When I joined IIT Bombay in 2013, the biggest stress that I had was how would I survive here, competing with all the top JEE ranks. For context, IIT Bombay’s CSE program closed at AIR 59 (General) and almost all the top JEE rankers joined there.
My rank was decent. I was ranked 33 in JEE Advanced. About 15 lakh students appeared for JEE Main. 1.5 lakhs qualified for JEE Advanced. So 33 is not bad. But even with that rank, I had the stress of competition.
To put some numbers, JEE Advanced (2013) was a total of 360 marks, of which, I scored 293 and the Rank 1 scored some 332. That’s a difference of ~40 marks (10%).
Let’s now look at the score of someone who got a rank of close to 8,000. As per JEE data, someone with a rank of 8,000 scored ~170/360. That’s a difference of ~45% from JEE rank 1. Which means that the rank 1 scored ~double the marks.
A rank of 8,000 is certainly a great achievement given that the denominator is 15 lakh candidates. But even then, the difference in marks of a rank 8,000 and 1 is insane! 170/360 vs 332/360.
Now imagine, if you put both of them together in one program and ask them to compete with each other for grades. And imagine, if the courses in the first year are majorly an extension of the JEE Advanced syllabus (Physics, Chemistry and Maths).
Who do you think is going to win?
This is exactly what happens at the IITs. In my batch, there were students with ~8,000 rank in the same IITB CSE program where JEE rank 1 was studying.
There is a reservation in JEE Advanced, but there is no reservation once you are inside the IIT. As a result, there is a huge amount of stress on the students who have gotten into IITs via reservation, especially those, whose ranks are 10 or 100 times more.
This is not a rant against reservation. I am no one to decide whether it is good or bad. I am just putting the facts as they are, trying to throw a perspective on why IITs see so many suicides and stressed students.
If I, who got a rank of 33 and a score of 293/360 faced stress, just imagine the stress of someone who has scored 170/360, trying to compete with someone who has a score of 332/360.
In my 4 years of B. Tech, I have not seen a single student being mistreated by anyone due to their caste. In fact, at IIT Bombay, every general category student is paired with a roommate from the OBC/SC/ST category to ensure that the students blend with each other well.
Providing reservation up to a certain point and then from there on, letting the person compete on merit, is clearly not the best way to provide “equal opportunities for all”. You can see from above where it goes.
Again, this isn’t a post in the support of, or against reservation. I am just trying to put a perspective and back it up with numbers. I am in support of providing equal opportunities to everyone.
But then seems like someone needs to spend time thinking through how to make this work properly. The current system is definitely broken.
PS: I am not associated with any political party in whatsoever any manner. I am just another Indian, who is wanting good for the nation.
(This article has been compiled from the tweet thread posted by @amangoeliitb on October 17, 2023, with minor edits to improve readability and conform to HinduPost style guide)
