which involves preparation so rigorous ,it is actually compared to just pure torture…many kids from my school(one of the most reputed in India) who are many times smarter than the rest don’t apply to foreign universities because they can’t afford them. So …does that mean they aren’t worthy of going to the top universities? Of course they are …but the thing is they can’t.
2. I assume you are a student studying in some US university and took my posts personally, but in no way did I mean any disrespect to any university.
3. My advice to kushagosani would be that go to IIT Bombay if u are able to get in and if they offer your majors which satisfy your field of interest(because some of the new fields of engineering have still not been made at many Indian colleges/ the quality of these courses is not that good) .</p>
<p>And if u want to compare the stats regarding job security,career and research options, I would advise you to first check the list of professors and pay close attention to their alma mater working at Harvard University(world ranking-1) …a lot of them are Indians …and guess what…nearly all are graduates from IITs</p>
<p>Yes IIT-JEE may be one of the more difficult entrance exams. Yes preparing for it may very well be torture. Does that translate to better or smarter students? An engineer may concur, but you are making a tacit assumption: “students who do well at a certain test are better students than those who do not”. I took IIT coaching for a year and a half (at the top batch in the top coaching center probably in the country), I’m not entirely unaware of what IIT is. Memorise the 30 or so cases of problems for each chapter and you’re in. Such selection criteria is far too narrow for it to be a meaningful selection mechanism. </p>
<p>The course load for pure sciences and math is significantly lighter as compared to US universities. I don’t know about engineering, but I’d be surprised if IIT produces better entrepreneurs than MIT and Stanford. As I said earlier, it’s faculty is weaker than most top 20 universities, and it’s course content is quite arbid and unstructured.</p>
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<p>I’m not sure of your point here. I wouldn’t think derisively of any student who went to IIT, purely because they went to IIT. I’m merely comparing institutions… Also, do not underestimate the power of financial aid. With financial aid and a merit scholarship, my expected family contribution is around $8000, all of which is limited to living expenses, which I would have had to bear if I went to IIT as well…</p>
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<li><p>I am a US-bound student (class of 2017). No I did not take your post personally, but I do strongly disagree with most of it.</p></li>
<li><p>Ok.</p></li>
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<p>
While American unviersities like UChicago and Harvard boast of having 8+ nobel lauretes and 2-3 fields medalists around, IIT boasts of having a few Harvard grads! When you google your math head of department and only his linkedin profile comes up, you know something is wrong… Better metrics would be citations per faculty scores or faculty productivity indexes… IIT doesn’t fare to well in those. Regarding career prospects, even after adjusting for PPP, IIT grads don’t place as well as top 10 american colleges grads do. Unemployment stats are considerably worse as well, and international scope is downright horrible… Don’t get me started on research opportunities at IIT…</p>
<p>Anyways, I’m going to stop littering other’s threads. PM me once you can…</p>
<p>Undergraduate students in Engineering do not need to be unduly impressed by faculty accomplishments in research since it does not always turn into great teaching. </p>
<p>For undergraduates in engineering, IITs are much harder in competition and required learnings than most elite schools in world.</p>
<p>Memorise 30 problems per chapter and you are in? xD no wonder why you didn’t get into IIT… And well…if you want to boast about 8+Nobel lauretes since the universities were found (around 400 years ago) in comparison to the IITs which were founded during the 1950s I guess. And yet manage to build up a great reputation and produce many great alumni…go ahead, no one is stopping you</p>
<p>UChicago 400 years ago? Not quite… And I’m talking about Nobel Prize Winners currently on faculty. If I were talking about total number of winners the numbers would swell to 80!
Oh, and I didn’t say memorize 30 problems… I said 30 cases, 30 types of problems… I didn’t give JEE btw, seeing as I want to pursue mathematics and economics.</p>
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Quite… At that point I had deviated from the original question and did not limit myself to the undergraduate experience of an engineer, and for that I apologize.
