IITs: A place to dream..A place to grow..

"Legends say Japan was built by a sword. The old gods dipped a coral blade into the ocean and when they pulled it out, four perfect drops fell into the sea and those drops became the islands of Japan"

-The last Samurai [2003]These four drops since then have set many examples and proved their presence before the world. The reason beings this four together were destined to have such brave people who could surpass all odds and yet outshine.

IITs, I believe have a similar hidden story which somehow got lost in the mythological Indian books. These seven sisters (the seven IITs) were ordained to make a mark in the world. The mark being such strong that nothing strong enough as political turmoil, reservations etc. could deface it.

Guarded by one of the toughest exams, believed to be a nightmare by many, the"Joint Entrance Examination"popularly known as the JEE has always been very selective in giving a green card for entry to these vibrant hamlets. It has till now maintained a clean record of selecting only those creative minds who think different, though it has itself moulded to new patterns some times.

People believe IITs to be a budding place for geeks who were thorough with the concepts of applied sciences and cleared an exam which they term as the admission procedure. But the fact is these few had the courage to think out of the box. The IITs are then blessed to shape this out thinkers to perfection.

Life at IIT is a dream to cherish. A place where each individual is busy in doing something different, something that makes him happy and that gains him satisfaction. Its here we understand what talent really is. Equipped with all state-of-art facilities, IITs provide you with everything you need for your personal development. And then there are these bunch of inquisitive minds who keep boggling their minds together over something. Take a round around the campus , you would find a group busy with honing their music skills whereas other one playing a football match. This is just a small picture of the actual climax. Even in a campus of 2100 acres of IIT Kharagpur you would hardly find a place vacant without any activities. The atmosphere at IITs is so soothing and vibrant that you start feeling it more home-like and gain serene peace.

IITs provide residential facilities to all its students, research scholars and faculty inside the campus. The students live in hostels (referred to as Halls of Residence in IIT Kanpur and IIT Kharagpur). Some of the IITs have specific names for each hostel on campus: IIT Madras has hostels named after Indian rivers, IIT Kharagpur has hostels named after national leaders and hostels in IIT Delhi are named after Hills. Separate hostels are available for men and women. All students, including those in the newer IITs are provided with broadband Internet access in their rooms.

Although known only for academic excellence, IITs also play a major role in developing the personality of the students. They provide students a platform to showcase their talents in extra-curricular activities.

IITs have all the facilities to nurture and develop the talents of students in sports. They also have facilities to improve the fitness of students. These facilities include playgrounds for various sports like Cricket, Football, Hockey, Volleyball, Lawn Tennis, Badminton, Athletics, Basket-ball and Squash courts, swimming pool and gymnasium. Usually the hostels also have their own sports grounds.

IIT's academic curriculum includes Extra Academic Activity as a part of syllabus for first years, to provide them an opportunity to involve in social life. It is made compulsory for all, as many students might hesitate to come up and show their talents. Extra Academic Activity in IITs involves NSO (National Sports Organization), NCC (National Cadet Corps), Yoga and NSS (National Service Scheme). The NSO involves providing coaching facilities to students by well trained coaches.

Session at IITs starts with Fresher's events, which are conducted exclusively for first years. These events are conducted soon after the admissions to IIT. The purpose of such events is to bring hidden talent of first years and build confidence of first years.

Inter-Hostel events in IITs are a very crucial and dynamic part of campus life. Many social-cultural events, technology oriented events and sports events are conducted among hostels and the winning hostel gets 'points'. The General Championship (known as GC) for Technology, Social-Cultural and Sports is awarded to the hostel scoring the highest points in the the particular set of events. Some Inter-Hostel events involve each and every resident. It brings unity among hostel mates, develops social life and instils team spirit in students.

In each of the IITs, many student groups called Societies/Clubs, work for the development of skills in students in specific areas. These small student organizations also provide opportunities to students passionate about a certain field to learn and develop their interest. They recruit students from fresher's and then same fresher's becomes head of the societies, basically societies/clubs are the platform where fresher's learn from their seniors and teach to their juniors. In IITs such clubs are highly active and student's involvement is also quite good. These student's organizations get funding from the Gymkhana.

All the IITs compete in a variety of sports held under the purview of the Annual Inter IIT Sports Meet. The competition is organized every year in the month of December in one of the seven IITs. As swimming and water polo are played in water, which is usually very cold by the month of December, the Inter IIT Sports Meet for them is usually held in the first week of October and is called Inter IIT Aquatics Meet. The Inter-IIT Sports Meet takes the student training and preparation for the events to the next level, and provides a bigger stage for the students to perform.

