Established in 1951, IIT Kharagpur sets the foundation of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT). To foster excellence in education, an Act of Parliament took a move towards the building of IITs at Kharagpur, Bombay, Delhi, Kanpur, Madras, Roorkee and Guwahati laid the foundation for state-of-the-art technical education in the country.
N.R. Narayana Murthy, founder of Infosys famously said “My son wanted to do Computer Science. But to be in the IIT he had to be among the top 200 in the country. So, he chose Cornell….I do know cases where students who couldn’t get into Computer Science at IIT, they have got scholarship at MIT, at Princeton, at Caltech.”
Today, we have 23 IITs giving away the best in class engineers every year. IIT Ropar, IIT Bhubaneshwar, IIT Gandhinagar, IIT Hyderabad, IIT Jodhpur, IIT Patna, IIT Indore, IIT Mandi, IIT (BHU), IIT Palakkad, IIT Tirupati, IIT Dhanbad, IIT Bhilai, IIT Goa, IIT Jammu and IIT Dharwad have also joined the elite league. IITs today have a huge impact on the level of engineering education in the country as well as worldwide.
Although IITs were built under the Act of Parliament, however, the policies created are managed by MHRD (Ministry of Human Resource and Development).
It has developed the dynamic schedule, world class platforms and infrastructure to achieve the best; what an institution must have. The prime aim of such institutions is:
- Building a strong foundation in science and technology to bring out invincible engineers and scientists.
- To bring out the ability in each person with a focused vision and highly motivated personality.
- To have entrepreneurial ray of hope.
Quick Fact: IITs have an acceptance rate of around 2% against 8% of Harvard making JEE Advanced one of the most challenging exams in the world.
B.Tech Program at IIT
With rapid innovation in the field of education, IITs have also incorporated various programs at undergraduate, post-graduate and doctoral level. Amongst all, B.Tech (undergraduate program) comprises of maximum number of course specializations and student intake.
Surprisingly, 12 lakh candidates appeared in JEE Main 2017, a whopping number. Out of that, 2,20,000 candidates sat for JEE Advanced, again a massive bunch.
Some of the most popular B.Tech Programs at IIT:
- Biotechnology
- Computer Science Engineering
- Electrical Engineering
- Chemical Engineering
- Aerospace Engineering
- Civil Engineering
- Mechanical Engineering
IIT aspirants looking for B.Tech program can refer to the below mentioned eligibility criteria and admission procedure:
Eligibility Criteria for B.Tech program:
- Candidates born after October 1, 1992 are eligible to sit in the entrance. For the reserved categories, 5-year relaxation in age is provided.
- Class XII students must have appeared for the first time either in 2016 or 2017.
- Candidates must have secured at least 75% or achieve 20 percentiles in class XII. For SC and ST candidates it is relaxed to 65%.
Admission Procedure:
- Candidates aspiring for IITs, NITs or other colleges appear for JEE Main, where the candidates are ranked based on marks scored.
- List of shortlisted candidates is released having the names of candidates who qualify for JEE Advanced.
- Finally, candidates who qualify JEE Advanced qualify for admission to IITs
| Year/Exam | Eligible | Registered | Appeared | Qualified |
| JEE Advanced 2017 | 2,20,000 | 1,72,024 | 1,59,540 | 50,455 |
The above-mentioned table shows the details on the candidates appearing and qualifying for JEE Advanced in the year 2017. There is big difference seen in number of registered and appeared candidates. Only 1,59,540 candidates appeared for the exam. Finally, out of 1,59,540 candidates, 50,455 qualified for admission to IITs.
- The Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JoSAA), managed by Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD), is responsible for joint seat allocation through JEE Main and JEE Advanced. It A total of 97 institutes including 23 Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) take part in JoSAA.
Highlights of JoSAA counselling:
- JosAA organizes seat allotment for B.Tech/B.Arch courses in 6 rounds.
- Candidates who have filled and locked their choices are allotted a seat.
- Selected candidates need to download provisional seat allocation letter and pay the seat acceptance fee – for General, INR 45,000 and other categories it is INR 20,000.
- Finally, candidates need to report to the allocated institutions and complete document verification & other formalities.
Cut-Off for IITs:
Cut-off is the minimum score which must be achieved to qualify an examination. Every examination has a cut-off limit to differentiate between qualified and rest of the candidates, so does IITs have. Scoring above the cut-off limit secures a seat at IIT.
