Selma, I was aghast at your reply to Roland's post about IITians outperforming American Ivy Leaguers at college entrance tests. It appears that you have had little exposure to the education systems in India or America and not much exposure to the rigorous engineering education.
Well as an American Citizen and a resident of the US for the last 25 years and one who has been exposed to engineering education in both countries as a student and as a faculty member, I concur with Roland's observations and the results of the college entrance tests where the American Ivy leagures from Harvard and Yale failed and the IITians passed. Harvard, Yale, MIT are just brand names and there is not much to back up their claims these days that they are the best. IITs on the other hand are a realization of the Vision of Nehru and were founded as Temples of Higher Learning in a free and independent India. IITians are selected through a stringent Joint Entrence Exam from among millions of applicants. In Ivy League colleges, if you father or mother went to a Ivy League college then you get a chance to attend that college too. e.g. George W. Bush went to Yale not because he was smart enough to get into IIT, but because his father George Bush Sr. went to Yale. The teaching standards at the IITs are simply the best in the world - as is evident from so may IITians leading India and the world's multinationals in this globalized high tech economy. IIT is Indias most recognized brand - it simply means the Best and Brightest Brains of the Land. Who said IITians are just nerds who do not have extra-curricular activities - thats simply not true. As a national level hockey player who graduated from IIT I can attest to that. The facilities and equipment for sports at IITs were much better than the facilities and equipment at the National Institutes of Sports in Patiala and Bangalore. IITians also excel at national level competitions in music, debates, eloqutions, art, drama etc and there are many facilities, infrastructure and competions for these activities too. The education standards, faculty and curricula at the IITs are better than most of the world class engineering colleges. Selma, I have always found your posts on Goanet to be intellectually stimulating - Keep it up ! but your recent post on the IITs was just not accurate ! You need to stop your sychophant attitude towards America and Americans and they will respect you more ! Its even more important that you recognize the global dominane of IITs these day esp since wer are starting a massive IIT awareness campaign this December, to stuff the IIITs with more Goan and Catholic students. Best Regards, Dr. Carmo D'Cruz Goan, IITian, Indian Harbour Beach, Florida Message: 10 Date: Tue, 17 Oct 2006 22:12:44 -0700 (PDT) From: Carvalho <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [Goanet] IIT /Indian propagated myths about America To: "Goa's premiere mailing list, estb. 1994!" <[email protected]> Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Dear Roland, There are many myths propagated about Americans by Indians but none that I dislike more than the one that assumes intellectual superiority over Americans. America is home to be best and brightest, and I find it incredibly hard to believe that Harvard and Yale students failed IIT entrance exams while reciprocally IITs aced University tests. If we are to compare then, we must compare apples with apples. Which universities were these? Was it Stanford, MIT, Columbia? Or one of those Universities advertised on TV with a nice jingle at the end? I know parents here who disdainfully send their kids back to India, because American education is too lax for thier taste. Really? What are they sending their kids back to? 10 years of primary school, learning by rote and cramming everything from a guide book at exam time to secure the much need percentage to get into a professional college? I wish someone would do a parity study between India and America to see how many historians, writers, philosophers, scientists, doctors are produced per 100,000 students. Then we'd get a better picture of the intellectual wealth of each country. Just because India managed to supply the former colonies of the British Empire with Accountants and now supplies America with IT technicians doesn't make the India system one to be garlanded with accolades. It merely speaks of an undue emphasis on Maths. One that has served the country well but neglects other aspects of a well rounded education. Selma --------------------------- --- Roland Francis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: I happened to be in conversation in Toronto with a Goan father of a young lad studying at Harvard and he was mentioning thus: As part of their undergraduate studies, in the third year Harvard, Yale and in fact some more Ivy League schools are requiring their business students to spend a year of studies in a comparable level school in developing countries. For India therefore, the IITs are a natural choice. In exchange, they are allowing the IITans to spend a in their own universities. It appears that an entrance exam is required both ways and when they are scored, the Harvarders and Yalies failed the IIT tests while the IITans aced the US universities' tests. Could this really be true? -- Roland Francis _______________________________________________ _______________________________________________ Goanet mailing list [email protected] http://lists.goanet.org/listinfo.cgi/goanet-goanet.org
