<p>IIT- not what you are thinking of....Indian Institue of Technology</p>
<p>READ:</p>
<p>(CBS) What is America's most valuable import from India? It may very well be brainpower.</p>
<p>Hundreds of thousands of well-educated Indians have come to the U.S. in recent decades - many to work in the computer and software industries.</p>
<p>The best and brainiest among them seem to share a common credential: They're graduates of the Indian Institute of Technology, better known as IIT.</p>
<p>IIT has seven campuses throughout the country, and as we discovered when we traveled there last year, its students consider themselves the luckiest people in India. Correspondent Lesley Stahl reports on this story which first aired March 2, 2003.</p>
<p>Put Harvard, MIT and Princeton together, and you begin to get an idea of the status of IIT in India.</p>
<p>IIT is dedicated to producing world-class chemical, electrical and computer engineers with a curriculum that may be the most rigorous in the world.</p>
<p>Just outside the campus gates, the slums, congestion and chaos of Bombay are overwhelming.</p>
<p>But inside, it's quiet and uncrowded and, by Indian standards, very well equipped. Getting here is the fervent dream of nearly every student....</p>
<p>IITs have this image over here not because they're so good, but because everyone else is that bad. Around 250,000 students competed to get into an IIT this year, out of that around 5000 got in, and those figures tend to make one think that only the creme de la creme get in, but again that's doubtable. The selection is determined by an exam in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics, something similar to an AP syllabus, but the questions are far better. Dont believe me, have a look at these entrance test papers:</p>
<p>So, its cut throat, and you can slog enough, getting in is pretty black and white. Also, its very engineering oriented, so dont expect to study any liberal arts stuff here, any at all!</p>
<p>Now comes the good part. If you do get in, that means you were in about the top 2% of the country, and that still means you have a little brains, and the best part is this - its dirt cheap. A year's tuition would cost between $500-$1000, so for the many who cant afford a foreign education, the IITs are the best we have.</p>
<p>Since there are many Indians here on CC, I might just be in for a walloping for saying that IITs are overrated, but take the finances out of consideration, and the IITs barely match up to the best in the world.</p>
<p>Oh, and guys please try to keep a global perpective on the IITs on this thread, instead of following the "IIT-is-God" theme we do here all too often.</p>
<p>IIT's...I am one of the few Indians against them. To get in here, students begin going from coaching classes from grade 8 onwards. Their schedules would look somewhat like this during their last 2 years of school:</p>
<p>You get the point. Basically, people waste a few years of their lives preparing for these entrance exams. And the worst part? They aren't even guaranteed a spot in the major of their choice; what major you can pursue is decided by your rank in the exam, not by what you want - ridiculous!</p>
<p>Once you get in, stress levels are dangerously high. Lots of students turn to drugs and become addicts. Suicide is also prevalent. </p>
<p>But at the end of the day, the quality of education is very similar to what one can get at any other Indian university (forget liberal arts, the term doesn't even exist here). It's the cutthroat competition to get in that makes it so hyped about.</p>
<p>All right let me get a few things straight here. IITs are nothing more than bunch of over hyped crap. Reasons? Read on.</p>
<p>First reason is the admission process of IITs. Every IIT aspirant starts studying two years before the examination. Parents spend lakhs of rupees on the kids coaching. They attend various coaching classes where they are told to completely neglect their school work and even to miss their schools or goto such a school where academics really dont matter. The student also, unfortunately, ends up breaking away from his social life. Everything else becomes secondary. Personal health, academics, extra-curriculars take a back seat.
