Stereotyping of an “IITian” - Perceptions of IIT and non-IIT students

Stereotyping of an “IITian”
M.Arunothia, 13378 Garima, 13273
Tanya Batra, 13740 Vikas Jain, 13788
Submitted to Prof. Kumar Ravi Priya for partial fulfilment of the course
requirements for PSY454A, IITK
Abstract
This project focuses on finding out various preconceptions re-
garding the essence of being an IITian. In this project, we surveyed
90 engineering students, spread across the Country with some spe-
cific questions regarding the life-style, academics and post-graduation
plans of IIT students. Our control group consists of 49 IIT students
and 41 non IIT students. Again to get a generalized outlook, we col-
lected data from students of different IITs - 4 IIT Bombay, 2 IIT Delhi,
1 IIT Gandhinagar, 2 IIT Hyderabad, 1 IIT Jodhpur, 31 IIT Kanpur, 1
IIT Kharagpur and 7 IIT Madras. We have obtained very interesting
results that show the inevitable existence of stereotyping of IIT stu-
dents among the out-group and have presented some possible rea-
sons for the existence of such stereotyping. We have also analysed
as to how this control group perceives IITJEE and have concluded
with presenting the pros and cons of the current system.
Humanity and Social Sciences
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
1

Contents
1 Introduction 3
2 Methodology 4
2.1 Sample . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.2 Data Collection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.3 Data Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.3.1 Academics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.3.2 Placements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.3.3 Life Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.3.4 Career options and Future plans . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.3.5 Substance Abuse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.3.6 A student who has cleared JEE, is he/she reliably
in the top students of the nation? If not, why so? . . 10
2.3.7 What better alternatives or suggestions do you have
for JEE? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3 Findings 12
3.1 Findings of the survey on hypothesis testing . . . . . . . . 12
3.2 Qualitative Analysis Findings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
4 Discussions 15
5 Conclusions 16
2

1 Introduction
Indian Institute of Technology are the most privileged institutes of the
country and are institutes of national importance. IITs and its students
have direct impact on the society and are counted as top minds of the
nation. Therefore, it becomes necessary to look into the people’s per-
ception and notion about the IITs and the students studying in IITs.
Through this project, our aim is to find out how different groups, stu-
dent studying in IITs and student not studying in IITs, perceive the IIT
tag and if there is any stereotype associated with the IITs prevails among
the out-group.
It also becomes important to check the stereotypes because if they
exist among the out-group, it can effect the society adversely. In Indian
society, a large chunk of high school students prepare for engineering
entrance examinations (especially JEE for admission in IITs). If stereo-
types prevail(e.g. high placement packages), they can act as false target
for the student preparing for the entrance examination. Another ad-
verse effect can be association of stereotypes with the IIT students after
the graduation. Thirdly, if stereotypes prevail among the out-group sec-
tion of engineering students who are not studying in IITs, they can be
more harmful because this section of out-group is more influential in
the field of engineering and propagate wrong image of IITs among the
society.
Keeping above rationale of necessity of finding stereotypes associ-
ated with IITs in mind, this project addresses the issue by hypothesis
formation and its analysis. The following is the hypothesis made
Hypothesis 1 Engineering Students from Non-IIT colleges have stereo-
types associated with the social and academic environment of IITs and
their students.
We hypothesis that the following stereotypes prevail among the out-
group.
Academics IIT students are much more studious and sincere than the
usual.
Placements Placement in IITs are much better in terms of annual pack-
ages, abroad placements and satisfaction.
Lifestyle IITians do not get enough time for the casual activities.
Career options and Future plans IITians tend to go for MBA, civil ser-
vices, placements rather than social services, start-ups, research
Substance Abuse and Suicides The reason for substance abuses among
IITians are due to Academics and other personal issues.
All students who are aspiring for engineering studies as their grad-
uate studies generally take IITJEE examination for entrance in IITs.
Hence, the students who failed in IITJEE finally form the out-group
who take admission in non-IIT colleges. Hence, in our second part of
our project, our aim is to analyze, again among IIT and non-IIT students,
3

