I haven't; my interviewing of Indian origin candidates (with graduate degrees) in the U.S. has mostly found their ability to think through solutions to be uncor

I haven't; my interviewing of Indian origin candidates (with graduate degrees) in the U.S. has mostly found their ability to think through solutions to be uncorrelated with their undergrad institutions. I doubt if the IITs are so drastically different from other institutions as you describe them. First off "extra curricular skills" in the way they exist in the U.S. (where an Engineer can take an art class, learn to row or learn about constitutional law) don't necessarily exist in India. Secondly, the IITs (from what people who went there describe it) are not that hard academically on their students: It is fairly easy to do "relatively well". It gets much harder to get perfect grades; it is that percentage of people where you see the monoculture obsessively working all the time. It works out well though; that percentage typically goes to do a PhD in the U.S. where that obsession pays off well.