<p>For the arts and humanities i'd say Oxford> Cambridge any day</p>
<p>The fact that IIT is so selective has no bearing whatsoever on the quality of the education there or its prestige. In fact, the whole extremely difficult national exam thing is probably detrimental to the student body, and should be a con, not a pro, when trying to decide prestige.</p>
<p>At MIT, you'll get the smartest kids from the US. At IIT, you'll get the smartest kids from India. The only difference is that most of the kids who go to IIT will have spent their entire lives studying for those entrance exams, and the goal of all that work is to go to IIT. OTOH, most of the kids who go to MIT will have learned to study because they have a passion for science. They try so hard not because they want to go to MIT, but because they want to continue exploring whatever field they're interested in (I'm comparing w/ MIT cause IIT is an engineering school. I can't speak for HYP).</p>
<p>This is probably why MIT is much better known, and ranked higher than, IIT.</p>
<p>Personally, I'm an Indian in a school that prides itself on sending many, many kids to IIT every year, and I just pulled out of writing the IIT entrance exam. It's definitely difficult to get into, and there are definitely very, very bright kids in there, but the testing isn't really valid -- especially with the recent re-formatting of the exam, it's more about 'here, memorise this textbook, and this one, and this one too' than it is about actual learning. </p>
<p>And that apart, the low acceptance rate isn't giving you the whole story. At least where I live, most kids take the exam 'just to see' -- even the sort of student who averages 50-something in high school (generally not the sort of kid you'd see applying to MIT, right?). They don't have a bloody chance in hell, quite frankly. It shows, rather.</p>
<p>I wouldn't call IIT the best/most prestigious university in the world, not by a long shot. It's good, yes. Very good, even, if you pull the twenty-five hour days necessary to make it in there for, say, CS. But it isn't the best place for everyone, and it isn't the best education one can have.</p>
<p>My personal opinion is that by the time you're talking about the very cream of universities, (the IITs, MIT, HYPS and the like, even the top 25), then the entire discussion becomes academic really.</p>
<p>I mean, after that point, it's up to you, not the college. You can't really compare this universities through stats and the like, because they're all so different and different people'll adapt and use the facilities for an education that they provide in varying ways.</p>
<p>Well some of you already mentioned the facts,
But let me remind you that 'prestige' depends on factors that some do not agrree on.
I saw on this forum that MIT was considered the best, it is true for MIT students ACTUALLY love Science, and don't stop thinking after entenring schools.</p>
<p>I am french, I studied at MIT, and Tsinghua (chinese MIT).</p>
<p>Well when you step in MIT, you will have the feeling that the Environnement is CREATIVE.</p>
<p>When you step in Tsnghua you fell that this is the hardiest University in the world. Not only the entrance examinations. Staying is frigging hard.</p>
<p>the whole reason of the 'prestige' of a University comes from its funds.</p>
<p>Suffices to say : give the same funds to Tsinghua, and you might be amazed to see that it would easilyu surpass MIT.</p>
<p>MONEY, MONEY, MONEY...</p>
<p>Tsinghua is real tough</p>
<p>yeah, but to get into tsinghua will be more tough ______for chinese students</p>
<p>The World Top Twenty Engineering and IT Universities are shown in the table below. </p>
<p>Rank University Country Score (Norm 200)
1 UC Berkeley US 200.00
2 Massachusetts Institute of Technology US 191.15
3 Stanford University US 150.71
4 Indian Institute of Technology India 149.34
5 Imperial College London UK 137.87
6 California Institute of Technology US 123.99
7 Tokyo University Japan 121.46
8 Cambridge University UK 116.46
9 National University of Singapore US 106.50
10 Beijing University China 102.42
11 Tokyo Insitute of Technology Japan 95.28
12 Oxford University UK 85.37
13 Harvard University US 83.04
14 Carnegie Mellon University US 82.90
15 Tsing Hua University China 76.28
16 ETH Zürich Switzerland 74.44
17 Georgia Institute of Technology US 72.99
18 Monash University Australia 70.04
19 Ecole Polytechnique France 69.84
