Would you send your child to India for a college education?

Parent Cafe
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<p>I don’t know about IIT, but at most universities in India there is a lot of bribery and corruption, both for admission and thereafter for passing courses.</p>

<p>Sure, in the US some students cheat too, and there are the usual ‘what about developmental admits?’ arguments. But in the US you just do not expect an administrator or professor to have his hand held out for money going into his pocket.</p>

<p>Example:</p>

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<p><a href=“http://news.rediff.com/column/2010/may/10/tvr-shenoy-on-the-degeneration-of-indias-universities.htm[/url]”>http://news.rediff.com/column/2010/may/10/tvr-shenoy-on-the-degeneration-of-indias-universities.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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Some of those heading back are doing so not so much out of desire but because they can’t get a company to sponsor them here. There is an incredible number of Indians in our grad schools who are trying to stay in the USA afterwards but because of lack of a work visa and companies not willing to sponsor them for entry level positions head back to India - I’m sure many of them reluctantly. I do, however, know of at least one person who could have stayed working here who chose to head back to India but this was more because he wanted to live in India closer to family, etc. than opportunity.</p>

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<p>yes. I would send my kids if they get in. watch this.
[‪Documentary</a> on IIT 1‬‏ - YouTube](<a href=“- YouTube”>- YouTube)</p>

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<p>While it is indeed easier to get into the IITs than say HYPSM (because all you have to do is be good in math, physics, and chemistry, there are no other requirements) I would discourage my son from going there. The culture shock will be too much. The IIT courses are fairly easy, too. But then college here is not that hard either. I would say they are about the same.</p>

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<p>Turbo, I agree that higher standards are just a starting point, the next step is for parents to get involved and help the kids meet the high standard.</p>

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<p>My kid would indeed melt. From competition - and the heat.</p>

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<p>My daughter loved India- she appreciates it even more after her recent stay in Costa Rica which she said was trying too hard to be American although ( she felt) more people spoke English in India ( even in rural southern India), than in Costa Rica.</p>

<p>She hasn’t mentioned attending school there however, but then she isn’t an IT student.</p>

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<p>No, unless you can’t afford college here. As good at the IIT’s are, I don’t see them better than Caltech and MIT.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the very interesting and informative replies. I am learning a lot about India and find it a fascinating place. When I look at the the population (approximately three times the US) and the fact that only about 8000 attend the IIT’s it seems these students should really be the best of the best. With so many CC parents pushing really hard for the best education possible for their children I thought more might have considered the idea (especially since from what I know the classes are taught in English). It also seems to me that $ is not a problem for many CC parents.</p>

<p>Anyway, I am still interested in experiences people have had as well as reasons for/against an IIT education (obviously for STEM majors).</p>

<p>I am also interested in the story of the student who studied so hard to get in; did he need to keep up that pace one he was an IIT student? Is there a lot of burn out or is the pressure culturally acceptable? Do IIT graduates who live in the US feel that their children are receiving a “sub par” education in the US compared to the opportunities they were given (or the opportunities the average Indian student is given)?</p>

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<p>Limabeans, I think few CC parents consider an education in India because if a child is academically qualified for a school the caliber of IIT, he/she is also qualified for merit aid at many excellent American schools, both public and private.</p>

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<p>I’ve worked with a bunch of IIT’ians (mostly Madras and Bombay) and they were in par with the best grads from our top schools here. </p>

<p>When you see someone from IIT Madras (Hi Srini) remember obscure statistical communication theory stuff from a couple decades ago like he just took the midterm, then you can begin to comprehend how good the IIT’s are :-)</p>

<p>Other than the fact that the IIT-M folks I know have a wicked sense of humor and a strong preference for WMD-grade spicy foods, I should also mention that the majority of the IIT’ians I’ve worked with are now managing directors, executives, and the like, in both US and foreign companies. So they had ambition as well as the skills.</p>

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<p>That admit rate is NOT comparable to ours. </p>

<p>It amounts to declare that everyone who takes the SAT or ACT is a de facto applicant at … Smith. Or that anyone who takes the BAC in France is an applicant to the Sorbonne.</p>

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<p>Having worked with Indians for 30+ years there are three or so distinct waves in ‘skill’ level that I have observed since the early 80’s. </p>

<p>Wave 1 was early 80’s to 1990 or 1991. Mostly IIT and BIT types, excellent academic skills, and advanced degrees from top schools in the US. Most of my friends are now execs here or in India.</p>

<p>Wave II was the 1990’s, where one saw mostly the B-grade Indian schools followed by grad school in the US at a well respected (but definitely not top) schools in the US. Many of them are stuck career wise. </p>

<p>Wave III is 2000+ and it includes lots of people from the never-heard-of schools and often not even a US graduate degree. These are mostly on H1B, with few sponsorship opportunity.</p>

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<p>Xiggi, about the IIT admit rate, why do you insist on talking about things that you know nothing about?</p>

