IITs are not yellow brick roads with huge pay packages but centres for growth & learning | IIT Mandi professor explains

The way we view success is not through lucrative placements but through the passion that we can ignite in our students for lifelong learning. Getting placed is one of the many add-ons our students have at the end of their time at an IIT. We aspire towards to imbue our students with the zeal to work on things they care about and the desire to excel. What media fails to capture is the experience of the four formative, explorative, somewhat frustrating years that lead students to where they are meant to go.

I feel it is not emphasised enough to the IIT entrants that your journey at IIT might look very different from what is presented to you during your schooling. The academics look different from what you have encountered before. Instead of the rigorous drilling at coaching institutes, suddenly your classes become more abstract and open-ended. Social life and club commitments sneak up on you, and you are transitioning from living at home to being free to make your own decisions. In the middle of this, you learn to be an adult, you discover your likes and dislikes, and you envision a future that may or may not be the one that was sold to you.

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The beauty of the IIT system is that you do not always have to be the one with the best job lined up. You could also be the one brimming with the next big start-up idea. The up-and-coming business mogul on their way to a top-notch MBA. The social worker who is driven by a desire to do good for the world. The budding researcher whose PhD will take them on undiscovered paths. The civil services officer who represents the future of governance in the country. You could also co-venture with faculty by engaging with the research and technology development in his/her lab. IITs are a space that fosters personal and professional goals and provides students with the space to shape the future that they aspire for, not just the stereotypical one that is expected of them. IITs may offer the best technical programmes and placement cells in the country, but they also offer a safe space to experiment under the guidance of experienced faculty and supervisors who want their students to succeed in any and every endeavour.

The core value for all IITs is the same and embedded in the very spirit of the system. However, each IIT may have unique initiatives, goals, and strategies while aligning with these core values. Therefore, whether you were self-motivated or you were pushed hard to make it to IIT and whichever IIT you have entered into, remember that the life you are entering into in an environment like IIT provides you immense opportunities.

The four-year journey is to equip you enough that you can take decisions, make choices and achieve your goals with committed perseverance and sincerity the system teaches you through challenging training. The goal is not just to get that shiny BTech degree, it is also to grow, to experience the highs and lows of undergraduate lives, and to emerge a better person, capable enough of chasing his/her dreams.

(The writer is a professor at School of Physical Sciences, IIT Mandi)