<p>“The very “high standard” for selection by IITs is arbitrary.”</p>
<p>Hmm… I think a lot of people on this board need to take a course in cultural studies 101. what colleges base their admissions on is totally based upon the country’s values. america values leadership, and thus, colleges always want to accept leaders. in most asian countries, leadership isn’t AS important as smarts/intelligence, knowledge, and top-notch performance. that is partially why asian schools are so numbers driven (besides the fact that a ton of applicants apply); they want applicants who know their stuff well and can deliver the best test performance. </p>
<p>“All those in support of IIT must have parents who went there. IIT is by no means an institute of world stature.”</p>
<p>I am in full support of IIT, yet I don’t have parents who went there (parents were educated by Stanford and Berkeley), I’m not Indian, and I wasn’t born in Asia. No connections… I support IIT because IIT IS NOT “CRAP” like you said it is, mercurysquad. </p>
<p>"Take a look at the following site - <a href=“http://ed.sjtu.edu.cn/ranking.htm[/url]”>http://ed.sjtu.edu.cn/ranking.htm</a> "</p>
<p>The ranking does NOT show academics. I don’t see how I can figure out the academic quality of the school for undergrad based on those rankings. Nobel prize winners don’t tell me anything about how good of an education I will get. Besides, if you agree with that ranking, you’re saying dartmouth and brown are crap too, cuz look where they are ranked. Again, the ranking doesn’t measure undergrad academic quality… i mean, UCSF is on there! (it only has grad med programs)</p>