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<p>Capitalism in action Turbo. As India becomes more like the USA no one wants to work or study hard and hence you have these crap schools producing crap STEM majors. In the years past these kids wouldn’t get a chance to study STEM and would instead get a arts degree and remain lifelong unemployed. Now they get an H1B and a job in the USA.</p>

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<p>Haha, IndianParent, is this a retaliation for my comments in the test prep thread? </p>

<p>You are most welcome to show why my post anout admit rates is factually incorrect. This is a free forum … go for it. Please do not hesitate to educate this forum about the inner workings of the joint entrance exams.</p>

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<p>If the US is so terrible, why is India becoming more like it? The importing of H1B visa contractors is watering down the salaries in the US in many fields.</p>

<p>Turbo, your description above matches beautifully with what I’ve been told.</p>

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<p>Do all Indian’s who take the IIT get put into a pool for the IIT’s with the highest scorers being admitted? If they did only take 8000 students, given their enormous population, it seems to me the SAT would indeed be a very weak exam compared to the one they take.</p>

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<p>Apples and oranges!</p>

<p>Tsinghua University could claim 10,000,000 applicants.</p>

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Getting in during my time, and now, is monumentally intensive. I started prepping over an hour/day every day in phy/chem/math from about 9th std - at that time we graduated after 11th and the degree was 5 years. Once in, even though the course load was generally higher than in the US, I don’t think too many classmates felt the pace was that rough. </p>

<p>The cultural difference was this - we had accepted (and enjoyed) the fact that we would spend a lot of time after class reading up and discussing classwork. I don’t recall a single student who held a job or had to juggle schedules and put in late nights working at the equivalent of pizza places - we led very shielded lives. There were exactly two females in our graduating class and I would estimate a huge majority of us never dated even once in those five years, so the issues and drama involving relationships didn’t exist. I’m sure this has changed because there are significantly more females now. Still, for most of us this was one of the best eras of our lives, and we graduated with outstanding mathematical foundations in our disciplines. </p>

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Firstly, let’s discount the education that the <em>average</em> Indian student is given - it will be considered unacceptable in any Western country.</p>

<p>It may be worthwhile comparing someone from a middle or upper-middle class city setting there with what you get in the US. - For younger kids here, if you just sat back and took was dished out, some of what the kids will receive will be below par. But the biggest factor is that in the US, there is simply <em>so</em> much opportunity for a motivated kid and an involved parent. You have the opportunities involving people skills, growing up, leadership, etc. that most will accept the US is quite adequate in. When you look at STEM, generally considered a weakness, there is still so much opportunity:</p>

<p>We had a variety of off-class programs for gifted kids from elementary school upwards where the child could go deeper into a subject than any of his teachers. Between the various olympiads, inter-school bees, science fairs and presentations, there were weeks where my kids were more out of class than in. A slacker in the US however would be allowed to remain so unlike a lot of “tigering” for such a kid there that would perhaps get the baseline up.</p>

<p>Independent of school there are resources like AoPS [Art</a> of Problem Solving](<a href=“http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/]Art”>http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/) or the MIT open courseware lectures such as:
[MIT</a> OpenCourseWare | Physics | 8.01 Physics I: Classical Mechanics, Fall 1999 | Home](<a href=“http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/physics/8-01-physics-i-classical-mechanics-fall-1999/]MIT”>http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/physics/8-01-physics-i-classical-mechanics-fall-1999/)
There’re contests like Matchcounts for the younger ones and AMCs, AIMEs, and ARML
<a href=“http://www.lehigh.edu/~dmd1/arml.html[/url]”>http://www.lehigh.edu/~dmd1/arml.html&lt;/a&gt; that brought together the top math students in the country. DS would attend practice sessions that I would help out in that would get fifty plus kids (some as young as 7th grade) who showed up on Sunday afternoons for no credit or grades, tackling problems like: <a href=“http://arml.com/2011_Contest/2011_contest_entire_draft_v1.1.pdf[/url]”>http://arml.com/2011_Contest/2011_contest_entire_draft_v1.1.pdf&lt;/a&gt;
These far exceeded I have ever had - but here it was, available for free. (The thing these darned American kids haven’t been taught is to be absolutely respectful to their elderly - I would be challenged by some precocious 9th grade kid who would then proceed to pulverize me in a discrete math problem :wink: </p>

<p>College here is the same way. The internships that DD and DS got here all the way from freshman summer, the real-world technical and people-experience and money, were absolutely unbelievable. I don’t know how it’s in India today, but other than the uber-connected classmates, none of us set foot in any real-world project throughout our five years in a top notch school. I still smile at some of the discussions DS and I had about some EE concept where I would dwell on the beauty of some mathematical fundas governing it, while he would just proceed and solve the actual problem.</p>

<p>I thought most of us did exceptionally well in our initial techie-intensive jobs, and some of us were flexible enough to grow into senior management, while many like myself never rose above a 30-employee or so position, or stayed in academia in large numbers. People skills, risk taking, project management, the ability to sell your ideas, etc. matter more in the long run than the areas we focussed on. </p>

<p>Overall, a great experience and fond memories for me, but the western setting is probably better for my kids.</p>