whether ITIJEE is a good measure for entrance into top engineering in-
stitutes of the nation. The following question is posed and analyzed
qualitatively:
Qualitative Analysis How much good a measure, IITJEE can be con-
sidered for admission into the IITs?
2 Methodology
2.1 Sample
We collected data from IIT students (varied across different IITs) and non
IIT engineering students (varied across the Country). The rationale
behind choosing such a sample is
• The data from the IIT students provide us with the actual measure
or the right answer for our questions, using which we compare the
results of the Non IIT engineering students.
• We decided to restrict our out-group only to non IIT engineering
students because we felt they are the most influential people in the
field of engineering. Hence, their thoughts and mind-set about IIT
is of our main concern.
• To make our hypothesis work for a general scenario, we tried our
best make our sample spread across all IITs and across the Coun-
try for the non IIT students. The detailed description of our data
collection is given the following section.
2.2 Data Collection
A questionnaire[] is formed(google form) consisting of basic questions
regarding Academics, Placements, Lifestyle, Career options and future
plans and Substance abuse in IITs. The form is floated among IIT and
non IIT students. 49 students from IITs filled the survey (4 IIT Bombay,
2 IIT Delhi, 1 IIT Gandhinagar, 2 IIT Hyderabad, 1 IIT Jodhpur, 31 IIT
Kanpur, 1 IIT Kharagpur and 7 IIT Madras) and 41 students from various
colleges other than IITs filled the survey.
Following were the attributes associated with the data collection:
• It was not mentioned anywhere that the survey is to check stereo-
types associated with the IITs.
• The form formed was completely anonymous and college name was
the only personal information asked.
• Individual could not see the responses filled by other individuals, it
helps in ensuring unanimity in the answers and also that individ-
uals are not influenced by the responses of the other individuals.
4

For our qualitative analysis part, we took data in the same form used
above for hypothesis data collection as diﬀerent section. Around 40
people in total ﬁlled the answers for the questions regarding IITJEE, out
of which number of data from IIT and non-IIT students were equal(∼20)
2.3 Data Analysis
For the hypothesis testing, the following questions were asked in the
survey and the corresponding responses were recorded as shown.
2.3.1 Academics
• How do IITians prepare for exams ?
Figure 1: IIT Students Figure 2: Non IIT Students
• Time devoted by IIT students for self study (on per day basis)
• What do you think will be the average attendance of lectures at
IITs? ?
Figure 5: IIT Students
5

Figure 6: Non IIT Students
• What do you think is the average CPI(CGPA, on scale of 10) of an
IIT student?
2.3.2 Placements
• What is the average package(per annum) that the students at IITs
recieve ?
• How much satisﬁed do you think the students at IITs get after their
placements ?
6

2.3.3 Life Style
• The percentage of IIT students devoting time for their passion.
• How much hygiene do you think is maintained by the students at
IITs?
• Do you think IIT students ﬁnd time for festival celebrations and
casual travel plans with family/friends?
7

2.3.4 Career options and Future plans
• What is your guess on the percentage of students at IITs who prefer
to go for the MBA after graduation?
to go for Masters/PhD after graduation?
to go for Civil Services after graduation?
8

to go for Jobs at MNCs after graduation?
2.3.5 Substance Abuse
• What do you think are the reasons for substance abuse among IIT
students?
• Are IIT students more prone to suicides??
9

For the Qualitative Analysis, the following questions were asked in
the survey and the corresponding responses were recorded as shown.
2.3.6 A student who has cleared JEE, is he/she reliably in the top
students of the nation? If not, why so?
14 people felt it is a yes. 4 people just answered No. The others answered
as follows
• No. Physics, Chemistry and Math alone cannot determine a per-
son’s intelligence and knowledge.
• Not necessarily. He/She may have cleared the toughest entrance
exam, but any exam can be cracked with a little eﬀort.
• A 6 hour or so examination cannot really reﬂect the smartness of
a person.
• No, he may have used tricks or other unfair means for doing so.
• Most of the people who get through are certainly among the top-
notch but this statement is not valid for all because of the presence
of resources like coaching institutes that train a person for a par-
ticular kind of paper. Even an average person can get through by
giving 2 years in solving particular kind of questions. So essen-
tially selected students are good learners but not the best minds.
• No, it is possible for a few to clear without being in the top by
continuous practice etc.
• NO. In JEE, there also comes the ’luck’ factor.
• No, depends on the day of exam
• I guess no metric is perfect. But JEE does pretty well although not
the very best, I am afraid.
• Generally he is among the top students academically if not in the
overall sense.After all JEE is the toughest exam of the world.
10

