"99 percent of Indian aspirants to get admissions even to an IIT or IIM, but it is far simpler to get into an Ivy League institution. If you don’t get into an IIM, you try Harvard."
It is not all that hard to get into an IIM these days actually. IIT is definitely hard at the Undergraduate level (and harder than any US institution) primarily due to the sheer number of students trying to get in. The coursework is also pretty tough. Vinod Khosla( a co-founder of Sun Microsystems) said that after doing his undergrad in IIT Delhi, higher studies in Carnegie Mellon and Stanford were just a cakewalk.
> It is not all that hard to get into an IIM these days actually.
Last year 1,73,735 candidates took the CAT admission test through which the IIMs admit 3,335 MBA students. That's a 1:52 ratio.
Now you could argue that not everyone who takes the CAT is an IIM applicant. So let's take IIM Ahmedabad's (slightly dated) data for 2006-08 admission [1]. Of the 1,44,027 who applied to the institute, 273 secured an admission. That's a 1:527 ratio.
Harvard Business School's admissions:applications ratio is 1:12 [2]
I'm sure you have an explanation of why a 1:527 ratio is "not that hard".
A caveat : The pool of IIM or IIT aspirants is a very low signal to noise ratio. It's not just that they are hard to get into, it's the number of people who aren't prepared for it but still pony up the entrance fee. I'm sure that's not the case with Ivy leagues.
That's just not correct. IIT's are exceptionally difficult to get into. The entrance exams(IIT JEE) nearly kill the kids.
Plus in the scale of India's population you get a lot of kids, who are working for years to crack the examination. So the only way to create a selection process is to have a crazy difficult exam.
Please read the comment again, I think you interpreted it incorrectly. I'm saying, lots of people are forced to appear for IIT/IIM due to peer/parental pressure but they are clearly not even close to prepared for it. This isn't the case with ivy leagues i.e. bound-to-be-rejected applicants are far lesser with ivy
I can't help but notice you guys are ignoring the fact that india has a huge population. In the context of indian population does this numbers really look that impressive? Doesn't it also mean that there are not enough highly sought after institutions like IIM or IIT?
It is interesting that, Nadella is from Manipal Institute and not a product of "elite" IIT/IIM system. It is rare to see an Indian born techie, doing well abroad, not from the IIT/IIM system.
>> It is rare to see an Indian born techie, doing well abroad, not from the IIT/IIM system.
That's just plain untrue. The problem is IIT alumnus works double time to do their marketing. The IIT entrance exams are super difficult to ensure only the most hard working of all India gets through. This inturn creates a situation where you have all that good people at one place. Its but other wise obvious they do well.
But to say the ordinary Indian doesn't do well is plain wrong. Today's India was built by ordinary guys. The IIT'ians well most of them contribute to the growth of countries like US, not India.
IIT: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Institutes_of_Technology
IIM: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Institutes_of_Management