Good Indian students who cannot make it to elite Indian colleges turn to US institutions

Incidents have been reported that some of the top students from India have been accepted from some of the top colleges abroad, including Ivy League Colleges in US, and have been offered scholarships too . Yet, they have not been able to make it top colleges in Delhi University because they did not score 98% or 99% in their class 12th.

About 0.6 billion people in India are under the age of 25 and the ranks of middle class is swelling. Hence, competition in India has become formidable and the handful of highly selective universities in India are overwhelmed by the number of qualified applicants.

This year, Delhi University's cutoff scores at its top colleges reached as much as 100 per cent in certain cases. IITs have an acceptance rate of less than 2 per cent. Mr. Kapil Sibal, Education Minister of India, says, "There is a demand and supply issue. You don’t have enough quality institutions, and there are enough quality young people who want to go to only quality institutions.” Mr. Sibal studied law at Harvard University.

American universities and colleges have been facing decline in the number of high school graduates in the US, recession, and shrinking returns from endowment funds. Hence, they are wooing Indian students and many of the Ivy League institutions have begun making trips to India to recruit students and explore partnerships with Indian schools.

 

Source: Ruchi Shrimali (Shiksha Team)