<\/p>\nA question that refuses to go away<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
Five years after leaving IIT Bombay and building his own venture, Agrawal says one question continues to follow him.“Was IIT actually worth it, or was it just hype?”The question, he noted in a recent LinkedIn post, has become even more relevant in the AI era. With conversational AI tools capable of explaining almost any concept, many believe the value of traditional degrees is beginning to fade.Agrawal, who graduated with a BTech in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Bombay in 2021, acknowledged that AI has fundamentally changed access to knowledge. Information, once locked inside classrooms, textbooks, and expensive courses, is now available to virtually anyone with an internet connection.Yet, he argues, that is precisely why people are misunderstanding the real return on investment of studying at an institution like IIT.<\/p>\nThe biggest lesson was never taught in a classroom<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
Agrawal’s argument departs sharply from the conventional narrative surrounding elite institutions. It is not because of classroom lecture, academic syllabus, nor the prestige that comes along with studying at an IIT that he attributes most of his success.On the contrary, for him, the biggest gift from this educational institute lies in something intangible but long-lasting, and that would be its people.For him, spending four years around people who were so ambitious and gifted made him realize how much more he could aspire for in life.Being around peers who kept creating, questioning, solving tough problems, and dreaming big changed his perspective altogether. The influence, he suggests, came not through formal instruction but through everyday exposure to excellence.<\/p>\nThe goldfish analogy<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
To explain his perspective, Agrawal turned to an analogy that resonated widely online. A goldfish, he wrote, grows according to the environment in which it lives. Place it in a small bowl, and it remains only a few inches long. Move it into a larger aquarium, and it grows bigger. Put it into a pond, and its growth expands even further.For Agrawal, IIT Bombay was that pond. The comparison was not about better buildings, laboratories or campus facilities. It was about the environment created by thousands of students who constantly inspired, challenged, and competed with one another.His message was simple: people often grow to match the expectations and ambitions of those around them.<\/p>\nAI has changed the value equation<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
Ironically, Agrawal believes artificial intelligence has strengthened, not weakened, his appreciation of that experience.AI has democratised information in ways unimaginable even a few years ago. Learning a programming language, understanding complex scientific concepts, or acquiring technical knowledge has become dramatically easier.Knowledge itself is no longer the scarce resource. What remains scarce, he argues, is an ecosystem that continuously stretches individuals beyond their comfort zones.While algorithms can answer questions within seconds, they cannot replicate the subtle but powerful influence of spending years among people whose ambitions constantly raise the bar.That daily exposure to curiosity, innovation and healthy competition, Agrawal believes, shapes thinking in ways no chatbot or search engine can.<\/p>\nThe real return on investment<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
For decades, discussions about institutions like IITs have largely centred on placements, salary packages and global rankings.Agrawal’s reflection shifts the conversation elsewhere.Perhaps the true value of an elite institution lies less in the degree certificate and more in the invisible network of ideas, friendships, collaborations and intellectual challenges that students carry with them long after graduation.In an age where AI is rapidly narrowing the gap in access to knowledge, the competitive advantage may increasingly come from something technology still struggles to recreate\u2014the human ecosystem that encourages people to think bigger than they otherwise would.For students weighing whether the pursuit of an elite college remains worthwhile, Agrawal’s answer is nuanced. The information available inside an IIT classroom may now be easier to access from anywhere. But the experience of growing alongside thousands of exceptionally driven peers, he argues, remains one of the institution’s most enduring, and perhaps irreplaceable, advantages.<\/div>\n
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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With AI making information instantly accessible, questions over the relevance of elite degrees are growing louder. Reflecting on his journey from IIT Bombay to building a startup, Anahad co-founder Shikhar Agrawal explains why the institution’s true value came from its people, not just its academics or brand. IIT is not just an institution, it is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29772,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[264],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-education"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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