Hogwash on dilution of the IIT brand

A section of the media has gone to town on the subject of some 700 odd students turning down IIT offers. This is construed as a dilution in the IIT brand for whatever reason: poor quality of infrastructure and faculty at the newer IITs, the impact of quotas for SC/STs and OBCs, or the availability of other institutions that are better (although I would myself be hard put to identify these).

This is plain hogwash, as Dinesh Mohan makes clear in an article in BS. He points out a number of reasons why some offers may not be getting accepted:

Students have become acutely aware that all disciplines do not offer challenging or rewarding jobs after graduation (such as civil, production, textile, and many others). Therefore, some of them may prefer to go to an NIT closer to home that gives them an opportunity in a discipline of their choice. Studying at an IIT for undergraduate students can cost about Rs 20,000 a month, not a small amount for a middle-class family. Some of those declining may have opted to spend less by studying at a local NIT instead of a new IIT and save on hostel expenses.
A significant proportion of the students entering IITs know from day one that they are not interested in an engineering career, but do so under parental and societal pressure or a lack of choices for obtaining decent education. If there was a good supply of excellent liberal arts and science colleges with hostel facilities, applications to IITs may drop by a third. It is possible that some of those declining an admission to IIT have gained admission to good law schools, design schools or science colleges that have made a name for themselves in recent years.
Lastly, there would be a group of young men and women who would prefer to spend much more money and go to an institution in the US, Australia, Singapore or the UK, even a second-rate one, than take admission in a discipline and IIT location they don't like. Therefore, the fact that many applicants have opted out of the IIT system may be a good sign, showing that we have more choices and the system is maturing. It certainly does not reflect on the standing of IITs as academic institutions in India. 

The proposition that the entry of newer IITs is diluting the IIT brand would be strictly true only if the older and more reputed IITs fail to fill their seats because of a perception that IITs are not what they were. Nobody has argued that this is the case. We need data on how many seats at which IITs were rejected.

A similar apprehension was raised in respect of the newer IIMs. It's a fact that many of the new IIMs could not place all their students in the last round of Placement. Has this impacted IIMA, the market leader? Not one bit. IIMA achieved 100% placement. The newer IITs and IIMs will take a while to establish themselves. That is very different from saying that the IIT or IIM brand will go into decline because of them.

Incidentally, Dinesh Mohan's article last year on why the JEE should be abolished is also worth reading.