First up, Congratulations to all those brilliant minds who have managed to crack IIT JEE 2010 in spite of all its shortcomings and difficulty. You guys deserve more than a clap on the back and will be duly rewarded with a seat in the top colleges of our country. The time has come for you to decide on what you wish to graduate in. The enormity of the decision may not strike you at the moment, but what you do in college (and what you don't do) will steer the course of the remainder of your life. I urge you to choose wisely and to help you choose (if you are interested) I shall shed some light on a few things about the coveted IITs.
I'm not going to get into the history of IITs as it is retold on all IIT websites, just walk down with me 3 years before this date. 2007.. There were 7 IITs in the country, the oldest being over 50 years of age and the youngest around 13 years. All of them 'established' and having a distinct culture and trend of its own (do note the emphasis on established). Spread over 4000-4500 seats, the system seemed fair on the then brilliant minds who had qualified in IIT JEE 2007. There existed a balance. A year passes, 2008 comes, another batch of qualifiers (myself included :-) ). However, the balance about which I previously elaborated was shattered. 6500+ seats in the offering and 13 IITs to choose from - 6 new IITs. If you are unable to grasp what I just said, grab a cup of coffee/tea (sugarless if you are diabetic) or a soft drink and a bag of pop corn while I spin out another yarn..
6 new IITs - IIT Bhubaneswar, IIT Gandhinagar, IIT Hyderabad, IIT Patna, IIT Rajasthan, IIT Ropar - each offering 120 seats over 3 disciplines were announced by the MHRD. The courses offered were lucrative viz. Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Computer Science Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering. The effect it had was similar to opening a Pandora's Box and unleashing the demons. It created a wave of confusion as it put quite a few of us in a tight spot. The situation was further enhanced (or decimated) the following year with 2 more IITs being opened (IIT Indore and IIT Mandi). What the new IITs meant was that even a person with an AIR of 4000 would get a chance to pursue his/her under graduation in Computer Science Engineering which is the most sought after branch and had required an AIR of less than 600 (1000 in IIT Guwahati) until 2007 to get into. Isn't that good? Now that would depend entirely on a per capita basis. There is a downside to this, that being the IIT you join. Let's face it, there are innumerable rankings of the top engineering colleges of our country and you would notice that the top 5 spots are occupied (with a probability 0.999) by 5 of the oldest IITs viz. Bombay, Delhi, Madras, Kanpur, Kharagpur (order mentioned here is purely alphabetical and not on the basis of any ranking). IIT Roorkee and Guwahati fall in the top 10. If lined up with the top colleges where would the new IITs be? Be my guest, take a wild guess! If you expect the top 15 spots to be IITs then you are either daft or have just traveled backward in time by about 50 years. To put it in simpler words, there are better options available at the moment. 15 years ago, students would have had to take a similar leap of faith with IIT Guwahati which is now in the top 10 and what you are going through now is just the same. History has the uncanny habit of repeating itself. Even though doubt is the absence or incongruence of reason at this point the doubt that you are facing is acceptable and more importantly - valid.
Having spent the first year in an established IIT (IIT Kharagpur) and the second year in so called temporary campus of IIT Bhubaneswar, we are more than aware of the glaring differences. Yes, the new IITs are challenging, and very challenging indeed. At the end of the day, when you sit down and recall, I'm not sure whether the challenges were worth leaving the comfort of the 'establish'ment. And I won't be sure till the first batch gets placed (or misplaced). Only time will tell. This post is not meant to deface new IITs but just to shed more light and show you a part of reality that does not meet your eye. It will take the new IITs a few years (5-6) to setup their own campuses at the earliest, following which their development will be in full swing and in fast forward mode. At the moment, the water is murky. To test it or not to test it, now that is your question.. And again, only time will tell.
I hope you have finished your drink and pop corn by now and more importantly I hope you found this post useful. Tune into this web space over the coming weeks as we guide you through the Counseling and Admission processes. If you have any queries, do post them here or shout in the Shout Box or email us! Until next time..