• Top in what sense needs to be defined in general. For instance, no
iitian has ever become the prime minister of country. But most stu-
dents with their sheer hard work earn a decent respectable earning
in the society. They may not be the best but they are not bad also.
• Yes, but there are many talented students who can’t afford to pre-
pare for the same
• No, it just reveals that they are talented in studies. Studies is not
the only expectation from a true student, there is a lot more. Sad
part is that students don’t realize the fact. Just 1 exam does not
decide that.
• No, all students who clear JEE may not have the same potential
and IQ level
• There might be many factors due to which students can’t perform
well in JEE. E.g: facilities
• This is a subjective question and depends on the context. If you
mean top students in STEM, then yes most of them are at the top
but not the only ones. But if you mean top student in terms of
ability then no.
• Not necessary, though it depends on the type of the questions and
further there are people who are more deserving to be on the top
of the nation, but due to certain reasons, they fail to be classified
so
• No, because of the reservation system
• No, he might be better at solving maths, physics and chemistry,
but this does not imply that he is good in all fields.
2.3.7 What better alternatives or suggestions do you have for JEE?
The responses recorded are as mentioned below
• Some questions from English also should be added,so that stu-
dents will be preparing for that also and students those come from
Hindi medium background will not have a problem in their first few
semesters.
• Series of examinations, maybe in a span of month with some screen-
ing and the increase of difficulty
• Personal interview based selection
• A SAT type exam many times a year, followed by other evaluations
like essays, past achievements etc.
• JEE shouldn’t be on a single day. The two papers can be organized
on two different days. Or the three subjects on three different days
11

• College admission should be as those for foreign universities where
all the aspects are considered. Its true that learning an art form
is no way useful for studying in IIT but by doing this we could
encourage students to learn. Hobbies are not important but are
necessary .
• More tougher exam should be taken.
• Well current JEE is doing more than fine. Its the procedure that
starts after JEE and the academic systems of IITs that need fixing.
Like choosing major and which IIT campus to join. No of courses
and workload a student can handle in a semester, more flexibility
in choosing courses of owns choice etc etc.
• The pattern of the paper shouldn’t be fixed so that students should
get prepared for any type of paper
• Maybe have an admission exam for each department, with the
questions being basics needed in this field.
3 Findings
3.1 Findings of the survey on hypothesis testing
The results of the survey are very informative and similar to a large
extent with what we hypothesised.
• Academics
It is clear from the survey results on academics that IIT students
are stereotyped as more studious and academic oriented by the
non- IIT peers.
– It is evident from the responses of non- IIT students, a great
majority of whom believe that IITians study on a regular basis
on contrary to IIT’ians belief that they study a night before the
exams.
– It is also supported by the finding that non-IIT students be-
lieve that the attendence in lectures at IITs is around 60-80%
unlike to their IIT peers who say that it is actually ranges from
30-60%
– The results on two more questions , namely the average CPI
and time devoted on self study, are also inline with the hy-
pothesis but there has not been a clear demarcation based on
these two answers unlike the first two
• Placements
– It is evident from the survey results that the placements of
IITians have been overhyped in the society. The findings of the
12

