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Sarah,
This week the LA Times had a fascinating article on the
admission process for Engineering Colleges in India. Here is the breakdown:
1. Every year over
500,000 applicants compete for 9,647 spots.
2. To be admitted, students
take an engineering entrance exam that has a 98% failure rate.
3. To study for the
test, students flock to the city of Kota, which is famous for its test
preparation companies. The companies are
in Kota because the founder of the most successful test prep company started
his business in a garage in Kota and an entire industry sprouted around his business. Further, Kota has very few restaurants or movie
theatres so parents feel that their kids will not be distracted. Lastly, various hotels and host families offer accommodations
with strict curfews and rules. As an
example, one hotel recently evicted a student for smoking a cigarette.
4. The tuition for
the best test prep schools is around $1400.
India’s GDP per capita is only $3,693.
As a point of reference, America’s GDP per capita is $48,000. So based on a proportion of tuition to GDP
per capita, that is like a test prep company in America charging $18,000. Accordingly, many Indian families take out
mortgages on their property to pay for the test prep.
This is incredibly interesting and notably risky. with a 98% fail rate, families are still willing to take our mortages to pay for that risk. With only about 10,000 spots and 500,000 applicants, im not sure I would go for it. I heard somewhere that the California bar exam is the 5th most difficult exam in the world. I wonder where this exam ranks on the list of the worlds most challenging exams?
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