Preparing cut-offs is not simply based on drawing list using the score obtained by candidates, it requires analysis of various factors:
- Number of Registrations
- Number of candidates which appear in JEE Advanced exam
- Difficulty level of the exam
- Number of questions provided in the examination
- Considering earlier exam trends
- Candidates performance in the exam
The cut-off for the IIT B.Tech Admissions 2018 will be announced in the month of April. Cut-off marks for each category is mentioned on the scorecard of candidates.
Given below are the cut-off marks for JEE Main 2017 which was published alongside results:
| Category | Cut off 2017 | Number of Candidates |
| General | 81 | 109585 |
| OBC-NCL | 49 | 60299 |
| SC | 32 | 33333 |
| ST | 27 | 16096 |
| PWD | 1 | 2114 |
| Total | – | 221427 |
All the colleges release the opening and closing ranks for each B.Tech program after completion of every round. The opening and closing ranks are published on the official website of JoSAA. Given below is the list of IITs with the link provided for their Cut-Off.
| IITs | Cut-off |
| IIT Kharagpur | Click Here |
| IIT Bombay | Click Here |
| IIT Kanpur | Click Here |
| IIT Madras | Click Here |
| IIT Delhi | Click Here |
| IIT Guwahati | Click Here |
| IIT Roorkee | Click Here |
| IIT Ropar | Click Here |
| IIT Bhubaneswar | Click Here |
| IIT Gandhinagar | Click Here |
| IIT Hyderabad | Click Here |
| IIT Jodhpur | Click Here |
| IIT Patna | Click Here |
| IIT Indore | Click Here |
| IIT Varanasi | Click Here |
| IIT Palakkad | Click Here |
| IIT Tirupati | Click Here |
| IIT Dhanbad | Click Here |
| IIT Bhilai | Click Here |
| IIT Goa | Click Here |
| IIT Jammu | Click Here |
| IIT Dharwad | Click Here |
Out of all the programs offered, Computer Science and Electrical are obviously the top-grossers at IITs. Other branches which may follow are Aerospace, Mechanical, Civil, Chemical, Engineering Design and Biotechnology.
Below is the list of courses present in IITs, which are preferred on the basis of placements, infrastructure and student preferences:
| Rank | Branch | College Rankings |
| 1-500 | Computer Science | IIT Bombay |
| IIT Delhi | ||
| IIT Madras | ||
| IIT Kanpur | ||
| IIT Roorkee | ||
| IIT Kharagpur | ||
| Electrical Engineering | IIT Kanpur | |
| IIT Bombay | ||
| IIT Delhi | ||
| IIT Madras | ||
| IIT Kharagpur | ||
| IIT Roorkee | ||
| 500-1000 | Mechanical | IIT Bombay |
| IIT Delhi | ||
| IIT Madras | ||
| Aerospace | IIT Bombay | |
| Computer Science | IIT Guhawati | |
| Mechanical | IIT Kanpur | |
| Electrical | IIT Guhawati | |
| Mechanical | IIT Roorkee | |
| IIT Kharagpur | ||
| 1000-2000 | Chemical | IIT Bombay |
| IIT Delhi | ||
| Civil | IIT Bombay | |
| IIT Delhi | ||
| IIT Kanpur | ||
| Civil | IIT Kanpur | |
| Aerospace | IIT Madras | |
| IIT Kanpur | ||
| Civil | IIT Roorkee | |
| IIT Madras | ||
| IIT Kharagpur | ||
| Mechanical | IIT Guhawati | |
| 2000-3000 | Aerospace | IIT Kharagpur |
| IIT Madras | ||
| IIT Kanpur | ||
| IIT Kharagpur | ||
| IIT Roorkee | ||
| Computer | IIT BHU | |
| Civil | IIT Guhawati | |
| Chemical | IIT Guhawati | |
| Electrical | IIT BHU | |
| Electronics | IIT BHU | |
| 3000-4000 | Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering | IIT Madras |
| Ocean Engineering | IIT Kharagpur | |
| Biotechnology | IIT Kharagpur | |
| Chemical | IIT BHU | |
| Civil | IIT BHU |
Generally, the rank is closed at 4500 for top IITs. Candidates are often caught in confusion while selecting IITs based on two factors- Courses offered and Placements. Placements are the ultimate goal for any aspirant. Candidates should decide on the course they want to pursue and choose the college based on placements they are offering for the desired course.
Not only placements, one must also take into consideration the faculty of institution. Faculty holds one of the top position while going through the process of selecting colleges and so are their overall rankings.
