IIT Woes: 4 dis-Advantages of studying at IIT

Silicon Valley in San Francisco Bay reveres Brand IIT in the same vein as MIT – and reasonably so. After all, India’s premier technology institutes have given it the likes of Infosys founder N R Narayan Murthy, Sun Microsystems co-founder Vinod Khosla, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai.

Yet, a rose can never be without thorns. Here are just some of the things that prick and sting and stab all the IITians:

• Social Media Hate and Sarcasm over ‘Wasting Public Money’

Well, your taxes are being guzzled by the government for hundreds of other things but IITs seem to have received the brunt of widespread hate animosity mails on social media. These mails say that subsidies to IITians are not justified – as they settle abroad or join private jobs instead of serving the nation. They even ask for IITians to be given over to private players!

As an IITian, it feels so unfair. We have worked hard to crack JEE Mains and Advanced and are not counted amongst the brightest brains of the country for no reason. We study hard and work hard for it. Isn’t quality education our right?

Moreover, whatever profession we choose, India remains our motherland too. Even the NRIs invest back in their home country and run several charities too.

• Salary Package Comparisons and Job Envy

Here’s a reality check! Indians who win 1 crore + salary packages abroad…or even those who get more than Rs 25 lakh per annum in India are just a miniscule part of all IIT pass-outs for the year. About 80% of them receive an annual pack of below Rs 12 lakhs.

For all such IITians, pressure and comparisons by their families and friends is already hard enough and depressing. Compounded with the hate mails that say that IITians are taking up all the jobs everywhere, it becomes unbearable. Remember, many of the IITians are instrumental in creating thousands of jobs every year too (such as Flipkart founder Sachin Bansal and Snapdeal founder Rohit Bansal)!

• IITs are Colleges, not Launch Pads for Supermen

An IITian is expected to be everything! He should be a mechanic, a plumber, an accountant, a CA and yes, becoming an IAS or getting into IIMs is a breeze for them. Seriously! Are you even talking about real people here? And yes, if they are earning anything less than 30-40 lakhs per annum, people think that all they have ever done at IITs is smoking LSD and ogling at girls!

Let the IITians off the hook, friend. They are just 18-year olds who studied hard at school and/or coaching institute – not the commandos on training.

Parents, please don’t assume that IIT degree means a confirmed job offer from Google. It is a whole another level of competition and may not match with your kid’s aspirations. Also, don’t even think of hiking up the dowry of your IITian son by 30-70%. It’s a crime and all IITians detest it.

• Chetan Bhagat’s Fantasy remains a fantasy for us

Our cousins who didn’t get admission at IITs are envious of us for getting into the best colleges of India. I don’t know how they fail to realize that we remain envious of them too – throughout our four years of college experience!

IITs have a 10:1 boy to girl ratio. So, love on campus remains a distant dream for all of us. And if a handful of us do have a girlfriend of your own, he automatically becomes ‘the dude’ of the guy gang.

That said, we have a great ‘buddy time’ at the IITs and we love, love and love our alma mater forever.