What makes the IITs different? Why is there a clamour for getting into these institutes of technology? Why do companies prefer to hire from IIT? Let’s find out!
he IITs produce world-class engineers through a
curriculum which is rigorous. According to a documentary on CBS 60
minutes, less than two per cent of the exam-takers on an average get
into the IITs, while 10 per cent of the exam-takers get into Harvard.
Hence, the IIT JEE is considered to be one of world’s toughest exams.
So, what is IIT? Why do students undergo such hardship to enter an IIT?
“IIT
is a philosophy, not simply an educational programme,” says Padmashri
Dr. M. Anandakrishnan, Chairman of IIT Kanpur. With a number of
engineering colleges offering engineering education, the focus of the
IITs was to bring a substantial amount of science and humanities content
and create engineers of the future.
Pedagogy matters
The
“teaching-learning process” at the IITs are fundamentally different
from most other institutions. Here, the senior most professor is
assigned to take classes for the junior most students — the first-year
students.
This is to ensure that the senior most
professors and icons of specific subjects are easily accessible to the
beginner at IIT. This helps in building a healthy teacher-student
interaction. Also “there is no finality of the syllabus” says Dr.
Anandakrishan and goes on to explain that the faculty has the
flexibility to deliver the latest, updated and dynamic content for the
prescribed syllabus.
“IIT transforms life,” says
Srinivasan Viswanathan, an IIT Madras and IIM Ahmedabad alumnus,
executive director of TiE and member of the executive council of IIT-M
Alumni Association. For him it was a great experience making it to IIT-M
from small town Palayamcottai in the southern district of Tamil Nadu
with schooling in the Tamil medium. His biggest takeaway from the IIT is
the ecosystem that nurtures confidence, problem-solving and team
building skills. “What we learnt outside the classroom was as important
as what we learnt inside the classroom,” he says.
Vivek
Khandewal, alumnus of IIT Bombay feels that the kind of people he met
gave him an opportunity to look at things from various perspectives. The
life of an IITian is what he or she makes of it. The campus provides
numerous facilities and opportunities be it mountaineering, yoga, the
24-hour open tinkering lab, horse riding or music.
The
emotional bondage between the students and the faculty is also strong,
because at IIT, everyone lives within the campus — be it the student or
the faculty.
Prof. Anandakrishnan feels that it is
imperative that exposure be large, wide and deep. It is with this view
that IITs go a long way in helping the students get into their dream
companies, research labs and universities within or outside the country
to do their projects. IITs have one of the best alumni networks which
focus on nation-building efforts besides helping each other.
The
IITs have an excellent track record of placements. Some of the world’s
largest corporations and most of the Fortune 500 companies go after an
IITian . Besides, most of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs are from the
IITs. “Mindless cramming despite good scores and a seat at one of the
IITs leaves the student totally unequipped to face the academic rigour
of the IITs,” says Prof Anandakrishnan.
“Aspiring
for an IIT education is not enough, it is extremely important to be
committed to the academic achievements such as the scores and strike the
right balance. If you succeed it is fine, if you don’t its still fine
because there are so many more opportunities opening up,” says
Visawanathan. “If you don’t make it at the undergraduate level, try
getting into an IIT for the postgraduate courses,” says Prof
Anandakrishnan.
The writing on the wall very clearly
is ‘IIT is a big dream.’ And big dreams are built on strong
fundamentals. After all, it is the attitude that decides the altitude.
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