Placement at IIT:
Students at IITs have been acclaimed internationally while they held soaring positions. It is needless to say that IITs are recognized as premier technical institute all over the country and is counted well internationally. Not limited to engineering program, they have shown exceptional success in other streams as well.
Talking about the latest placement program, here are few facts about IITs in the last year placements (2017). “IIT campus placement: INR 1.39 crore offered by Microsoft on day 1, Apple offers INR 15 lakh” India Today December 2, 2017. The Indian Institute of Technology witnessed huge packages, amongst them, Microsoft offered INR 1.39 crore to IIT Roorkee, IIT Madras, IIT Bombay and IIT Guwahati. The company offered 2 off-shore offers and domestic ones at IIT Guwahati.
- Companies rolled out 47 international roles on the first 3 days of the placement, the figure rose to 60 while it was 50 the last year (2016). Placement cell announced 20% rise in the in the job offers among which 90% were either at international level or by large companies.
- Few big giants like Goldman Sachs, Mercari, Tower Research, ISRO, ONGC, Qualcomm, Oracle, Flipkart, Walmart, Webstaff, JP Morgan, Uber, Samsung visit IITs for the best amongst the best.
- Big giants like Microsoft, Apple, Facebook and Google are seen to offer the highest packages in the selective IIT branches preferred.
- In terms of packages offered, Computer Science stands the highest. It is further followed by Mechanical, Engineering Drawing, Electrical, Chemical and Aerospace.
IIT Rankings:
With 529 world rank (IIT, Bombay) one of the premium institutes of technology holds the highest position for the country. Ranking is an important factor while a candidate decides the college to move in. Selecting the desired course, auditing placements etc. are not enough, selecting a highly ranked is again an important factor.
Apart from international recognition, home ranking also hold equal importance. National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) under the aegis of MHRD, defines a methodology to rank institutions across the country. IIT Madras secured 1st position in NIRF rating in 2017. In fact, the top 7 positions are secured by other IITs across India. Apart from that, IIT Hyderabad (10), IIT Indore (15), IIT Bhubaneshwar (18), IIT Patna (19), IIT Ropar (21), IIT School of Mines (23), IIT Mandi (28), IIT Gandhinagar (30), IIT BHU (31) holds a position with NIRF.
While figuring out rankings, apart from teaching methodology and available resources, faculty student ratio, faculty student strength and contribution of highly qualified professional in the building of the nation, there are other factors also which are taken into consideration by MHRD:
- Student strength
Why student strength? A college gets its identity with its students, their satisfaction, knowledge and placements. An institution proving such facilities in adequate attracts more number of candidates. Satisfying all these parameters but placement being the primary intention makes this as an important factor for college ranking.
- Combined metric of faculty with Ph.D. and experience
As discussed, students are the identity of the college. There must be one important factor which makes it happen, its faculty. Professors with experience carries knowledge and the way in which it should be leveraged. If one finds such combination, consider it to be the holy grail for the students and their institution.
- Total amount of budget and its expenditure
Budget is one important factor without which it is difficult for a college to survive. A satisfactory amount can deal with large amount of expenditure to provide facility to the students and its employees. Having well equipped labs holds the primary importance while budget is discussed.
Top Alumni from IITs:
IIT seems to be the dream come true to many aspirants. But, let us not forget, IIT is just the first step to success. It has many success stories from all around the world but, actual storytellers are the alumni. We have named just a few here though the list is much bigger than this:
N.R. Narayana Murthy
The co-founder and ex-chairman of Infosys has innumerable success stories which started off with IIT Kanpur. N.R. Narayana Murthy, a self-made man, has brought a lot of difference to bring up Infosys and new wave of IT into India.
Chetan Bhagat
An IIT Delhi and IIM Ahmedabad alumni, Chetan is a successful Indian writer who wrote many bestsellers. Five Point Someone, One Night at Call Center, 3 mistakes of my life and 2 states (his own story). His stories speak for himself.
Sunder Pichai
He is the Senior Vice-President of Google. He did his Bachelor’s from IIT Kharagpur in Metallurgical Engineering. He is the most renowned alumni at present. Pichai is the person behind the launch of Chrome web browser.
Sachin Bansal
The person behind the most famous Flipkart. It is India’s best online retail brand. This IIT-Delhi pass out started off with the company in 2007 with hardly INR 4 lakhs.
Manohar Parrikar
A well-known politician who served the nation is an IIT Bombay pass out in Metallurgical Engineering. He served the nation as the Defense Minister from 2014 to 2017. Earlier, he served as the Chief Minister of Goa from 2000 to 2005.