survey question which asked about the average annual pack-
age of IIT students reveals that most of the students from the
out-group (Non IIT students) believe that the IITians are paid
more and their average income is around 10-25 lakhs but the
actual scenario which the IITians themselves have reported is
that their average income ranges from 1-10 lakhs per annum.
– The great in-group and out-group bias can been seen when
asked about the level of satisfaction which the IITians get af-
ter their placements. There has been a tough call between
‘pretty much’ and ‘not so much’ for the IIT students,but none
of them said that the IITians are ‘very much’ satisfied with
their placements but for the out group i.e the non-IIT stu-
dents, most them (61%) believe that IITians are ‘pretty much’
satisfied and there is a significant section which believe that
some of the IITians are even very much satisfied with their
placements
So, to sum up, the hypothesis that there is a significant difference
in the way the people inside and outside IIT perceives the place-
ments in IITs is correct to a large extent.
• Lifestyle
– When IITians were asked about the percentage of students de-
voting time to their passion, they reported that less than 30%
of the students does so. On the other hand, when this ques-
tion was asked to the non- IIT students, most of them believe
that around 60-70% students devote time to their passion
– The responses of the question on the time the IIT students get
to spend with their family and friends reveals that the both
the in-group and out-group hold almost the same opinion on
this, most of them believe that they get enough time to spend
with their dear ones.
– Also, the responses on the extent of hygiene the IIT students
maintain also reveals almost the same thinking of both the
in-group and out-group, the only difference is the percentage
of IITians who say that very much hygiene is maintained is far
less than the non-IIT students who feel so.
So, from the collected data we found that there are not significant
stereotypes associated with the lifestyle of students at IITs and both
the in-group and out-group hold almost the same opinion on this.
Hence, we observe that the collected data do not support our hy-
pothesis on lifestyle.
• Career options and future plans
To get an idea about what the students outside IIT perceives about
their peers at IITs taking up their career option and what the
13

IITians actually think about themselves and their friends in IITs
pursuing their career as, we asked different questions about dif-
ferent career options and observed the following findings
– MBA- Most of the non-IIT students believe that around 25-
50% IITians pursue management after graduation unlike the
IITians who reported that this figure is only less than 25%
– Masters and PhD- Although the majority in both the groups
believe that less than 25% students go for Masters and Phd,
but there is a significant difference in the percentage of stu-
dents who believe so. This actually a bit contradicts from our
hypothesis, we found out from the data that the non-IIT stu-
dents perceives their IIT peers going for higher education more
than what the IIT students actually themselves do
– Civil Services-From the survey we observed that there are
significant number of non -IIT students who believe that more
than 75% of students at IITs go for civil services after gradu-
ation and yet more significant number believe that 50-75% of
IITians join civil services after graduating. It is really interest-
ing to see that none of the IIT students believe that more than
50% students go for civil services. This shows a great distinc-
tion between the what the out group thinks and what actually
is the reality according to the IIT students. This finding is ex-
actly in line with our hypothesis and completely supports it.
– MNcs- Most of the IITians believe that around 50-75% of their
peers join MNCs after graduation and there is a very less num-
ber of students who believe that more than 75% students go
and join MNCs which is in straight contradiction to the results
obtained from the non-IIT students, most of whom believe that
more than 75% of the IITians join MNCs after graduation. This
research finding also supports our hypothesis on how non- IIT
students perceive their IITian peers on choosing their career
option
• Substance Abuse
When surveyed about the reasons behind IITians consuming alco-
hol, most of the IITians supported the fact that it’s just a trend but
a majority of the non-IITians had the opinion that it is self initiated.
This is inline with our hypothesis that IITians are stereotyped as
being more involved in consuming alcohol and drugs
• Suicides
When the question about whether IITians are more prone to sui-
cides was asked to the non - IIT students around 54% of them
were in the favour of the argument but on contrary when it was
given to the IITians only 24% said yes. This clearly indicates the
stereotype associated with the IITians that they are more prone to
suicides and substance abuse.
14

