On education in US
On being asked by a friend to comment on the difference in the systems of education which has been adopted in India after Britisher left, how it evolved, how is it today and how does it compare with that in the USA, I am writing this review.
Those of you who are reading this and have taken / or are taking their education in USA would have felt that personally. Those who would take later would realize too :)
Before comparing education systems, I quote here the same thing which my cousin and senior from ITBHU quoted once "A professional career is like riding waves. You ride with a sail-board on the water peak, which is going to fall, and before that, you jump on to the next peak. Education is like a surf-board, the better you are trained, the better you can sail."
Its only a semester that I have spent here and I have learnt a lot of things! Be it a subject, computers, presentation skills, documentation, group projects, down to cooking my and my friends' food.
The idea of education starts from the fact that the environment is conducive for activities like research and development and that these activities happen in "Cutting Edge Technologies. One would typically come to US for Masters and subsequent PhD. I am not sure about everyone, but I found a sudden big gap between the under-graduation studies and graduate studies, not because the inherent knowledge was not there, but it was only sufficient to understand that the processes in research were typically very sofisticated and we never did such activities in
undergraduate curriculum.
Research is typically different from taking a fixed number of courses, taking a fixed number of exams, passing them with grades to the best of your capabilities (your desires sometimes) which is the usual case in Under-graduation in India. The ultimate aim can be to get a job, or get
into higher education.
I have little idea about the under-graduation studies in USA, however I am sure they are given a lot more opportunities of doing small projects, shaping their education "the way they want"; they are made ethically stronger and are provided with better platforms to perform, logically think and coherently produce ideas !
Education in USA is flexible. You study what you like and you think is important for your research. You take courses which are relevant to your research. You work hard, produce good results and become the doctors of philosophy.
My guide once quoted " When you complete your PhD, consider yourself world leader in that field " He was right ! The learning curve is such that I can imagine someone working on a problem for 5 years. Damn ! He has to be a world-leader in that.
Education in India is too competitive and those who come here do well usually. I am proud about the system in India because of the competitiveness though there is always scope of improvements and at the same time there are a good number of qualities which the US education has and which we should adopt.
Comments from IITians those in US appreciated :) ~ R
Those of you who are reading this and have taken / or are taking their education in USA would have felt that personally. Those who would take later would realize too :)
Before comparing education systems, I quote here the same thing which my cousin and senior from ITBHU quoted once "A professional career is like riding waves. You ride with a sail-board on the water peak, which is going to fall, and before that, you jump on to the next peak. Education is like a surf-board, the better you are trained, the better you can sail."
Its only a semester that I have spent here and I have learnt a lot of things! Be it a subject, computers, presentation skills, documentation, group projects, down to cooking my and my friends' food.
The idea of education starts from the fact that the environment is conducive for activities like research and development and that these activities happen in "Cutting Edge Technologies. One would typically come to US for Masters and subsequent PhD. I am not sure about everyone, but I found a sudden big gap between the under-graduation studies and graduate studies, not because the inherent knowledge was not there, but it was only sufficient to understand that the processes in research were typically very sofisticated and we never did such activities in
undergraduate curriculum.
Research is typically different from taking a fixed number of courses, taking a fixed number of exams, passing them with grades to the best of your capabilities (your desires sometimes) which is the usual case in Under-graduation in India. The ultimate aim can be to get a job, or get
into higher education.
I have little idea about the under-graduation studies in USA, however I am sure they are given a lot more opportunities of doing small projects, shaping their education "the way they want"; they are made ethically stronger and are provided with better platforms to perform, logically think and coherently produce ideas !
Education in USA is flexible. You study what you like and you think is important for your research. You take courses which are relevant to your research. You work hard, produce good results and become the doctors of philosophy.
My guide once quoted " When you complete your PhD, consider yourself world leader in that field " He was right ! The learning curve is such that I can imagine someone working on a problem for 5 years. Damn ! He has to be a world-leader in that.
Education in India is too competitive and those who come here do well usually. I am proud about the system in India because of the competitiveness though there is always scope of improvements and at the same time there are a good number of qualities which the US education has and which we should adopt.
Comments from IITians those in US appreciated :) ~ R
posted by Rohit Malshe at 4:33 PM
2 Comments:
Check out my blog when you get a chance. It has over 32 poems(dont just read the first story, get to the bottom of my page), some with audio. Thanks, Mike.......... A.K.A. The Scribe
Check out my poem entitled "Words"
www.fabelstales.blogspot.com/
I like your post....
Also, the education system here stresses on the use of humor in the classroom and of something called "feedback", which keeps Professors on their toes. A lot of stress is laid on homeworks and labs, which leads to a more thorough understanding of the subject matter.
We need more people like you to take these virtues from USA back to India and teach :-).
Best wishes,
-A
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