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Understanding Bihar’s Super 30 Phenomenon
- tantalor 7y ago> I know you have watched Super 30, the movie, so have I Wow, a lead that just begs the reader to stop.
- mruts 7y agoI stopped after that. Is Super 30 supposed to be like the Avengers or something?
- Infernal 7y agoMy experience exactly. “Hmm.... no I have not. Cmd-W.”
- throwawaysea 7y agoIt is written for an Indian audience, presumably. Would you expect all articles to be written generically or to your cultural tastes?
- alkhatib 7y agoNo, but the article could use a two sentence explanation of what is "Super 30"
- godelmachine 7y agoMove adaptation - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_30_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_30_(film)
- epapsiou 7y agoWas not that bad when I was growing up. Sure there was pressure to become engineer/doctor but IIT was not be-all end-all. There was always DCE, REC. Have things changed that much in last 20 years?
- pm90 7y agoIIT gives you a lot of name recognition and opens up many doors automatically. As someone who didn’t get in, I missed out on foreign internships and research opportunities by not attending them. The universities you mention are still great but don’t have the same recognition I guess. Every foreign grad students first question after learning Im from India “ oh did you go to... IIT?”
- mkagenius 7y ago> but IIT was not be-all end-all. There was always DCE, REC. Its a way to use as filters at later stage of life. Job or marriage (see iitiimshaadi.com). Top 2% or top 10%.
- pm90 7y agoUnpopular opinion: this is not the way engineering should be taught, to ace a stupid test. I understand these are economically underprivileged kids and I wish them best, but I would really love it if someone followed up on where they end up after graduation. I’m hoping that as the economy develops further, the need to go to such extremes will diminish and folks can pursue their true calling.
- iamshs 7y agoAgreed, that test eats up years of childhood. Considering that nearly 100K students give the exam, what criteria will work best to select 5K students for available seats?
- nilsocket 7y agoNearly 1 million, students try to crack IIT exam. No.of seats available are 12-13k. That's nearly 1.3%.
- lake99 7y agoNo criteria. I think the problem is with the low number of seats available. A similar quality of education can be made available at a much larger scale if the country is so motivated. It's understandable that not all branches of engineering at other universities can acquire the kind of funding that IITs have. Apart from some specialized lab equipment, there is no technical reason all universities can't offer a comparable quality of education all over India. There are only bureaucratic reasons.
- mkagenius 7y ago> someone followed up on where they end up after graduation There you go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSwi3RcVBzw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSwi3RcVBzw It is mostly big banks, big and medium IT companies.
- AareyBaba 7y agoThe amazing engineering work at ISRO is mostly engineers from regional non-IITian colleges.
- iamgopal 7y agoEntrance exam culture is biggest bullshit of the century India facing. On one hand college dropout are starting startups and disciplined intelligence thrown in to mindless clerical works, ultimately proving first idea works better than the second.
- rohit2412 7y agoVery similarly, the tech industry requires you to leetcode non stop. I wish it stops too.
- throthrothis 7y agoIITians.. paid for by the Indian tax payer. But of no use to India, but US.
- mkagenius 7y ago> IITians.. Why target only IITians, even non-IITians migrate in large numbers. Also, they are not 100% to blame for this, if you foster a good environment nobody will leave. Everyone is to be blamed.
- iamgopal 7y agoFostering good environment IS their responsibility. It's not an action of a bad that world suffer from, world suffer from inaction of a good.
- mkagenius 7y agoAssuming "their" means the government in your comment. I would disagree. It is also our responsibility as a citizen to stay and help create a better environment.
- nilsocket 7y agoTrailer link: https://youtu.be/QpvEWVVnICE https://youtu.be/QpvEWVVnICE It has English subtitles.
- formatkaka 7y agoIITians are demi gods in India. This status puts a lot of pressure on student at a young age to crack this entrance. So much so, that there are regular cases of students committing suicide due to the pressure from society and family. For many who don't know, there are coaching classes where preparation for the exam is begun as early as the 5th or 6th grade. It took me 2 years to get over the failure of not getting into IIT. It's a really messed up situation. I really hope parents understand the situation and stop traumatizing their kids.
- throwaway_45 7y agoFor a lot of kids its the only way out of the hood. Especially these kids in super 30. If they don't make it its back to poverty. If they get in they have the ability change their entire families socioeconomic status including parents and siblings. Its like pro athletes or rappers trying to get out of the hood. Its hard to do. To a lot of kids it is a life or death situation.
- formatkaka 7y agoThat is really sad if true. It's ok to say that cracking the entrance exam is going to give them a great platform on which they can build their future. But telling a 16 year old to clear it believing it's a matter of life and death . That has to be one of the biggest failure of the parents/society/educational system. I really hope that Internet education reaches a stage where no one has to face such a situation. Being one of those failed students, I would like to tell any one who is trying to clear the exam and reading this. Try your best, it's ok if you don't clear. If you persist and keep working hard with whatever you have, you will do wonders.(Ignore people who say otherwise).
- strikelaserclaw 7y agoIndian education system is completely messed up. It destroys any trace of passion, curiosity, or thinking different. What the world needs more of isn't competent bureaucrats (which IIT produces a lot of), it is people who are creative, passionate, and courageous. I hope to god we never import the Asian exam mentality to the us.
- inimino 7y agoUnfortunately we already are. See SAT prep schools and test prep industry in general in the US and abroad for an example.
- Luc 7y agoRelated to this, check out Dakshana (https://dakshana.org/ https://dakshana.org/ ). They're a very well run charity with great metrics, and their Annual Reports are interesting reading.
- tokyoHacker 7y agoOn a personal note the brand IIT has helped me in making me what I am (whatever that be). Even though I did not make it to IIT, the aspiration to get into IIT made me push myself to my limits. The preparation to get in helped me in getting top score in my state engineering exam allowing me to gain admission to the “best” engineering college of my state. That led to easy job placements, getting selected for lead role ( my manager actually said that he selected me just by the Engineering school I graduated from.. He was happy so I guess I didn’t do too bad on real life performance parameters) and getting accepted for research based masters by prof who knew about the college. So coming back to the point, the IITs inspire you to dream and be ambitious and bold. I think for that matter alone, the premium value of the brand needs to be preserved. It has helped people from small towns like mine, where people don't know the difference between IIT and ITI, to aim high.