20 Hongkong University of Sci and Tech Hongkong 68.62 </p>
<p>Table 1: World Top Twenty Engineering and IT Universities 2004 </p>
<p>This is sumthing u guys need to see....and to see it for urself .. d link is :Monash</a> Engineering and IT among the World Best</p>
<p>OK about IIT...it's very, very hard to get in. It's also no simple task to stay and do well - be prepared to sacrifice your social life for 4 years (and more, thanks to those prep academies).</p>
<p>But wait. Not all is well at this academic haven. Did you know that you might not get the major you want? There is a list of available majors - there aren't hundreds, let's just say that. Suppose you want major no. 5. Sadly, your rank in the entrance exam is a bit too low for you to be able to get major no. 5. Well, then you're forced to study a major with a number of 6 upwards, against your will. Is that the mark of a great university? To force its students to study something that they're hardly interested in? I think not.</p>
<p>Keep in mind though that the Indian students on CC are primarily IIT-bashers - and we are the minority.</p>
<p>what are some typical stats of IIT admitted students?</p>
<p>IIT likely has the smartest student body out of any college in the world, simply from the numbers. CalTech might beat it, but I doubt it.</p>
<p>:D Julliard :D</p>
<p>Harvard and Princeton
Then Oxford</p>
<p>No school outside the US and UK comes close.</p>
<p>umm... i believe peking U and tsing hua U are as hard as IIT, if not harder.</p>
<p>IIT is very hard to get into but is by no means the most prestigiuos
Harvard and Oxford seem to fit the bill for prestige</p>
<p>copper union takes 1,000 undergrads.</p>
<p>"IIT likely has the smartest student body out of any college in the world, simply from the numbers. CalTech might beat it, but I doubt it."</p>
<p>--if you consider the best rote memorizers the smartest in the world, perhaps then. And this goes out to the whole Indian university system, bleh.</p>
<p>"what are some typical stats of IIT admitted students?"</p>
<p>--IIT admissions aren't based on any 'stats' other than the student's rank in the entrance examination. Admitted kids tend not to do too well in school as they spend their entire high school career prepping for the IIT exam, and neglect their in-school exams.</p>
<p>Guys, you can't always go off admissions rates. A ton of people apply to certain schools, and not everyone is capable of the kind of competitive number-crunching that's required to get in out of so many vying applicants.</p>
<p>The problems someone posted earlier in this thread are hard but not tricky -- nothing like the AIME or anything like that that requires strange solutions sometimes. People also neglect the fact that sometimes math and physics and computer science is EASIER if it's what you love doing. Some people hate it, but others dream of trig and vector calculations via OpenGL in their sleep! </p>
<p>I don't think it's so clear what is harder than another at the upper levels. They're ALL good schools, and they're ALL going to be challenging. Cockwagging over the best/hardest university isn't going to yield much.</p>
<p>Deep Springs has an acceptance rate of like 5%. Maybe that's because the class is only 26 people.</p>
<p>Never heard of IIT.</p>
<p>Personally, I would have to say 5 schools get my vote:</p>
<p>California Institute of Technology
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of Cambridge
University of Oxford</p>
<p>C'mon people!</p>
<p>If you're talking about the hardest WITH the most prestige, you have to go with HYPS, MIT, Caltech, Oxford and Cambridge. Period. The list ends there.</p>
<p><<<it makes="" sense="" that="" a="" university="" in="" the="" #2="" most="" populous="" country="" world="" would="" need="" way="" to="" distinguish="" between="" applicants...="">>></it></p>
<p>DUH!!! I got so angry looking at this thread. I had never even heard of ITT before. And okay, the kids there might be brilliant. But it's not answering the question! Go to any third-world country and say "Harvard" and they will know. Say "ITT" and they will be like "huh?"</p>
<p>All these Indian fanatics man. Get over it. Geez practically every thread that asks for something good (i.e. Best ethnicity, best university, etc) is packed with Indian kids who come and scream "India! India! Anything of/from India!"</p>
<p>India is full of AIDS!!!!!!!</p>