filmalife

hmm, also, I am not su sure what the graduates of IIT do in India after the graduate and how their smarts have helped their country at all. Don't you think the hardest university is the one right in your head?

Nurdy247

what are you taking about, " the one right in your head"???? and for how their smarts have helped their country, how about India will probably be more advanced then the US in 20-30 years and how all the top corporations in the US now have huge offices in India too.

Again I am not saying IIT is the most prestigious but in my opinion it is the hardest.

pinkytolip

it makes sense that a university in the #2 most populous country in the world would need a way to distinguish between applicants...

pyleela

In India it is not "just" studying. Many people believe that getting into IIT is "the" thing and take the test multiple times to get in. There are comparatively very few opportunities for students in India. There are IIT and Medical for prestige; both have strict acceptance numbers that don't change as the total population grows. And I don't think a lack of ECs makes anything easier in India. Because there are so many people in the nation, and so many people applying, proportionately, it is VERY tough to get into any "good" school.

ECs do come into play during college. Getting in is the hard part. Organizations such as AIESEC, Interact, Rotary, etc. are all very active in campuses throughout India.

IIT definitely isn't prestigious, per say, internationally and in terms of general global population. People usually only recognize Oxford, Yale, Princeton, Harvard. My mom told me yesterday that while in India she had only heard of Oxford and Harvard. My grandfather, a physics professor, however, regarded Cal, Stanford, Harvard, etc. in high regard b/c he read papers that originated from those universities.

Really, I think that a student should work rigorously to make a degree truly meaningful. It shouldn't depend on the school. **shrug**

JCoveney

Difficulty != prestige. The reason IIT is so hard to get into is because you're basically competing with all of India.

kyzan

Well, if we are going to determine the relative entrance difficulty of a school, then Tsinghua University in China is no less easier to attend than IIT. China's college admissions system, like those of India and other East Asian countries, are based solely on test scores. I can tell you, from the National Entrance Tests, Tsinghua's exams are no easier than IIT's. Actually, it can be argued in physics and mathematics, they are harder. Reason is China has THE largest Math and Physics Olympiad Training Camps in the world, always placing first in the IMO. Their AMC equivalent is the difficulty of AIMEs in the United States, and thousands of high school students take USAMO (equivalents) for more practice just to get selected in training camps.

But to base a university on prestige (money, influence, international distinction, famous geniuses, etc), I would undoubtly say Harvard University. No joke, it IS the International Standard, and it attracts the world's most talented minds. It is the institution with the second largest endowment in the world of 26.8 billion, only next to the Catholic Church. Schools such as IIT and Tsinghua may produce great minds, but Harvard produces the most innovations because of prestige and funding.

a778999

The thing is that foreign countries have smarter people, but then these people come to American universities because of the prestige, giving them even more prestige. It will take an extremely long time to break this cycle.

kyzan

actually, that cycle ^^ never breaks...hehe, its been like this all throughout history, starting with the ancient greeks. Its human nature for prestige to play a deciding factor in education

Derek Duplessie

At St. John's College every student has to take four years of classical math (from euclidian geometry to relativity), 3 years of lab (up to quantum mechanics), 4 years of language (two of ancient greek and two of french), and 4 years of seminar (philosophy, political science, theology, literature). Nobody graduates without studying something that they struggle with.

Gryffon5147

Never heard of IIT until last month on this forum. Prestige cannot be determined by local competition contexts. Look at Seoul University in Korea. In terms of percent admitted, it blows away the Ivy schools, but in the international rankings it is outside the top 150.

Pharmagal

Hi All,

Since the late 90s IITs have begun receiving the prestige and the recognition they deserve.

IITs are known not only for extremely difficult entrance standards, but also for the extent of difficulty in their course content and overall training. The best part of IITs graduation is that graduates from IIT have set up a strong collaborative network in top industry. Graduates from IIT are now either CEOs or comprise Senior Management in companies such as Infosys, Sunmicrosystems, Motorola, IBM, Microsoft, and Pepsi to name a few. Thus, being an alumnus from IIT can make a difference when looking for a job after graudating.

Anniushka

Like Gryffon, I had never heard of IIT before I came to this thread. How prestigious can a university be if there's someone who hasn't heard of it..? When I watch documentaries and such, I always look for the institution with which the expert/interviewee is associated, and I don't recall ever seeing anyone from IIT.

aritct

Ok, here comes the savior (me) to dispell all the myths.

Hi,
I am an international student LIVING in India.
So I guess I should know all about the IITs shouldn't I?
well, kind of yea

First,
Its not IIT that has a harsh and rigorous, its the entrance exam that is extremely difficult.
The entrance exam alone has very difficult questions and problems which you would not normally expect a high-school student to be able to do.

Second,
The competition for getting admitted into the IITs is intense.
around 200,000 students sit yearly for the entrance exam, and out of that only 2000 are admitted, and only 500 get the stream of their choice (i.e. you have to be ranked within the top 500 to be able to study Computer Engineering.)

Third,
No, its NOT true that people who apply to IIT have "Harvard" as their safety.
Just because a person who is sitting for the IIT exam can solve a lot of mathematical problems does NOT in any way mean that he has the extracurricular activities, or the rigorous course selection at high school which is needed for entrance to Harvard.
Most of them will lack even the ability to ace the SAT exam. (except well maybe the Math section)
To a lot of people, even to people who have been accepted to IIT, getting into Harvard would have proven much harder than spending 24/7 memorizing stuff and doing mathematical problems just for ONE entrance exam.

80% of the time, people who are crazy about getting into IIT, do nothing but study 24/7 and have almost no social life.

Fourth,
There are definitely IIT prep schools, which teach classes of around 4 hours a day, four days a week.
BUT, none of them start at 4 AM, I'm sorry.
And if 80% of the graduates were admitted lol, the entire population of India would make their kids join these prep schools....
And lol, they don't mind if you're late for even half an hour, cause its YOUR loss....

In the end,
my point is,
Its not IIT that is rigorous and hard,
its the Entrance exam.

09xoxo

^^ I like your post
However, if you say that a kid in the US got into Harvard purely for academics and math/science stuff, they'd be pretty talented as well. From looking at the problems and previous responses, and with knowledge of possible course selections in the US, the kids who get into Harvard purely on math/science should do just fine on those tests. It's not too hard to take up to differential equations and linear algebra in math, AP Physics C, AP Chem, and AP Bio, and I bet many people with those qualifications (and more) still don't get into Harvard. The thing with admissions in the US is that after a certain point, it's a crapshoot, IIT (and a lot of other International University) applicants know what they are striving for.

ps. TSINGHUA PRIDE (parent's an alumni)

tokyorevelation9

Hahvahd Schmahahvahd. Elis Too (Yale Schmale).

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