6 reasons why students lose interest in studies after entering IITs

Few years back, it was reported that as many as 4400 dropped out of the premier IITs and NITs in the last three years and “academic stress”  was found to be one of the reasons for this situation. From the year 2012-15, around 2060 students dropped out of IITs (Indian Institutes of Technology) alone.

Factually, during the counselling sessions IN 2015, IIT-Kharagpur failed to attract even a single topper from the top 212 ranks despite offering the maximum number of seats (1341) in comparison to all the other IITs. IIT KGP was followed by IIT Roorkee in this list. These two institutes were mostly preferred by students far lower in the common rank list.

Like these, many such cases have been reported where even toppers are quitting the best of the IITs. One such instance was that of Chitraang Murdia, the JEE Advanced 2014 topper who dropped out of his B.Tech programme at IIT Bombay to pursue his studies abroad.  

Our question:  Why are students, in such big numbers, quitting IITs soon after getting admitted? Is academic stress the only reason behind this?

According to experts, alumni and students, there is not one but varied reasons for students losing their interest in IITs. Below we list down some:

1. Lack of research facilities – A lot of the toppers who make their way into IITs aim to pursue research. A lot of them quit their programmes midway and move out. According to them, IITs across the country lack the required research atmosphere for pure sciences at the UG level. And institutes like IISC, Bangalore are a better option for pursuing research studies. So, once these kids realise their love for research and allied studies, they decide to either go abroad for their studies or go to IISC for their research related studies. Read - Why Chitraang Murdia chose MIT over IIT-B?

JEE Advanced 2015 Topper Anjishnu Bose too didn’t want to go to IIT Bombay for his research studies.

2. Forced to accept a branch one is not interested in - A lot of times aspirants are forced to accept a branch in which they are mostly not interested in at all. Following this, once the classes commence, students fail to cope up with the curriculum. And ultimately are left with no choice but to quit!

3. Numbers matter, knowledge doesn’t – For a lot of students, numbers overpower knowledge. Most of the students believe that they have studied enough and thus would be able to manage even if they adopt the last night study method. But, this idea fails when they face the reality.

4. Uninteresting course curriculum – According to Ishaan Kumar, an IIT - Kanpur alumni, boring course curriculum is the sad part of our system. He says, " I would rather spend time learning new ways to automate things than to learn how to solve a second order differential equation!( and if ever need be, I'll just google it out). All of our lives, we have just been doing theoretical studies. After coming to college one expects to have some good practical experience in the curriculum, but then labs like CHM101 and PHY101, where students do things mindlessly, just bring the whole morale down. Depending on one's interest, people get distracted into various other activities".

5. Laziness -  Yes, you read right! Laziness is one of the reasons why students are forced to quit their dream institutes. For getting into IITs, cracking JEE Main and Advanced is a must. And a lot of time and effort goes to prepare for such a competitive exam. So, once this path is cleared and aspirants reach their goal, all they want to do is relax, which is the root cause of laziness.  It is due to the laid back and lazy attitude, aspirants skip classes and this ultimately makes them lose their focus.

6. Shortage of adept faculty members – Faculty members play an important role in shaping the lives of their students by helping them focus on their goals. However, at IITs – both new and old - faculty crunch has been a consistent phenomenon. For over 60k students, these colleges have less than 4500 teachers. Read - IITs too have faculty crunch shows student-teacher ratio!