Did you know that some universities in Asia are even harder to get into than Stanford or Harvard?

The Indian Institute of Technology of Bombay, for example, has an acceptance rate of just 1.57% for their undergrad program in 2021, according to their website.

We've already spoken to some of the top students from Japan, Korea, and the Philippines.

But this time, we're curious to hear from students at one of the most prestigious institutes in India.

How worried are they about their future?

Our AsianBus reporter went to the IIT Bombay campus to find out.

What's your major and which university are you attending?

My major is in Computer Science and Engineering and I'm attending IIT Bombay.

I'm doing Civil Engineering at IIT Bombay.

Metallurgical Engineering and Material Science.

My major is Applied Statistics.

I am in the Department of Chemical Engineering at IIT Bombay.

How prestigious is this university in India?

So basically, there are 23 IITs.

So basically, all the IITs are quite prestigious.

But among that, IIT Bombay is ranked, I guess, first or second, second in overall India.

And the world ranking is about 172.

IIT Bombay is a technical institute and it is known for its excellence in various technical fields.

The ex-CEO of Twitter was from IIT Bombay.

The founder of Ola is from IIT Bombay.

And like this, we have many of the alums which are excelling in their fields.

Everyone in the country wants to study at IIT Bombay.

So yeah, it's really tough because the number of applicants are really high and the seats are very less.

So it gets really tough.

The first entrance exam, J mains.

So there are around 1.5 million people sitting for the examination and maybe 2 million at times.

Finally, the number of people getting into IITs is quite low.

It's around probably 10,000 across all the country.

10-20,000, hardly.

And that's all the IITs, not the seven major ones.

So yeah, basically 1.5 million to 1,000, 10,000.

So that's quite a low ratio there.

The next level is the J advanced examination.

I guess it is one of the toughest examinations in the world.

I guess it is ranked third or fourth in the world in level of toughness.

How hard was it for you to get into IIT Bombay?

It was really difficult to get into IIT Bombay.

First you need to join a good coaching for it.

Then they have their proper schedules and from every Monday to Saturday they have classes and on Sunday you will have tests.

So in entire two years, you will not get a break at all.

You really need to work very, very hard for it to achieve this dream.

If I was a bit more serious than I was in my 11th and 12th days, I would have excelled much more.

It's easy to get into an IIT, but you need to maintain a distance from the distractions which are there in class 11th and 12th.

Most of the students get indulged in various things which are not supposed to be done in your 16, 17, 18 years of age.

So it's quite easy.

You just need to have discipline, consistency and that's it.

I always liked studying.

So when I went for preparing for IIT, for entrance exams, I actually just wanted to learn and study further.

I did put a lot of effort and hard work, but it didn't feel like it at that time.

How many hours did you have to study for the entrance exam?

Five hours of coaching and then apart from that, whatever time you get, you study like five to six hours of self-study.

So including the coaching times and my own self-study, maybe 12 hours a day I used to invest.

I would say around five to six hours of coaching and then three, four hours of self-study every day probably.

Many people like they used to study 14 to 15 hours, but I'm not that of a guy.

I used to study at max seven hours.

So basically for preparing this exam, I first concentrated on myself, how I can develop myself.

So I included exercise, meditation in my routine.

When people around you found that you've gotten admission into IIT, what were their reactions?

For those who know what IIT is, they treated us like we have done some out of the world thing.

They were not, first of all, they were not able to digest that I did this because I was not a very good student from the beginning of class 11th and 12th.

So they start to behave differently.

They give you a lot of respect and they think that you're really bright.

Sometimes it gets weird.

How does that make you feel?

Yeah.

Weird.

The first people who got to know about this were my family and my close friends and yeah, they saw me studying day and night.

I was telling myself that I got this good rank because like my exam did not went really well.

I got late into the entrance exam.

When I saw my result, I called my best friend.

She didn't picked up my phone for a while.

Then I was calling 10 times, okay, see dude, I got, I got where I want to be.

I was seeing my family faces, like how they happy were for me, like it's quite a combination of a hard work of me and my family.

We show gratitude to so many gods and yeah, that's kind of thing happened.

So it was quite memorable for me.

Well, for me, it was a bit different from everyone else, I'll say.

So most of my cousins are from here too, they're graduates from here too.

So it wasn't really that great.

So I could have done better.

So that's what most of the people said.

That's how it was.

So nothing new for them, not everyone, but some do differentiate us like some kind of genius we are, but honestly, it isn't that way.

It isn't that way.

So I'll say everyone is good at something or the other.

So people here might be a bit better than others at academics.

But then again, it's only academics, like you might be good at something else, right?

So we aren't exactly geniuses.

So apparently, the gender ratio at IITs is 80% male and 20% female.

Do you think that's right?

Yeah.

Since, like that is factually correct as well, apart from my general observation, because recently the supernumerary seats were raised to 21%, which is the bar.

Why do you think the gender ratio gap is so wide?

So in many parts of the country, still in typical households, there is gender bias about education.

