CHENNAI: Alumni of Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) come together to showcase the top reasons why JEE aspirants should choose IIT Madras as their top choice, said a statement from the institute. As part of ‘AskIITM’ event, the alumni have created a website - askIITM.com - where students can ask questions about IIT Madras. Further there is an Instagram page - @askiitm - which profiles current student life and alumni stories.
Students from various top schools and coaching institutes have been invited to meet and ask questions. The first such event was held in Chennai on September 2 at IIT Madras campus. The highlight of the event was the live interactions with Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, and Prof. Mahesh, Dean (Alumni and Corporate Relations), IIT Madras.
The event is being held now as the JEE (Advanced) 2022 results are scheduled to be announced on September 11 2022, with admission process scheduled to commence on September 12, 2022. Speaking about this initiative, Prof. V. Kamakoti said, “For a student just finishing school, selecting the next step is a very important act that shall determine his/her professional career. Through this effort, we are trying to reach out to a large number of aspirants and help them at this crucial juncture of their life by providing answers to many of their questions.”
The Director of IIT Madras was a counsellor for incoming IIT students for 10 years - from 2000 to 2009. Further events are planned in Hyderabad and Vijayawada on September 3 and 4, 2022 respectively. In addition, a virtual tour called ‘Day at IIT Madras’ has been scheduled for September 17, 2022.
WHY NOW?
Speaking about the initiative, Amrutash Misra, an IIT Madras alumnus (Mechanical Engineering, 2008), who started his career in Unilever and is a serial entrepreneur, said, “The final JEE advanced exam - the final hurdle - this year, was on 28th August 2022. I know from my own experience that students will now be thinking about which IIT to choose and which branch to pick.”
Amrit Vatsa, also an IIT Madras alumnus (Civil Engineering, 2008), added, “There are several things about IIT Madras that students may not know about. For example, students can choose 50% of their courses from any department - this means that students can engineer their own learning. We also want to bring focus to the research and entrepreneurship culture that has led to companies like Ather to start on campus.” Amrit joined PwC as an infrastructure consultant off campus, and is now a film-maker. Amrit and Amrutash head a marketing consultancy firm at present.
“The most important consideration for students is placements! IIT Madras has had record placements in the last few years,” added S Sidhartha Narayan, a graduate of IIT Madras Class of 2022. Siddharth led the placement team as a student, and has joined Bain Consulting. The IIT Madras placement committee report says that the average CTC for the batch of 2022 was Rs. 18 lakh. There were over 27 offers with CTC of more than Rs. 1 Crore.
The alumni mentioned that it is important for students to go through the information available, ask questions and make informed decisions. “There is a reason IIT-M is ranked #1 for four years in a row. And students should go into the reasons and find out more,” the alumni added.