All IITs organize annual festivals (technical, social cultural and sports) in which students from the IITs and even other colleges participate. Usually these festivals last 3 to 4 days. These annual festivals are completely organized by students, and they get funding through sponsorship from companies. These fests enable students in campus to compete with other college students, giving exposure of IIT life to other engineering college students. These fests also provide exceptional opportunities to develop managerial skills to its organizer students.

It's hard to explain through words and articles what life an IITian gets at IIT. And that's why maybe it's a choice as a country that we make whom we give those elitist tags to.

Note:: The writer is one of the founding members of collegepedia.in who recently revived his passion for blogging.

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? Lets find out!The 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 worlds 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 MATTERSThe 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 worlds 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 dont its still fine because there are so many more opportunities opening up, says Visawanathan. If you dont 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.

The quintessential history of IITs in India can be traced back to Indias revolutionary pre-independence era when, for the first time, Sir Ardeshir proposed the concept of IITs right after the second world-war. Owing to Sir Adheshirs vision of Indias massive future dependence on technology, firstmajor IIT was founded in Kharagpur in 1951 and Sir J.C. Ghosh (the then Director of Indian Institute of Science) who, along with Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, played a vital role in introducing IITs in India became its first director.And ever since, IITs have become the foundation of Indias endless growth and have also contributed immensely to its modern image. However with the introduction ofBITS Pilani (Birla Institute of Technology and Science)in 1964, the limelight that only IITs had hogged so far was divided abruptly, owing to BITS Pilanis overwhelming reception amongst a large group of students.Although both,IITs and BITS-Pilani, have walked parallel to establish Indias unparalleled technological image in the world, the comparisons were inevitably drawn with or without logics by a large Indian group. These on and off comparisons have now become a national debate, which, many groups believe, has no concrete conclusion in the near future.Ones superiority over another is illusive and hard to predict by mere unresponsive facts. Hence to help you find the better of the two, weve looked at the comparison between IITs and BITS Pilani the other way. Unlike existing comparisons, which are mostly biased or unreal, we have tried to view these comparisons from the perspectives of students from IITs and BITS-Pilani.Lets take you through this detailed study carried out by us.Companies Founded by IITians and BITS Pilanis StudentsTo really understand how important or effective a strong entrepreneurial culture can be for any campus, we should rather take an example of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT.The total revenue of the companies founded by MIT graduates is on the verge of surpassing the mark of whopping $2 trillion, which is far more than Indias current GDP.That explains how the number of graduates from IITs and BITS-Pilani, those who have founded companies, can be taken as an ideal yardstick to figure out the better between the two.According to official reports, BITS Pilani has been experiencing a constant growth in the number of companies founded by its students.GharPay, Zivame & Exotel, and redBus have their founders tracing their roots back at BITS Pilani. On the other hand, Scripbox, Online Prasad, Grey Orange Robotics, Forus Health, BigBasket, and Attune have their co-founders from BITS Pilani.Not only strong entrepreneurial, but also BITS modern take on education, all around development, and innovate exposure makes BITS Pilani stand out from the rest.CompaniesFoundersEngineering Institute

redBusPhanindra Sama, Sudhakar Pasupunuri, Charan PadmarajuBITS-Pilani

Akmai TechnologyPreetish NijhawanBITS-Pilani

HotmailSabir BhatiaBITS-Pilani

WebifyManojr SaxenaBITS-Pilani

OnidaGullu MirchandaniBITS-Pilani

Value FirstGagan ChaddhaBITS Pilani

Rajeshi-Flex SolutionsBITS Pilani

Now to talk about IITs, the institution has also produced founders of many prestigiousstart-upsin India and abroad. Lets go through the table given below to know the founders of suchstart-upsfrom IITs.CompaniesFoundersEngineering Institutes

InfosysN.R. Narayana MurthyIIT-Kanpur

SnapdealRohit BansalIIT-Delhi

BluepageAyush Vashney, Sahil BaghlaIIT-Kanpur

TranswebAditya Singhal, Nishant SinhaIIT-Delhi

FlipkartSachin Bansal and Binny BansalIIT-Delhi

Travel TriangleSankalp Agarwal, Sanchit Garg, Prabhat GuptaIIT-Kharagpur, IIT-Bombay, IIT-Guwahati