And even after such sacrifice what happens? Nothing. 400,000 students approx appear for the entrance exam. 5000 make it. Out of which only the top 500 (probably less) are given majors of their choice, the rest are randomly given the depts. And students still go ahead and take them. Why? Because they think the IIT tag is enough! But they are unaware of the fact that to get placed at a good company with a good salary they have to maintain a GPA of 9 on a scale of 10. Again, the rote learning kicks in.</p>
<p>I have never seen any IIT encouraging its students to go for research. Actually they dont have the funds. Students and professors live in dorms and buildings that you perceive as archaic. Forget the sports. Sports DONT EXIST at IITs. So much for spoiling your life for two years.</p>
<p>Most of the students are hooked to IITs because :</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Either their parents want them to go there. It has become some sort of social status.</p></li>
<li><p>The neighbors son is attending a coaching class. Competition heh</p></li>
<li><p>Someone in the family is trying for the IITs. wow legacy.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>So to sum it up you bust your butt for two years to be awarded a random dept. (maybe textile engg. even if you wanted Electrical) and you goto a place without a social life, sports etc. Do you really want that money and wake up every morning of your life to drag yourself to a job which you were never interested in? Not me atleast.</p>
<p>PS: I was one of the students who joined the coaching classes. But fortunately I have left it and am pleased with what I pursuing.</p>
<p>Glad you guys agree, but there are some errors here.</p>
<p>IIT does have sports, both intra and inter-IIT, but of course, they're limited, and of course nobody gets in for athletic ability.</p>
<p>Research - Does exist, but very, very limited for undergrads, and its rarely on the cutting edge, most of it is developing low cost solutions.</p>
<p>@tetris: that seems an exaggeration, I guess the average student takes 3-4 hours of coaching per day on average, of course most love making life hell with the amount of time they spend behind the desk at home.</p>
<p>Hmmm. This is a very interesting thread, and it makes sense in a strange way.</p>
<p>First, if one has to maintain a 9 out of 10 to get a good job, it's clear that good jobs are limited. Clearly, India is doing its best to train people for highly technical jobs that will attract international investment ... "train them and they will come." And, in fact, they are. US technical support functions are being increasingly outsourced to India, primarily because there is so much talent at so little cost. I'm betting the IITs have a large impact on that.</p>
<p>The lack of liberal arts classes also makes sense because of limited means of investment (I'm guessing), but I think India pays a price for this. There is an enormous backlash in the US against technical telephone support from India because, to the US ear, the Indian accent can be very difficult to understand. Oddly, it's a very easy thing to fix. All it would require is changing the emphasis in certain syllables.</p>
<p>Something else is becoming clear to me. US companies are having a hard time with their Indian employees treating US consumers as though they're stupid. If the people manning the phones are from IITs, it's perfectly understandable that they would think of themselves as elite.</p>
<p>
[quote]
IIT is better than harvard yale princeton oxford cambridge MIT CIT... its crazy there's no debate here... hardest school to get into BY FAR.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Sure they are. That's why there are so many Nobel Prize winners teaching in the IITs.</p>
<p>"IIT is better than harvard yale princeton oxford cambridge MIT CIT... its crazy there's no debate here... hardest school to get into BY FAR."</p>
<p>Hardest, maybe yes. But it produces the most single-dimensional graduates out of all those other schools you mentioned out there.</p>
<p>Maybe I'm biased, but ask any other Indian on the board - the Indian education system seriously, seriously sucks. And the IIT's are no exceptions. If you like rote learning, you'll love Indian universities.</p>
<p>That's why there are so many Nobel Prize winners teaching in the IITs.----
look at the salaries they offer- even if the professors there choose to work for the industry , they'll get like 4 times what they get-
why would someone stay there then????
except those who really like teaching........</p>
<p>Also i have friends who have gotten through IIT- you see- they liked solving sheets and sheets of numericals.
Of course they had to work hard but then you have to do that in everything in life.</p>
<p>About IIT's reputation, maybe its a bit exaggerated. Hard to get in does not equal to better univ. Take Seoul National University for example. Many say its harder to get in than Harvard, but their rankings are never above 50 (I know rankings matter little, but still).
Oh, and if you decide the quality of an institution by its nobel laurates, Oxford would be 1st and U Chicago would come next</p>
<p>PS: Never seen IIT in any of the college rankings that I've seen (Newsweek, THES, US News.). Not saying that IIT isn't good, but just never heard of it, therefore I'm ignorant about the quality and prestigiousness of this institution (heck, it might be better than MIT, Caltech, but I dont know much to judge)</p>
<p>It's unfortunate that an emerging country like India would have so few spaces available to its students that getting in would be so competitive. And I think that's what's really happening here. The quality of the student body is, no doubt, quite high. But this does not mean that the quality of the professor is every bit as high as, say, those at MIT.</p>
<p>Forming an applicant pool out of a population of a billion something and counting, the IIT would undoubtedly be competitive. The chances of acceptance however, do not testify to an institution's quality of education or that of its instructors. Sure, its a good national school, but it doesn't come close to matching top US, UK schools in funding, resources, and professor quality.</p>
<p>BTW, IIT has a competition of 55 to 1 (1.8% accept rate). That doesnt mean its awesome (well, it is, but doesnt come even CLOSE to MIT, Caltech from what I've researched). Its only because of the large population, and because there is no other prominent competition college in India.</p>