Having seen the son work through both an IIT education and Ivy League education, I can safely compare both types of education and do my analysis 🙂
Getting into an IIT:
The IITs admit students only through their entrance exams – JEE (Joint Entrance Examination) Advanced. In order to appear for JEE Advanced, students have to first clear the JEE Main exam. With India’s competitive set of students, both the JEE Mains and Advanced require years of preparation. They test Math, Physics, Chemistry fundamentals and dig deep into their concepts. There are coaching classes conducted in India and students start to prepare for the exam from fifth or sixth grade (though the coaching classes then are mostly catered to the school syllabus only)
So, there are only two exams to clear and get into an IIT of your choice. But both the JEE papers are MPC intensive papers and feature excessive competition. In addition, the pattern of the question paper might vary each year and there is negative marking as well.
In fact, the JEE Advanced exam is considered as one of the toughest exams in the world
Source: Top 10 Hardest Exams in the World (Updated 2026)
Getting into an Ivy League University:
Now let us see the selection criteria to get into an Ivy League University in the US.
The Ivy League Universities are located along the Eastern coast of US. They are Brown University, Yale University, Cornell University, Columbia University, Harvard University, Princeton University, Dartmouth College and University of Pennsylvania.
All the Ivy League Universities boast of world class education, and eminent personalities have studied and graduated from them. Notable personalities who graduated from Columbia University are Barack Obama, Warren Buffett, Alexander Hamilton, Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Ivy League college (and in general, international admissions) are different from Indian college admissions.
It is more of a holistic admission process focusing on different abilities of a student rather than just looking at academic credentials.
GRE and TOEFL scores are good to have though many colleges might not consider it all time. There are multiple requirements and the incoming students have to satisfy many of them to be eligible for admission. A rough checklist for getting into an Ivy league University for graduate admission is as follows:
- LOR or Letter of Recommendation (from at least three references)
- SOP or Statement of Purpose
- Transcripts
- A good CGPA helps a lot
- Resume
- Any publications(if it is there)
- GRE and/or TOEFL scores (if needed)
- Application fee
These documents are sent to a screening committee, and it undergoes deep scrutiny and several months before admission is finally granted.
Since admission requirements are mostly holistic in nature, it is tough to actually pinpoint why a student might get selected and why a student might not get selected.
In spite of the fact that the Ivy League admission takes a longer time for admission and tests the student at different levels, it is the Indian exam that is still harder to crack and get into is my view point! 🙂
This post is for Blogchatter Half Marathon 2.0