If they have a girl and a boy around the same age, and they have to send someone away from home to study, I mean, many parts of the country, people would prefer to send the boy.

Also, they're like, engineering is not considered a field for girls.

It's mostly preferred for men, typically, but that's not true.

You come here and you see that when you actually study here, you see that it's not true.

What did you say are the most popular jobs when people pass out from IIT or any other big institutes at the moment in the country?

The cool jobs over here are basically tech jobs, software engineering profile or the data scientist profile, machine learning engineer, consulting jobs.

Many people join the software companies, software development companies.

Yeah, it's quite common here to be in Google, Microsoft, and also the good finance company also approach here.

As per the trend, many of them are starting with their startups, so they don't join a company.

As a student from one of the top Indian universities, are you worried about getting a job in future?

Well, I'm not exactly a job person, so I like it more to be maybe a freelancer or stuff like that, or maybe start something up.

That's more like my kind of thing.

Not really, because the placements over here are very good.

In my last university, we need to wait for two, three months for even half of the people to get placed.

So it was a completely different experience to see my seniors getting placed into numerous companies despite recession.

Even the bottom of the class will get a placement.

It's not much of a deal.

It's just that you need to focus on where you want to be.

I have heard this from a lot of seniors, from a lot of people here that if you're from IIT, you will get a job, or you will do something or the other, you will not sit idle.

So I mean, it's not like I'm worried to get a job.

So the IIT label makes you stand out.

People might say that once you make it into a top Indian institution, you're set for life.

How accurate would you say that statement is?

That's not completely accurate, because even when you come here, there's a fierce competition, and you have to work hard, and you still have to put a lot of effort.

It's not like your efforts end when you enter IIT.

It may not always be true.

One thing is, IIT gives a lot of exposure, because I have seen my friends who have completely changed their field, like they have nothing to do with engineering or nothing to do with anything technical.

They say, this is my passion, and I'm going in that sense.

So life is not set, life is full of obstacles.

In future also, I have also seen people who got a job and lost them.

So things are unpredictable here also, but because the resources are nice, the probability of things working out is more here.

I think owing to the recent mass hiring and then mass firing, and added to that the recession and all going around, I think at this point of time, it is pretty competitive.

Pretty competitive and pretty scary as well, because essentially no one has job security.

So you might have heard that a lot of IITians are unemployed, or they're doing non-engineering jobs and stuff like that.

So I think one major reason for that is the competitiveness of the job market.

It's not like the IIT tag brings you everything, there are a lot of other things, other skills that you need to build to get a particular kind of job.

Most of the people who expect quite high-paying jobs, they somehow take it up in foreign countries.

We can't actually blame them.

So yes, India doesn't exactly have much of job opportunities for the top class, which are highly graduated and highly skilled.

So that's why they go to foreign countries, I guess.

Would you consider going abroad to find a job after passing out IIT?

Yes, I will.

Right now, that's not my plan, mostly because of family and I don't want to leave my family right now.

If personally I'm predetermined, I would work for my country itself.

I may try for the short-term period, but I won't be getting settled in foreign countries.

I want to work for my country itself and want to contribute in its growth.

If you see from the perspective of the country, then yeah, brain drain is definitely a thing which the country is facing.

A lot of highly skilled individuals are going for the US and Europe to pursue their dreams.

But if you see from the perspective of the stakeholder, who are the students who have worked their entire life, it's like they really start from their 10th grade.

So they are 7-8 years into the process, so definitely they want to make a hell lot of money.

So yeah, they will look for the jobs which pay them really well, get the life they want to have.

India still needs to grow in the sector where highly skilled people can showcase their talent.

What India needs to do is, they need to increase the amount of money they are giving and what kind of facilities they provide.

If India will provide them opportunities, definitely they will work here.

If you could go back in time, would you still have gone to college or pursued another path?

Knowing what I know now, if I go back in time, I think I would have pursued something a bit different because when I was a kid, I didn't know.

I didn't know much about life, anything that's out there about the world.

Now I know some things, so I would apply that and I would certainly pursue a different path.

Can you tell us what it would be like?

I always like to draw and paint, so I think it would be related to that.

So you would have wanted to do something you are very passionate about?

Yeah, something I am very passionate about.

With the many resources you can find online these days, do you think it's still worth going to college in 2023?

Yes, very honestly yes.

Having done three semesters online, having been handed online resources to study and whatever, I feel going to college is very very important.

Studying from a teacher who is standing in front of you, who is able to gauge your expressions and see if you've been able to understand or not, is very important and very helpful.

It legit helps you grasp things better and make more sense out of things.

College is not just about studies, college is much more than that.

It's more about friends, it's more about activities and extracurriculars you take part in.

Yes, it is worth going to college today, but it's your personal choice.

I was an average student and I came to IIT, I saw various things, I explored various things.

So now I have a clear idea of what I have to do in my life.

If you have some idea or you have that specific talent that you can counter everyone else and you can do something of your own, so you do not need to go to college.

So it is preferred to go in college, but it's not mandatory.

You can excel as well without going to college.