@kushalsogani, IIT is prolific when it comes to uploaded lectures. nptelhrd has many videos on youtube, which do demonstrate the IIT classroom experience. Be sure to check them out.</p>
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Is NUS one of those “most”. I certainly think it is. Is MIT? Certainly not. Once again, at that point I did not limit myself to IIT vs NUS, and once again, I apologize.</p>
<p>“Is MIT? Certainly not.”</p>
<p>Have you looked into MIT faculty to see how many graduated from IITs in each department?</p>
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No, but as your post (to which I responded) brought up only competition and rigor, I don’t see why I should.</p>
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<p>Let us limit ourselves to India (and why not, since we’re talking about IIT). MIT accepts some 5-6 Indians every year, almost all of whom secure top ranks in IIT, along with excellent grades and olympiad medals.</p>
<p>Numerically speaking IIT is more selective than top US colleges, but that’s the difference between a priori and a posteriori information. Since admission to IIT is predicated on one exam, and I couldn’t possibly know my chance of success in said exam until I give it, several people (who don’t have much of a chance) end up giving the exam. On the other hand, while admissions are a crap-shoot to most top US colleges, I already know my credentials and therefore know, to a much greater extent, my likelihood of getting into a top US (there is much greater self selection). Consider, in my high school most of students who reside in the bottom half of the class are giving JEE. I doubt more than the top 1-2% of students in the US even bother applying to Harvard.</p>
<p>IITs are ranked far behind due to poor living conditions, crappy research and low funding for research. So using the ranking to compare education standards may not be the right approach.
And as for the main reason this thread was started, I feel that if you can get into IIT-B with the major of your choice, then go for it.</p>
<p>sakshamsaini18, Open your eyes kid! The world is much bigger than your IITs. Faculty! Bwahaha!</p>
<p>Well, I need to state some points-
- IITs stand nowhere!
- The college chooses what I need to study, I don’t.
- If you want to study computer science there, you need to be a PCM genius. I’m right. Ain’t I?
- Even if you made a computer yourself when you were 12, they won’t consider you.</p>
<p>My point is, how can you judge a student’s intellectual capacity on the basis of the marks obtained by him in PCM. I don’t think the laws of Newton apply in writing a computer program.
Leave aside CS, Even you are awesome at physics and are capable of getting a Nobel, you need to be equally good at chem. and maths to get in!
This is something seriously wrong with the system here.</p>
<p>I haven’t read any article or done any research on this particular topic, but this is what I’ve heard from my seniors & friends at the IITs (Delhi, Madras, Kharagpur), NUS, UCB, UPenn, etc</p>
<p>The teaching at IITs is absolutely brilliant, the faculty at the top IITs are renowned for their ability to get topics across to the students easily!! At NUS for example, the faculty might be diverse, but faculty at the IITs follow a kind of “no nonsense” method of teaching!! :)</p>
<p>But in my opinion, if you are fortunate enough to get into the top top colleges such as MIT, Ivies, IITs, NUS, Cambridge, UCB, etc. - it really boils down to personal choice!! </p>
<p>For example, a student who has been immersed in books throughout his life may be more suited to the serious & competitive atmosphere at IIT-B while another student who has a practical approach towards life with varied interests would probably be suited to say an Ivy or NUS!! </p>
<p>Coming to rankings, IIT is ranked low for a few reasons - living facilities/lack of global exposure/minimum research opp./lack of diversity/etc.
In fact, if you observe rankings by subject - which discounts non-academic qualities of an university, IIT is quite often in the top 10!!</p>
<p>Again, once it is a top ranked university - you really shouldn’t be like - “Oh, I want to go to no.2 & not no.6, because then I can brag that I am going to no.2” … </p>
<p>hope this helped the OP!! :D</p>
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<p>[World</a> University Rankings - World University Rankingsss - 2012-13 - Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay](<a href=“http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2012-13/world-ranking/institution/indian-institute-of-technology-bombay]World”>Indian Institute of Technology Bombay | World University Rankings | THE)
IIT fares badly in several other criteria than those you mentioned (check out the breakdown). I don’t know of many rankings that weigh living conditions. As for research opportunites (which you double count), why shouldn’t that be a criteria?</p>
<p>[Indian</a> Institute of Science](<a href=“http://www.shanghairanking.com/Institution.jsp?param=Indian%20Institute%20of%20Science]Indian”>http://www.shanghairanking.com/Institution.jsp?param=Indian%20Institute%20of%20Science)
ARWU is another ranking where IIT doesn’t fare too well. Check out their criteria:
[Methodology</a> of ARWU 2010](<a href=“http://www.arwu.org/ARWUMethodology2010.jsp]Methodology”>http://www.arwu.org/ARWUMethodology2010.jsp)
Although some are questionable, I don’t seem them using criteria like diversity, living conditions etc.</p>
<p>
Anecdotal experience. Most IITians I know, do not attribute current success to IIT. They all agree that their education was only alright, but that they were encouraged by their peers and received a sense of fraternity in common suffering.</p>
<p>With 7 new IITs in the past 4 years, I’d be surprised if the IIT brand value isn’t diluted very soon in India.</p>
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Could you direct me to any? I wasn’t aware of this…</p>
<p>^totally irrelevant to the topic of the thread
Go create your own thread,son if you are so keen about arguing</p>