@Deeppak I’m not sure if I can add more to what thumper1 and wis75 said above in their very good responses.
And yes, it is “reply,” not “revert.” Revert means to take something back, or to return to a previous state.
Ok guys @MITer94 and @wis75 - FYI - “revert” is used in Indian English as “reply” - not sure why all of you felt the need to jump on this. In India we “revert back” to someone.
@Deeppak - yes this is sight mainly used for US parents and US kids preparing for US colleges. There is a secondary group of non-US kids/parents who are preparing for US colleges. VERY few people will have any advice when it comes to education in India or other countries. I am sure you can find very good Indian parenting sites that will have advice more suited to your questions and your situation.
Look - the most popular and successful methods for pursuing Engineering in India you already know. First - the IITs. If your kid is very bright then put everything you can think of into preparing him for the boards. If he doesn’t get into an IIT then send him to the best college in India he can get into for Engineering and let him think about going abroad for his masters.
It used to be that going abroad for graduate school was required for success…but not any more. The companies that Indians used to got to the US in the hopes of joining…all have office in India. Their Indian teams are huge and constantly hiring. My husband works in a very large American company - but we are based in India. My husband is CONSTANTLY in hiring mode. Good Engineers in India, from good Indian Engineering colleges can get excellent jobs with International companies right here in India.
So - stay the course. Support your son’s interest in Math and Science. Get him excellent tuitions or coaching. Keep him in a good school. Help him prepare for the boards so he can go to the best Engineering school in India. Honestly, no need to look abroad.
The ONLY friends I see sending Indian kids abroad for Engineering are people who have kids who are US citizens (of Indian parents) or people whose kids are more “American” than “Indian” and may not do so well in a more traditional Indian college.
On the other hand, if your child wants to attend a US school for the different pedagogical approach, the opportunity to do research, the residential community concept, for personal growth, immersion into another culture… then you need to think differently than for IIT’s.
First, your child can stay in his/her current school, but in Standard 10 see whether s/he still wants to go abroad and see if s/he can switch to an IGCSE curriculum, as it’ll be more recognized abroad (US, UK, Canada…) which would be followed by IB or A-Levels.
As a Standard 6 student potentially preparing for education in the US, your child from standard 6-9 would be ecpected to have activities s/he does for fun outside of school, including the arts/music, sports, environmental club, volunteering… it can be anything and should be diverse. Then, in Standard 10 (or earlier if s/he’s especially gifted), s/he would start taking on leadership roles and gaining recognition.
Many students interested in engineering get involved in Robotics clubs. Some also compete with motorized legos and other such things, and/or make films with friends.
Beside engineering, there’s also the field of Computer Science, which is distinct from Engineering: more colleges offer CS and it’s a field with enormous potential (see: http://www.mccormick.northwestern.edu/about/a-different-way-of-thinking.html ; http://www.mccormick.northwestern.edu/news/articles/2016/06/northwestern-announces-plans-for-major-expansion-in-computer-science.html) Many students teach themselves how to program, either with Scratch or Minecraft, and keep building their skills, learning languages, programming, inventing apps…
There are 3,700 universities in the US, so even the top 370 are good, and there are easily 100 that are eccellent.
Some outstanding colleges for engineering, beside MIT, include Stanford, Harvey-Mudd, Olin, RPI, Norhwestern, Vanderbilt, plus many public universities such as UIUC, Purdue, Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, Penn State, Cal Poly SLO, UWA.
I believe I can offer some advice. I know the Indian and American educational systems quite well.
@MITer94
While this is true in American english, in Indian english “revert” simply means “get back to me”.
It sounds like to me you are limited in funding. If you don’t have enough saved up for 4 years of tuition, expenses and travel in the bank (approx $250K USD or approx 200 Lakhs), then you probably will need financial aid. I would focus your efforts on US schools where you child is likely to receive substantial amounts of aid.
Getting into MIT, and other top US schools (Ivy league) is quite difficult from the subcontinent. The reason is that these schools are beseiged by students from India and China who need financial aid. Only a handful of students are need-blind to international students (Harvard, MIT, Princeton and Yale). The rest are “need-aware” which means they will determine your child’s ability to pay in deciding to admit him or not.
To be a compelling candidate from India your child will need the following:
- Top scores (750+ on each section of the SAT, plus several subject tests)\
- Evidence that English speaking is good (high scores on TOEFL, and/or studying in English medium schools)
- High class rank (top 1%)
- Extracurricular activities which demonstrate that your son is likely to be high impact. In the US extracurricular activities play a large part in who gets accepted. Unlike India there is less focus on test scores. So the reason the other posters recommended that you wait until your son develops interests, is because it is easy to spot a kid who has been forced into ECs simply for the sake of appeasing a parent. Wait until your child shows a passion in an area and then nurture it and take it to the next level.
The chances of getting into a US college are much higher than paying for a coach for JEE. I would consider JEE as a backup in case the US college situation doesn’t work out. The last option is probably the most commonly done for Indian immigrants: 1) Study a STEM related field in India for bachelors degree 2) Find a state university in the US to do a masters degree. There are thousands and thousands of desis who have immigrated to the US over the last 3 decades after getting a bachelors degree in India first.
Good luck
Never heard the term revert in over 30 years of dealing with Indians. When on a website one needs to use the local lingo and learn it if not known. Hence the correction- useful to the OP in dealing with American English in the future.
It is not the end of a career to not get into one of the elite schools. There are many top US universities that offer excellent engineering. In fact, some public U’s are better than the ivy league schools in this. Let your child lead the way, do not push him/her into any career or choice of college here or in India. Because of my husband I know of plenty of high IQ Indians who stay in India or are here in the US in various fields. There are many paths to a happy, fulfilled, successful life. It is most important to also include a happy childhood. This means not being obsessed with getting the “very best”. There are dozens of high caliber college options in many fields for the STEM minded child.
In British English usage, “revert” and “reply” are synonyms. India mostly models British English usage and the use of “revert” in this context is completely correct.