IIT-M flies in top rankers, but IIT-B still a fave

Time of India

16 hours ago

1
2
Mumbai: IIT-B is once again top JEE (A) rankers' first choice. Nine of the top 10 and 73 of the top 100 rankers have chosen it despite other IITs making attempts to woo them, including flying a number of them and their parents in for a campus visit.
All top 10 rankers chose IIT-B in 2024. Rank 9 this year is headed for MIT.
"This year, IIT-Madras invited the top 200 all-India rankers with their parents to their campus and paid for their airfares so that they could explore its academic programmes and experience the institute firsthand as part of its admission outreach," said a top ranker, who reached out to his mentor, Pankaj Birla at Allen Coaching, and asked whether he ought to rethink his only option: IIT-B's Computer Science.
"IIT-Madras told us all that there are many options that might be considered better than IIT-B's Computer Science.
"
IIT-Delhi wasn't far behind. For the first time, its office of academic outreach and new initiatives, under the 'Experience IIT-D' programme, also held open house events in Mumbai and Bengaluru for JEE (A) qualifiers to help them understand academic, research, extra- and co-curricular activities and the campus life of the institute.
But when it came to decision time, IIT-B once again—as it has for a decade and a half—emerged as the clear favourite. Of the top 500 JEE rankers, 179 chose it, IIT-Delhi 109 and IIT-Madras just 69.
Part of any IIT's pull, said alumni, is peer-driven and it's no different for IIT-B. "If everybody's going to IIT-B every year, then next year too, people want to go to it. They think if smart people did this last year, there must be a reason for it.
So, the momentum has sort of slowly built on itself," said IIT-B alumnus Vishal Misra, vice dean of computing and AI at Columbia Engineering.
IIT-Kharagpur and IIT-Kanpur are textbook examples of this. About 40 years ago, IIT-Kharagpur, the oldest, was the most coveted campus as its alumni scaled corporate heights and built on its legacy. In 20 years, IIT-Kanpur knocked it off the top post. "During my time, Kanpur used to be the most sought after IIT.
Top rankers used to go there. In our final year, the discussion points used to be about admission and scholarship to some US university," said Misra, vice dean of computing and AI at Columbia Engineering.
The popularity of its campus environment and the powerful networking possibilities it offers contributed to the overwhelming shift to IIT-B. "About 10-12 years ago, when I was visiting it, the discussion in the fourth year was not about who gets the call from where. The whole mindset has changed from going abroad to doing your own thing, being an entrepreneur in India," said Misra. He said while IIT-Kanpur has great teachers, it doesn't offer the same environment as IIT-B "as it is in Kanpur".
"Being in Mumbai helps a lot."