Thread by @shrikanth_krish

I just don't agree with this piece

IITs are rightly celebrated. And understandably sought after.

Sandipan bemoans that "salaries" are not as great as people think

"The median is barely Rs 8-10 lacs"

But hey. 8-10 lacs is a LOT, for a 21-22 year old

livemint.com/news/india/sup…

The quality of instruction, syllabi, and most importantly the peer group is so much better relative to most other engineering colleges, that there is hardly any comparison

I didn't make it to IIT

Wasn't bright enough to crack it with minimal preparation
Nor had the stomach to prepare properly for it for 2 years or more

So lacked on two fronts - smarts and rigor

And yes. I get that many may get in purely through brute force prep, while several talented but laidback people at that age (15-16) may miss out

It's not perfect. But the rewards are so great, that the craze is perfectly justified

The fact that IITs are not full fledged universities, and don't offer a wide range of liberal arts and pure science courses is ofcourse a problem

As a result of which too many people may end up as engineers, contrary to their interest

But that's not the fault of the parents
It behooves the IITs to develop into proper universities

Notwithstanding the lack of options in terms of courses at at the moment, the craze to get in is warranted

Because the alternatives are terrible

The commentary we see in the above piece is typical of the tendency among elites to underappreciate the choices of the unwashed middle class

The parents are smarter though. They push their kids to give up frivolous pleasures for 2 years for a v valid reason. More power to them