[aargee]

The best engineering institute in our country has a dirty secret. The Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur was secretly and illegally keeping aside a discretionary admission quota for children of its professors and staff members for over four decades, admitting dozens of students even though they had not fared well in the IIT-Joint Entrance.

This discovery was made by Hindustan Times after accessing certain documents using the RTI Act which showed that the country’s oldest IIT — started in 1951 — blocked 25 per cent of its seats in popular five-year integrated science courses (up to M.Sc level) for handpicked nominees, even as IIT aspirants had to struggle to clear the IIT-JEE for admission.

Other things which came to light were that those who got admission under this quota between 2003 and 2005 did not even need to appear for the entrance exam.

However, due to pressure the Joint Admission Board of all IITs, which organises entrance examination, and the launch of RTI Act, this illegal quota got abandoned.

As per a report in Hindustan Times, the documents revealed that this premier institute admitted 88 students through the secret quota between 1998 and 2005, including 50 in 2003 and 2004. The quota was never revealed in admission brochures — unlike all other reservations for backward communities that the IITs have.

Describing it as the most shameful chapter in the history of IITs, a former IIT Kharagpur director said, “I knew about the existence of this practice and tried convincing colleagues to end the quota, but failed.”
People like Director of IIT Bhubaneswar and the organising chairman of the IIT-JEE in 2006 have benefited from this quota.

Source - IIT-Kharagpur gave admission to children of staff illegally: - LearnHub News

[Samurai]

Yawn, not a surprise actually. I have met many IIT graduates who really made me wonder about the IIT-JEE selection process. My boss who is from the above mentioned college, told me once that one should never bottom scrape IITs. If you can't get the good ones from IITs, try for good ones from RECs, and then the next tier colleges, etc. But never consider the bottom half merely based on IIT tag. Not that I can afford anybody from IIT or NIT...

[anku94]

Aww, shucks. Lots of news about the selection process have appeared over the past year. First the questionable cut-off marks, and now this. To add to that, too less seats for the general category. I'm appearing for it next year.

Originally Posted by Samurai

My boss who is from the above mentioned college, told me once that one should never bottom scrape IITs.

My teachers say the contrary. According to them, the IIT tag is much more important than what branch you get. They might just be trying not to dishearten us, though.

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by anku94

My teachers say the contrary. According to them, the IIT tag is much more important than what branch you get. They might just be trying not to dishearten us, though.

They are absolutely wrong, they don't have industry exposure. Never change branches for want of pedigree. I have seen enough people who made that mistake.

[SafeDrive]

I agree to what Samurai says. The tag may be important but taking a so called worthless branch from IIT compared to another from REC, I would prefer the REC.

[amitoj]

Originally Posted by anku94

My teachers say the contrary. According to them, the IIT tag is much more important than what branch you get. They might just be trying not to dishearten us, though.

Anku, which college/school in Patiala are you going to?
At least its good that the teachers are now looking beyond Thapar and PEC now.

What Samurai has said makes sense. And among NITs, the ones from South fare much better.

Yes, I've also heard some atrocious stories from people who have the IIT tag.

[sgiitk]

As a lifelong IIT Kanpur'ian what I know is the following. IITKgp does have a staff quota. The condition is that the candidate must qualify in the JEE. So the quota adds up to essentially a preference in branch allocation.

Considering most universities have a 5% staff quota, I think this is Ok and far more restrictive.

I may add that as far as I know this staff quota is unique to the oldest IIT, ie Kharagpur. I do not know whether the other old institution using JEE, namely BHU also has a staff quota.

@samirai: The problem (till the meltdown) was that hardly any IIT students went to core engineering jobs. Most were after jobs in IT, Finance or management. One may not like it, but if this is our value system then this is what they will take.

[e1t1bet]

Originally Posted by SafeDrive

worthless branch from IIT.

Can you pleasy elaborate what you consider worthless?
The kgp batch size is more than 600. That makes the number 88 (over 7 years) insignificant. Yes, the incident is unfortunate. However, hardly something that speaks volumes about the admission process.

RECs are great, no doubt about that. But hardly anyone leaves an IIT seat for a seat in an REC.
(1) Peer learning at an IIT is better. More bright chaps.
(2) The IIT tag stays with you for the rest of your life.
(3) IITians get advantages at various stages in their careers. IITians outnumber any other population in the most coveted companies in the country.
(4) Competition at an IIT is fierce. So it isn't uncommon to end up without great grades. A lot of people end up in average IT firms. So what? Most of them get promoted faster than their peers. Or, they just do an mba.
(5) You get better opportunities in general. The value of your application for an MS/PhD abroad will carry more weight. A lot of good companies recruit only from IITs (and not RECs). And lastly, if you can crack JEE, you train yourself for a lot of things in life. For instance, junta from other colleges fight it out to crack CAT. For most IITians, it is just another option.