3.2 Qualitative Analysis Findings
IITians and non-IIT students were asked about whether the IITians are
really the top students of the nation and the answers were really in-
teresting. Most of the students said that IITians are the best brains
because they clear the toughest exam of the world but there were some
who believe that its only because of the coaching which the students
take get them into IITs and getting admission into an IIT does not depict
that you are smart enough as you can clear an entrance exam just by
putting in great efforts.
When the students were asked about the alternatives or suggestions
they have for JEE, there were many varied answers. The variety in an-
swers can be attributed to the sources from which we took the data.
Those who were able to clear the Joint Entrance Exam, most of them
feel that the current screening system of JEE is absolutely fine, but
they want to have more department specific screening exams.They also
want to have some more difficult questions. On the other hand, there
was a set of people who just missed clearing the Entrance exam so they
feel that JEE should not be on a single day and there should be more
questions which test the overall personality rather than just maths and
science.
These research findings were quite in line with what we studied in The
Ultimate Attribution Error theory. Those who are in in-group attribute
their success to their hard work, intelligence and intellect whereas those
of the out group (who could not clear JEE) see the IITians as being for-
tunate enough to go to coachings and attribute their success to the
external factors like coaching classes, lucky day etc.
4 Discussions
Our findings support the The illusory correlation paradigm as given
in the the book The Formation of Meaningful Beliefs about Social Groups
by Craig McGarty, Vincent Y. Yzerbyt, Russell Spears.
”Illusory correlation is the phenomenon of perceiving a re-
lationship between variables (typically people, events, or be-
haviors) even when no such relationship exists” [1]
”· · · the term illusory correlation refers to the perception of covariation
between two classes of stimuli that are uncorrelated, or less strongly
correlated than perceived” [2]
In our study, we can see that, just by the fact that a student is study-
ing at IIT, there are a lot of presumptions made about that student in
different contexts. For example, in the field of Academics, all that an
out-group person knows about an IITian is the very fact that he/she is
smart enough to clear IITJEE. In our qualitative analysis, we see that
15

many people still feel that IITJEE is not the right measure. Even after
this discrepancy regarding IITJEE persisting, out-group members seem
to correlate the event of ”clearing IITJEE” wrongly with the event of the
student being ”extremely studious, sincere(like attending classes regu-
larly, etc”. This clearly is an example supporting the illusory correlation
paradigm of stereotyping.
Again in case of placements, the out-group members seem to wrongly
correlate the known smartness of IITians with the pay packages they
get. We do not report this in any negative sense. We particularly think
that such stereotyping exists among the out-group members because it
is much easier for them to make such correlations than for them to try
and find out the truth.
In case of life-style there does not seem to be much of stereotyping. This
we think should be due to the fact that our out-group members are none
other than our own engineering peers working in other colleges. Hence,
they have no necessity to arrive at any assumptions (by correlating with
performance in IITJEE) in case of life-style because they themselves are
living the life of an engineering student. Therefore, in this case, our
hypothesis turns out to be incorrect.
It is a shocking to see how the out-group has extended the correlation to
even areas like career options, substance abuse and suicides as these
extensions can have very high implications. Famous men like Chetan
Bhagat, Arvind Kejrival, etc have received both extra reputations and
unwanted critics just due to the existence of such stereotyping. As there
are both pros and cons to the scenario, the net effect remains neutral.
5 Conclusions
We conclude the following about our Hypothesis
• The out-group of peers think that IIT students are more studious
and academically oriented than reported by IITians themselves.
• They assume that placement in IITs are much better in terms of
annual packages, abroad placements and satisfaction.
• There does NOT seem to be any stereotyping in the field of life-style
contradicting our assumption.
• The out-group believe that IITians tend to go for MBA, civil services,
placements rather than social services, start-ups, research.
• The out-group seems to believe that IITians are more prone to sui-
cides. They also believe that substance abuse is majorly self-driven
though the IITians have reported that peer-pressure and the exis-
tence of such trend are the major reasons.
16

From our qualitative analysis on IITJEE, we conclude that there defi-
nitely exists a discrepancy over whether IITJEE is the right measure of
selecting candidates for IITs. From the suggestions given by the stu-
dents, it is clear that there should be a committed team working on un-
derstanding the current scenario and bettering the system. We think it
would take a great deal of commitment and effort to figure out a better
alternative for IITJEE. Nevertheless, things can become the best.
References
[1] Wikipedia. Illusory correlation — wikipedia, the free encyclopedia,
2015. [Online; accessed 15-April-2016].
[2] Russell Spears Craig McGarty, Vincent Y. Yzerbyt. Stereotypes as Ex-
planations: The Formation of Meaningful Beliefs about Social Groups.
Cambridge University Press, 2002.
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