Praise for IIT’s

With such high profile alumni, the IIT's, it should be amply clear, are incredibly successful. Surely, no other institution has managed so much success, in so little time. Quite naturally, the IIT's are the toast of the world. Here are some interesting quotes.

From India

“My son wanted to do Computer Science. But to be in the IIT's, he had to be among the top 200 in the country. So he chose Cornell.”

- N R Narayana Murthy, founder, Infosys.

“I know cases where students who couldn't get Computer Science at IIT's, they have gotten scholarships at MIT, Princeton, at Caltech.”

- N R Narayana Murthy, founder, Infosys.

“When I finished IIT, Delhi and went to CMU for my masters, I thought I was cruising all along the way through Carnegie Mellon because it was so easy relative to the education I had gotten at IIT, Delhi.”

- Vinod Khosla, Venture Capitalist.

From Abroad

The IIT's are incredibly world class and unique. The impact of IIT's has been worldwide.

- Bill Gates, Microsoft

In a recent study, the United Kingdom-based Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) ranked the Indian Institutes of Technology as the third best technology universities in the world. Only Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and University of California, Berkeley, ranked higher.

In a statement, THES said:

"...The high praise for the Indian Institutes of Technology was no fluke. Up to third position, the IIT's are a source of Indian national pride as well as innovation and wealth.”

Praise has poured in from other sides, including the most powerful government in the world. The US Congress has praised the IIT's for their significant contributions to society in every profession and discipline - a first for any foreign university.

The full text of that accolade, known as House Resolution 227, is reproduced here.

In the House of Representatives.

Whereas the United States is deeply enriched by its Indian-American residents; Whereas the Indian-American community and the graduates of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) in the United States have made valuable and significant contributions to society in every profession and discipline;

Whereas IIT graduates are highly committed and dedicated to research, innovation, and promotion of trade and international cooperation between India and the United States: Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the House of Representatives–

1. Recognizes the valuable and significant contributions of Indian-Americans to American society;
2. Honors the economic innovation attributable to graduates of the Indian Institutes of Technology; and
3. Urges all Americans to recognize the contributions of Indian-Americans and have a greater appreciation of the role Indian-Americans have played in helping to advance and enrich American society.

And, the IITian himself, is a character with no parallel. BusinessWeek magazine called the IITian 'India’s greatest export'. Is it any wonder then that the IITian has found his way into Dilbert, the world's most famous management cartoon strip? Asok, a character in Dilbert, is from the Indian Institute of Technology.

IIT = Harvard + MIT + Princeton

“IIT = Harvard + MIT + Princeton” , says CBS '60 Minutes'.

CBS' highly-regarded '60 Minutes', the most widely watched news programme in the US, told its audience of more than 10 Million viewers that “IIT may be the most important university you've never heard of".

“The United States imports oil from Saudi Arabia, cars from Japan, TVs from Korea and Whiskey from Scotland. So what do we import from India? We import people, really smart people," co-host Leslie Stahl began while introducing the segment on IIT.

“…the smartest, the most successful, most influential Indians who've migrated to the US seem to share a common credential: They are graduates of the IIT.”

“…in science and technology, IIT undergraduates leave their American counterparts in the dust.”

“Think about that for a minute: A kid from India using an Ivy League university as a safety school. That's how smart these guys are.”

There are “cases where students who couldn't get into computer science at IIT, they have gotten scholarships at MIT, at Princeton, at Caltech.”

Clearly, there is something about the IIT's that sets them apart. What could it be possibly? And how did they become that way? The answers to both questions are found in their genes.

"The winners in life think constantly in terms of 'I can, I will, and I am.' Losers, on the other hand, concentrate their waking thoughts on what they should have or would have done, or what they can't do.”

- Dennis Waitley

The Origin

The origins of the IIT go back in time, even before India became independent. In 1946, the Nalini Ranjan Sarkar Committee, pondered on the issue of setting up 'higher technical institutions for the post-war industrial development' of India and recommended the establishment of institutions along the lines of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It is a tribute to our leaders that, just three years after Independence, in 1950, the first IIT was established in Kharagpur, West Bengal. Subsequ-ently, four more campuses were founded at Mumbai ('58), Chennai ('59), Kanpur ('60) and New Delhi ('61). In 1995, a sixth campus at Guwahati and in 2001, a seventh campus was established in Roorkee (by renaming Roorkee University, one of India's oldest engineering institutions, as an IIT).

From the beginning, the IIT's have been committed to a unique system of educational excellence. And the praise heaped upon them by different sections of the world is proof of how much the IIT's have succeeded in their single-minded pursuit of excellence.

What's more, the IIT's are not the kind to rest on their laurels. Even as IITians continue to make waves across the world, the IIT's are busy gearing up to replicate in the field of R&D the standards they have set in education.

A Captivating Code
As the earlier section showed, the IIT's have emerged as world-renowned centres of excellence. Naturally, studying in one of the IIT's is the biggest dream school students can have. And dream they do. In large numbers. Every year, nearly 4,00,000 students try to realise their dreams of studying in the IIT's!

However, every coin has two sides. If the IIT's are the dream, the IIT-Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) is the challenge. In fact, the JEE is nothing short of a Himalayan challenge. Most students burn the midnight oil for nearly two years, in the hope that they will get the better of the JEE, so that their dream sees the light of day.

The following section tells you more about the JEE challenge.

About the IIT-JEE

To get into the IIT's, you need to get past the JEE. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary that you understand the JEE well. That, really, is your first step.

It doesn't get tougher

A total of fifteen colleges use JEE as a sole criterion for admission to their undergraduate programs. The fifteen colleges include the seven old and six new (2008) Indian Institutes of Technology, IT-BHU Varanasi, and ISMU Dhanbad. Starting in 2007, newly established institutions such as Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISERs) at Kolkata, Pune, Mohali, Bhopal & Thiruvananthapuram, Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST), Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, Indian Institute of Maritime Studies, Mumbai and Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology (RGIPT), Raebarely Uttar Pradesh are also admitting students through the JEE (Extended Merit List).

Everyone knows that the JEE is one of the toughest science-oriented entrance exams in the world, testing applicants' knowledge of One word, Physics and Chemistry. But, just how tough is it? Well, the undergraduate acceptance rate at the IIT's through the JEE is around 2%, with around 400,000 annual test takers. That is how tough the JEE is.

So feared is the IIT-JEE that even preparing for the IIT-JEE is seen as a sign of the student being serious about his career.

The IIT’s - A Uniqe Code

In the heart of California exists a strip of land known as Silicon Valley. A mere 50 sq. km in size, this area gets its name from the silicon chip innovators and manufacturers that first set up shop there, decades ago. Today, the name has become a metaphor for high tech business and is home to over 4000 companies that, hold your breath, generate over 200 billion dollars.

Today, in the third millennium, driven by brains such as Rakesh, Silicon Valley is already emerging as the crucible of ideas for the New Economy. Want proof? Here it is. A recent study of 2,000 start-up ventures in Silicon Valley showed that about 40% are headed by Indians. Now, hold your breath again. Over half of these Indians have passed out of the seven engineering colleges that are together known as the Indian Institutes of Technology or, more popularly, the IIT's. In fact, the IITians (as graduates from the IIT's are called), have become the most influential fraternity in Silicon Valley, heading companies that are building cutting-edge technology.

Even more importantly, the success of the IIT's is not restricted to Silicon Valley. Around the world, across diverse industries, IITians occupy very important positions, as the following list shows.