[StarVegabond]

Originally Posted by anku94

My teachers say the contrary. According to them, the IIT tag is much more important than what branch you get. They might just be trying not to dishearten us, though.

Originally Posted by Samurai

They are absolutely wrong, they don't have industry exposure. Never change branches for want of pedigree. I have seen enough people who made that mistake.

IMO, it depends on what a person wants to do. if some one is very clear that he wants to follow IIT-IIM-Forign banks/business consulting company career, then the technology stream/branch does not matter, being an IITian is important, it helps as pre-filter. builds a sort of "positioning" for the candidate.

ofcourse a chemical engineer can not become a microelectronics engineer just becasue one is an IITian.

if one wants to be a real Techie (in the chosen field) then one's liking/passion for it is critical, followed by the infrastrure, tools/resources and accessing experienced faculty are key.

sorry for the Off topic

[ghodlur]

Its really sad that in all 130+ students could not get into IIT because of the stupid quota system. These students might be more deserving than the ones who got admitted illegally and that too without any exams. Sad state of affairs.

Anyways our existing education system is rotting with each govt bringing its own rules and regulations. I dread thinking what would be the situation when my son reaches his college days.

Even in my times, many of my friends had opted for civil in IIT when they actually wanted either Electronics or chemical or electrical etc. But today when I meet them, they say they are happy in their field.

[sgiitk]

Originally Posted by ghodlur

Its really sad that in all 130+ students could not get into IIT because of the stupid quota system. These students might be more deserving than the ones who got admitted illegally and that too without any exams.

Only 130+ more like 130k+ who did not get into an IIT. Also, if my info is correct all the guys who get the staff quota must qualify in JEE, - please see my post.

[smilyinblue]

I happened to be one lucky guy who studied both in REC(B.Tech) and IIT (PG). Based on my personal exp i can say that the Kind of exposure IITians (especially from the old 5 IITs) get is unparallel. It can not be compared to the RECs.
(1) Best of the faculty. Rigorous curriculum.
(2) Best peer groups. (read best brains)
(3) The strong alumni network who are the who-z-who of corporate world and are always eager to help.
(4) Best of infrastructure: Gym, swimming pool, tennis court, billiards, indoor stadium, football/cricket night stadium, flight club. You name it and you have it. what more can you ask.
(5) Cultural/technical festivals, Inter coll/Intra coll. competitions running throughout the year.

Though NITs are catching up but it will take them some time to match the level of an IIT.

[vivekiny2k]

Originally Posted by e1t1bet

Can you pleasy elaborate what you consider worthless?
The kgp batch size is more than 600. That makes the number 88 (over 7 years) insignificant. Yes, the incident is unfortunate. However, hardly something that speaks volumes about the admission process.

RECs are great, no doubt about that. But hardly anyone leaves an IIT seat for a seat in an REC.
(1) Peer learning at an IIT is better. More bright chaps.
(2) The IIT tag stays with you for the rest of your life.
(3) IITians get advantages at various stages in their careers. IITians outnumber any other population in the most coveted companies in the country.
(4) Competition at an IIT is fierce. So it isn't uncommon to end up without great grades. A lot of people end up in average IT firms. So what? Most of them get promoted faster than their peers. Or, they just do an mba.
(5) You get better opportunities in general. The value of your application for an MS/PhD abroad will carry more weight. A lot of good companies recruit only from IITs (and not RECs). And lastly, if you can crack JEE, you train yourself for a lot of things in life. For instance, junta from other colleges fight it out to crack CAT. For most IITians, it is just another option.

I have seen quite a few IITians, and I have to say most of what you say is hype. Yes, it is a good institution, thee are good teachers, and they manage to get some of the best brains. But we indians are good at breaking any system, including IIT entrance. And that shows up in the bottom scraping Samurai mentioned earlier.

I appeared in a mediocre companies interview back in 2000 and when I came back to meet an IITian friend he had his mouth wide open when I explained to him how I had to solve the problems. I have also seen some cases where the peer pressure turns IITians into a different kind of person altogether. I think it's an outcome of breaking the system just to "get in".

[anku94]

Originally Posted by amitoj

Anku, which college/school in Patiala are you going to?
At least its good that the teachers are now looking beyond Thapar and PEC now.

I study in DAV, but the IIT name is not thrown there often. It's my institute teachers (Lakshya, founded by four IITians [real young, just an year out of college when they founded it five years back]) that talk of IITs like that.

Originally Posted by Samurai

They are absolutely wrong, they don't have industry exposure. Never change branches for want of pedigree. I have seen enough people who made that mistake.

So how're the career opportunities for non-IIT engineers ? Do they get the same career growth as IITians ?

[vivekiny2k]

ironically, these are the guys training others to break the system efficiently