Recently I read in TOI that a coaching institute in Kota has offered foundation course for IITs from 7th class itself.6 years before a student actually writes the paper!!And few years back before court implemented a law of maximum two attempts for IITs, we could find students taking two to three drops for getting into IITs. That makes me really ponder whether brand IIT is so important worth preparing for 6 years or wasting another 2 years after 12th for it?
To me the question is a no-brainer but since I am not an IITian myself most of the cynics would take it as a case of sour grape for me. So lets give it an unbiased analysis. Well friends, I really need your comments and opinions about this topic.
To start with, what is it that brand IIT and IIM have got to offer. Better education by best faculties and infrastructure available, a learning environment due to best brains of the country competing with us, a jump start in career with high profile and well paid jobs and a greater social recognition in India as well as higher evaluation in MNCs abroad. In short a more secured future. Well, definitely worth the most sincere attempt.
But still I feel the whole scenario has been inflated mainly by the coaching institutes mushroomed all across the country which are no less than a corporation with sole aim of making profits. They have over-hyped the importance of IITs and presented it like a life and death situation to the career oriented students and over-expecting parents.
An admission to IITs is not the end of the world, infact its the beginning of the race called career. And while getting a head start is always better, it cannot assure you a win in the long run. What is lost by circumstances can always be made up by determination. Once the students are out of campus life into the corporate world, its a level playing field(may not be so in initial phase of career) where performance matters in the long run.
An illiterate Dhirubhai Ambani or an IITian Narayan Murthy cannot not be cited as an example to justify ones qualifications. Education can never be confined to classrooms and the reason for their success was a function of a lot more variables than just their academic background. Everyone has his own definition of success. To me it lies in recognizing ones talent and following the heart. Bill Gates dropped out of Havard to chase his dreams. But his incomplete degree could not stop him from becoming the world’s richest man. What really matters is application of knowledge-not its certification.So ending the post with a really true line i picked up from pagalguy:
" The moment you settle for anything less than you deserve, you get even lesser than what you settled for"
