IIT-Bombay is still tech Mecca for India’s brightest minds
Hemali Chhapia | TNN
Mumbai: The best of the country’s young brains continue to hanker for IITBombay. The institute has retained its position as the most sought-after IIT in the country, with Delhi and Chennai a distant second and third respectively.
A number of factors has been responsible for this, ranging from geography to gastronomy, from placement records to what coaching classes tell students. Of the top 100 JEE-2008 rankers who have been admitted into the IITs this year, more than 50% preferred IIT-B over any other IIT (see box). This was followed by Delhi, where 27 of the top 100 have been admitted. While Bombay and Delhi have maintained their positions over the years, IITMadras has overtaken Kanpur this year.
There was a time when up to 30% of the top rankers chose Chennai, but “food’’ became an issue for students. “Students have often said that IIT-M does not have the kind of food that Bombay or Delhi have. But all our students are good, whether they are in the top 100 or in the ranks below,’’ said IIT-M director M S Ananth.
On any IIT campus, the top 100 students are considered to be the icing on the cake. Twenty years ago, IIT-Kharagpur was the engineering mecca. The oldest IIT of the country, it did not receive a single student from the top 100 this year. In 2004, only three of the top 100 went there. A former JEE chairman explained, “While Bombay and Delhi were still building themselves, Kharagpur’s students had already occupied top positions in big companies. Students looked at Kharagpur’s illustrious alumni and rushed there. Now this has changed.’’
Said a student who had referred to the placement records at IIT-B, “The coaching class I went to in Kota advised me to join IIT-Bombay. The faculty at the class said that my next destination would then be no less than heaven.’’ If the old favourites—Kanpur and Kharagpur—have slid in the rankings, the new kids on the block, IIT Roorkee and Guwahati, haven’t managed to get even a single student from the top slots to opt for them. IIT-Guwahati senior officials attributed this to the low representation of students from the North-East.
IITs await HRD nod for filling OBC seats
Mumbai: IITs of Kanpur and Kharagpur have slid in the ranking while IIT-Bombay retained its numero uno position among Indias’ young brains. The top 100 rankers of IIT-JEE 2008 shy away from IITs of Roorkee and Guwahati.
“Assam is far away from most of the big cities, and the metro IITs have become more attractive despite the fact that IIT-G too has a very good placement record,’’ observed a senior faculty member.
Among the new IITs, admissions first opened in IIT-Hyderabad at rank 600. Ananth pointed out that while 116 students—108 boys and eight girls—have been admitted, four seats from the reserved category remain unfilled. As TOI had reported, of the 755 seats reserved for the Other Backward Classes, 735 have been filled. However, the IITs have no clear direction from the HRD ministry on what to do with the unfilled seats.
IIT-JEE 2008 chairman N M Bhandari pointed out that some OBC seats had fallenvacant as candidates’ preferences did not match the availability. In some cases, OBC students did not perform well in the aptitude test. Some of the courses for design and architecture require students to take an aptitude test after they qualify in the JEE.
More than 600 girls in all have been admitted to the 13 IITs this year.
A number of factors has been responsible for this, ranging from geography to gastronomy, from placement records to what coaching classes tell students. Of the top 100 JEE-2008 rankers who have been admitted into the IITs this year, more than 50% preferred IIT-B over any other IIT (see box). This was followed by Delhi, where 27 of the top 100 have been admitted. While Bombay and Delhi have maintained their positions over the years, IITMadras has overtaken Kanpur this year.
There was a time when up to 30% of the top rankers chose Chennai, but “food’’ became an issue for students. “Students have often said that IIT-M does not have the kind of food that Bombay or Delhi have. But all our students are good, whether they are in the top 100 or in the ranks below,’’ said IIT-M director M S Ananth.
On any IIT campus, the top 100 students are considered to be the icing on the cake. Twenty years ago, IIT-Kharagpur was the engineering mecca. The oldest IIT of the country, it did not receive a single student from the top 100 this year. In 2004, only three of the top 100 went there. A former JEE chairman explained, “While Bombay and Delhi were still building themselves, Kharagpur’s students had already occupied top positions in big companies. Students looked at Kharagpur’s illustrious alumni and rushed there. Now this has changed.’’
Said a student who had referred to the placement records at IIT-B, “The coaching class I went to in Kota advised me to join IIT-Bombay. The faculty at the class said that my next destination would then be no less than heaven.’’ If the old favourites—Kanpur and Kharagpur—have slid in the rankings, the new kids on the block, IIT Roorkee and Guwahati, haven’t managed to get even a single student from the top slots to opt for them. IIT-Guwahati senior officials attributed this to the low representation of students from the North-East.
IITs await HRD nod for filling OBC seats
Mumbai: IITs of Kanpur and Kharagpur have slid in the ranking while IIT-Bombay retained its numero uno position among Indias’ young brains. The top 100 rankers of IIT-JEE 2008 shy away from IITs of Roorkee and Guwahati.
“Assam is far away from most of the big cities, and the metro IITs have become more attractive despite the fact that IIT-G too has a very good placement record,’’ observed a senior faculty member.
Among the new IITs, admissions first opened in IIT-Hyderabad at rank 600. Ananth pointed out that while 116 students—108 boys and eight girls—have been admitted, four seats from the reserved category remain unfilled. As TOI had reported, of the 755 seats reserved for the Other Backward Classes, 735 have been filled. However, the IITs have no clear direction from the HRD ministry on what to do with the unfilled seats.
IIT-JEE 2008 chairman N M Bhandari pointed out that some OBC seats had fallenvacant as candidates’ preferences did not match the availability. In some cases, OBC students did not perform well in the aptitude test. Some of the courses for design and architecture require students to take an aptitude test after they qualify in the JEE.
More than 600 girls in all have been admitted to the 13 IITs this year.
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