[dman]

I agree with you on several points - too much emphasis on engineering/medicine, very tough competition and superfluous subjects but I disagree with your conclusion. a) There are colleges beyond IIT and REC and no they are not all bad. b) A case can be made that at least through high school people be aware of what different fields have to offer before choosing to specialize. c) Donations are limited only to management seats. Say what you may - admissions in India through centralized processes are very transparent, actually more so than here in the US. d) Most people everywhere have little enthusiasm for the jobs that they do. e) It is not all bad.

[magic_haze]

I'm not sure if my reply had any conclusions, but if it did, it is only that the difference in (supposed) quality of IITs vs. local colleges is atrocious, and this needs to rectified ASAP. However, it is important to remember this quality of education is merely a crutch, and it is completely up to the student on how he/she makes use of it. There are certainly many cases of students going way beyond what their peers have accomplished (best case in point: that whole Scoble/Yuvi Panda thing)

> a) There are colleges beyond IIT and REC and no they are not all bad

yes, but atleast in Bangalore, there's a nauseous culture of "IIT or nothing", supported mainly by BASE/FIITJEE and all those schools in Kota. It was very difficult for me to get out of it - if anything, it's gotten even worse since I left five years ago. I feel sorry for my cousins who are in their 8th grade now, and already being forced to go to a pre-JEE training (which, inevitably, will start as soon as they finish their 10th grade board exams. A training for a training for an examination that will then start their training? What kind of Alice in Wonderland crap is this?)

My parents are both professors at a certain well-known MBA factory in Bangalore, and trust me, the education system is worse than it looks. My mom was recently forced to use pencils when correcting examination papers (for the obvious reason), and my dad regularly complains about how he is forced to dumb down papers every semester or risk getting fired. Agreed, this is all anecdotal evidence, but it is damning nonetheless.

[dman]

I am from India and have had my fair share of suffering at the hand of the Indian education system. I dont want to be an apologist for the status quo but do want the rhetoric to be cooled down. For eg Here are a few non IIT institutions which are pretty decent a) http://www.iisc.ernet.in/ b) Bits Pilani c) Anna University

Also a) I think it is fair to say that a post which ends with "Horrible Stuff" is reaching some kind of conclusion. b) When I look at people who like me who "failed" at 12th grade and didnt get into IIT, I see that just the process of trying has served us well. c) Education as you rightly said is what you make it out to be. d) I do want to congratulate you for the strength of your convictions in choosing to pursue undergrad abroad when you realised that the Indian education system wasnt serving your needs.

[magic_haze]

You're right. My bad; remembering all those days cooped up studying Loney and K.D. Joshi made me emotional. Yes, it certainly helped me breeze through all my college math courses, but it's that sort of experience I wouldn't want even on my worst enemy.