Total Number of Students Graduating from IITs and BITS-PilaniTotal number of students who graduated last year from IITs was 6491 while those who passed out from BITs Pilani were approximately 2000 students. Understandably, its a huge difference between the two. This means that the campus with the highest number of students passing out every year is producing more number of successful engineers than the other. More number of engineers means more number of successful entrepreneurs and a great economic boost for the country.Notable Positions in the Corporate World Held by BITSians and IITiansAlthough both IITs and BITS-Pilani have had a parallel walk to Indias growth, there is a huge difference between IITians and BITSians holding prestigious positions in the corporate world.Soumitra Dutta from IIT-Delhi is the Dean of Cornell Universitys Management School. Dipchand Deep Nishar is the most paid manager currently working at LinkedIn. On the other hand, theres Vinod Khosla from IIT-Delhi again, one of the most influential personalities in Silicon Valley, the co-founder of Sun Microsystems. We cant forget Nikesh Arora, a graduate from IIT-Varanasi, who is the Senior Vice President and Chief Business Officer of Google. He is one of the most paid employees working with Google.Baba Kalyani (the chairman of Bharat Forge), Sanjay Mehrotra (President and co-founder of SanDisk), Prithviraj Chavan (Chief Minister of Maharashtra), Gullu L. Chandani (Founder and CEO of Onida Electronics), Sunil Duggal (CEO of Dabur), and Rakesh Kapoor (CEO of Reckitt Benckiser) etc. are some of the most notable Alumnifrom BITS Pilani.Apparently, number of notable positions held by IITians and BITSians, again, entirely depends on the number of students graduating every year. Obviously, more number of students passing out every year from any institute will have more chances of securing more notable positions in the corporate world.Average Pay Package offered to IITians and BITSiansA lot of factors are taken into account by companies when determining average pay packages for both IITians and BITSians. So to talk about a particular average pay package here, we will actually end up doing a lengthy, complicated discussion without any concrete conclusion. We must rather tread on to a safe and, of course, a less complicated path. Lets review average pay packages based on last 5 years packages offered to students of B.Tech at top IITs and BITS Pilani campuses.The average pay package offered to any IITian (B.Tech) is anywhere between Rs 43750 and 48,000 monthly.The average pay package offered to any BITSian (B.Tech) is anywhere between Rs 39500 and 43,000 monthly.However, you must not forget that there is a lot of variance among these packages due to various factors. Salaries go up and down as per the ability of candidates and their academic performances.Average pay packages vary for candidates receiving job offers from abroad. As per official records, finance companies offer best packages to their employees. Goldman Sachs, Tower Research Capital, and World Quant etc have offered 20 lpa to IITians.Highest Pay Packages Offered to IITians and BITSiansThe worlds attention turns to IITs and BITS-Pilani suddenly every year with the news of fat pay packages offered to their students. But if we talk about who beats another when it comes to bagging the highest pay packages, then theres a lot of disparity to witness here.There are 12 IITians from IIT-Kanpur who have very recently bagged a fat pay package of Rs. 1 crore each while there are these two incredible BITSians who have bagged the highest pay packages ever in India till date with Rs. 1.44 crore.But again, as in case of average pay packages offered to IITians and BITSians, highest pay packages too depend entirely on candidates abilities, academic performances, and other important factors.Academic and Extra-Academic EnvironmentDespite being among the proudest technology institutes of India, educational and college environment of the two differ drastically. And if this is the only factor one has to consider, then, obviously, BITS Pilani will score more points than IITs.In fact, the popularity of BITS-Pilani among its engineering aspirants is highly driven by its educational and college environment. The ambience of BITS Pilanis campus is both inspiring and vibrating with perfectly planned and aligned layout for the whole campus, libraries, and hostels.IITs cannot beat the BITS Pilanis unique concept of taking tutorials from the teacher of students choice. BITS cultural events such as Grubs are mind blowing. They dont only help you delve into your Indian roots, but also help you find the real you.According to a survey, many students believe that BITS Pilani adapts faster to changes in educational sector than IITs. For example, Engineer Graphics in BITS is still called Engineer Drawing in IITs. BITS uses AutoCad for Engineering Graphics while IITs still go the traditional way.Fee StructuresAll right! As IITs are run by the government of India, their fee structures are inevitably lower than that of BITS Pilanis campuses. Lets take a look at the fee structure of top IITs across India in general category.The total fees payable at the time of admission at IIT-Bombay is Rs 67,876 while the total fees payable at the time of admission at IIT-Delhi is Rs 56,635. The total fees payable at the time of admission by students at IIT-Kanpur is Rs 66,517 while its Rs 57,876 at IIT-Kharagpur.IIT-Roorkee charges Rs 63,820 while IIT-Madras charges Rs 54,927.BITS Pilani is very expensive as even its integrated first degrees program cost over lakhs.InfrastructureTo meet all contemporary educational demands and needs of students, both IITs and BITS Pilanis campuses are equipped with quality infrastructures complementing their reputations.However, as BITS Pilani seems to have made it a point to adapt to changes in technology faster than IITs, BITS is equipped with better infrastructures than IITs.IIM ConversionAlthough about 4-5% IITians prepare for CAT just after graduation, this percentage increases from 40% to 60 % once candidates earn quality work experience. And about 60 % students receive degrees in MBA. Most IITians also prepare for Civil services.On the other hand, 50% to 70% students receive degrees in MBA while 10-20% students opt for research in India or abroad. However, students from BITS Pilani opt less for Civil Services as compared to IITians.FacultyBITS Pilani has carved a special niche for itself with its international infrastructure and excellent faculty. And on the other hand, IITs are facing an all-time shortage of faculty as standing committee on Human Resource Development reports. As a matter of fact, the condition of new IITs is even worse.IIT-Hyderabad has a requirement of 85 faculty members while, as standing committee reports, it currently has 74 faculty members. IIT-Bhubaneswar has total 50 faculty members against its requirement of 62 members.Owing to this serious concern, most IITs have already started aggressive communication campaigns across the country to reach out to post docs and graduate students of top universities worldwide. IITs are also organizing meetings in various universities around the world.With the aforementioned discussion, you can now draw your own standard comparisons between IITs and BITS to choose the one institution you find the best. To simply rely on studies before taking admission is an outdated practice; modern generation now needs an unbiased platform from where it can view facts and take decision accordingly.The discussion above is one such endeavor by us to help you gain better understanding of existing environment in IITs and BITS-Pilani.You are most welcome to share your views, opinions, and even disagreement with the article.To help us bring you breaking news and Informative Articles please subscribe to our blog!

