Indian Institute of Technology Madras

About College:

The Indian Institute of Technology in Chennai (Madras) has like the other older IITs has become synonymous with excellence. It is often remarked how in India, kids hear more about the IITs when they are growing up, than about their cousins, such as the rush towards reaching this very top. Lakhs of students from all over the country enrol themselves over countless hours of coaching classes in order to secure a seat among these IITs. Within this elite list of institutions, there is a super- elite subgroup known as the original IITs, which is a group of the 7 original ones which are – Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kharagpur, Kanpur, Guwahati and Roorkee. 

Securing a seat at the IITs is done through a rigorous selection process involving the JEE (Joint Entrance Examination). This is the largest entrance exam in the country in terms of numbers and possibly amongst the largest in the world. This paper is given by more than 12 lakh people annually. It is a 3- hour exam worth 90 marks constituting 3 segments with equal weightage. Those segments are- Physics, Chemistry & Mathematics. The best of the performers, totalling roughly 2 lakhs of them are further shortlisted for the JEE Advanced which is for selection to the IITs. The JEE Advanced is conducted over 2 rounds on the same day. The morning paper which runs from 9 am till noon is followed by a break and then another 3 hour one. The pattern, however, is not so well understood as the marks pattern is not clearly defined. It keeps changing annually. All this effort means that the acceptance rate is minuscule, standing at around 0.5% for IIT- Madras in stark contrast to global luminaries such as MIT, Stanford or UC Berkeley standing at 7.5%, 4.8% and 17.5% respectively. Admissions to the master’s level programmes is via the GATE (Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering).

It was founded in 1959 with assistance from the then West Germany. The campus is perched right next to one of the prominent national parks in the state of Tamil Nadu. Due to this location, wildlife sightings are quite common here. The campus is also large measuring about 617 acres in area. Several courses can be pursued at the IITM. This includes the B. Tech, M. Tech, MBA, MSc. and even an MA. There is also a dual degree. The academics is run by the respective departments which are in- Aerospace Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Chemistry, Engineering Design, Mathematics, Applied Mechanics, Biotechnology, Computer Science & Engineering, Physics, Ocean Engineering and Metallurgical & Materials Engineering. Realizing its importance over the coming years, the IIT- KGP even has a specialized Humanities and Social Sciences wing. 

The IIT in Chennai is particularly well- endowed when it comes to forging international relations. It has inked agreements of various sorts with the likes of – National University of Singapore (NUS), Deakin University in Australia, Michigan State University in the USA, Heidelberg University in Germany, Ecole Centrale de Nantes in France, Nanyang Technological University in China and National Chiao Tung University from Taiwan besides several others. To facilitate further applied research and development, the IITM has set up several specialized centres within the campus. There are centres for- Continuing Education, Technology & Policy, Innovation, Computational Brain Research, Data Sciences & AI besides several others. There is an IIT Madras Bio-incubator as well to foster a spirit of entrepreneurship and help budding entrepreneurs’ ideas incubate. There is also an initiative by which students could learn the Chinese language while studying here. 

All this has helped the IIT in Chennai be featured very highly across most national or international rankings. It has been ranked the first in the country among engineering colleges by the NIRF (National Institutional Rankings Framework) and 2^nd overall. The Week has also ranked the college 4^th within the category all India. The highly- acclaimed QS World University Rankings places it at 264^th for the world, 48^th for Asia and 18^th among the BRICS nations. A lot of this has been possible due to the presence of its top-notch alumni network. Companies founded by IITM alumni includes- Junglee, Sycamore Networks, Aranca Research, Fairfax Financial Holdings and Kosmix besides others. Many of the alumni have also been recipients of the Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar Prize which is considered one of the highest honours for research in fundamental or applied science. 

As the IIT Madras has been associated with excellence for so long, placements have likewise been among the very best in the country. A total of 254 companies participated in the placement process in 2018, which makes it almost 1 company for every two students. Some of the top recruiters have been the likes of – ICICI, TCS, Flipkart, HSBC, Cisco, Axis Bank, Oyo, Barclays, Samsung, Microsoft, Intel, Dell, IOCL, Paytm, HCL, KPMG AND American Express.