The Best Course/IIT Dilemma
Well every now and then somebody pops up this question- "Which IIT is the best? Where should my son/daughter go?"
After having left IIT and having a lot of interaction with people from other IITs, I have had a lot of thoughts on this question. To me, the best "IIT/Course" would be the one that gives *you* what *you* want. It's not the IIT that's best ranked, it's not computer science (for god's sake) and it certainly is not India Today's top ranked IIT.
All kinds of people get into IITs and people come out as all kinds. It touches, moulds, changes and wrenches every passer-by's life, morals, visions, hopes and personality.
Ask any ex-IITian what he cherishes the most about his life in IIT and you'll get a six-sigma answer of his friends, wingmates, hostel life- everything *non* academic.
Student fresh out of school are too starry eyed to realise where they are heading. Amidst family and peer pressure, they don't even realise that the branch/IIT they are choosing as *their choice* is not even their choice. When they finally end up in an IIT, it is all too late. We have all seen it- many a potential geniusus gone to waste the usual route- alcohol, sex and drugs. What makes it more disturbing is the phenomenon of lack of interest in courses and the professor/ student divide in the IITs.
So what is it that makes a good branch/IIT? I open the floor to you. And yes, given a chance, which branch/IIT would *YOU* choose and why?
posted by shishirb at
5:33 PM
1 Comments:
I am very much on board with the line that the best iit/course is the one which gives you what you want. But then let us consider an average school student who has got some rank in jee. If he/she has a passion for something, well and good, it is in their best interests to take it up. But then, i would like to point to the vast majority of them who will not know, with the kind of exposure they have had, what really they want. For them it is only the computer science branch or the India today ranked iit, which is the best. The fact these rankings are nothing but a load of rubbish will
be realised only after they join the system.
Undoubtedly, it is the non-academic domain of iit which would be treasured and here i totally agree that no rankings can ever take these into account. So to say that this iit is the best is meaningless.
Coming to me, if i were given a chance to choose my branch again, i think i would say it does not matter which branch i choose! i might as well take up the same branch again as this is the only which i have so closely been associated with and me belonging to the second category of students mentioned above feel that i would go for the known devil(my own branch though not the *best* one) than the unknown one as i have no particular passion for any other branches.
October 16, 2004 at 9:57 PM
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