What makes IIT so great!Four years of probably one of the most desired college experiences in the world is now over. And now I sit lazily on my bed, drinking a cup of coffee, writing this article, which now I can definitely write authoritatively. Afterall I am an IIT alumni now. :)

Many kinds of people, from many different places and with very different stories, and more importantly diverse college experiences have come in and gone out of the vaunted gates of IITs. There can be different versions of experiences each can narrate.

IT may be warned that IITs maybe a great let down for many who have had huge expectations from it, in many aspects. Its red taped administration, leaking and stinking hostels, old jittery labs and at times decades old syllabii, definitely make it look less worthy of the entire fan fare the Indian Middle Class has with this brand name. No, IITs are not as great when it comes to educating and IITs are definitely not a match to MIT or Caltech, that many tend to believe. If you want real good education, plush facilities, good accomodation, many foreign universities in many different countries, are much better than IITs.

But there is something precious that all IITians are taking with themselves, that they can't deny or complain about. The interactions, the chats, the collaborations, the brainstorming, the fun, the highs, the times that each IITian has had with his fellows is what is so valuable about this place. It is radically transforming and unique. It is a common observation that IITians are able to sight other IITians at a glance, as IITians eventually tend to adhere to some common traits. This learning that all IITians get from each other, is what makes IITs worth the name it has.

Not all those who pass out of IIT may become IITians. There are always those border cases. Neither none who haven't been to an IIT cannot have the IITian spirit.

Here are some of the things all IITians share that make this place Indian Institute of Technology an amazing place to spend four important years of university life.1. All IITians respect themselves and thus dream grand.Some may not be as vociferous about their ideas, but give them a choice, and none will settle for things lesser than the best.2. No IITian worries and he knows there's always a way out.This is the entrepreneural flair of IITians, that has taken them to great places. People may dream big, think smart, but unless they are comfortable with themselves and the things they do, it is hard to go anywhere.3. All IITians know things and thus think smart.The favorite quote that fits perfectly to the bill is, "I don't need to know anything. All I need to know is, when do I need it, and where to find it." - Einstein. IITians know how to get things done.4. No IITian lives in sweet delusions and he knows his SWOT very well.Living in constant competition, with different people doing different thigns, IITians are constantly challeged and challenges gives them a regular realty check, of their Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.Kudos to IIT Delhi and all my fellow IITDians for awesome four years! :)