Compilation Of Comments On Enrollment Form Letter - National: Fill & Download for Free

Wow, what a monumental question here! It deeply influenced life for black and white people and these divisions are still deeply felt by both races of people. They still have a profound effect on us all. This is why we laugh when people say that racism is over.Not even close.I can talk about this forever. I will try to keep it short but I will fail. I know that.Therese Van Arsdale has a brilliant answer. This is completely true.This is an interesting video which tries to “convince” white retailers to expand their businesses to black buyers, reminding them not to cut their profits by refusing black people. In the video, many white people believed that blacks were a bad credit risk and flat out refused to sell to them.You will see this evidenced today in home buying.Even after the 1968 passage of the Fair Housing Act, black Americans and other minorities have continued to experience housing inequalities.In the first quarter of 2020, the Census Bureau reported that black households had the lowest homeownership rate at 44%, nearly 30 percentage points behind white households.In a report published this month, the Urban Institute cites multiple prior studies that show that if homeownership were racially equalized, the racial wealth gap would diminish.“We also know that homeownership benefits accrue differently to white homeowners than to homeowners of color,” write Urban Institute’s Michael Neal and Alanna McCargo. “Some reasons for this are that black homeowners are more likely to cycle between homeownership and renting, which has implications for how much housing wealth they can build relative to white homeowners.This as well…..Home buyers in predominantly Black communities are being issued loans with mortgage interest rates that are 13 basis points higher than in predominantly white communities, according to a Homes for Sale, Mortgage Rates, Virtual Tours & Rentals | realtor.com®® analysis of 2018 and 2019 purchase mortgage data from Optimal Blue, a real estate information company. (One basis point equals 1/100 of 1%. The difference between a mortgage rate of 3.52% and a rate of 3.62% is 10 basis points.)"It’s a tax on being Black in this country. It’s a tax on being poor or financially vulnerable," says Brett Theodos, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan research group based in Washington, DC. "At every turn, Blacks are paying more than whites to borrow money or to access money.”While 13 basis points may seem like a drop in the bucket, the combination of that rate difference and a smaller down payment adds about $43 a month to a mortgage payment for a $281,000 home (the median U.S. home sale price in June, according to Optimal Blue). It also tacks on roughly $9,869 of interest over the life of a 30-year fixed-rate loan.Old attitudes die hard. Very hard. This causes some disparity with blacks and home ownership than with whites. Should someone not be able to buy.a home like anyone else just because of the color of their skin? I am talking to you out there who can only quote Dr. King’s speech towards the end and ignore everything he’s ever said in his entire life.NOTE: If interested, I wrote a story about a black girl and the French beret. I’ll put it on my blog.Black people were not allowed to just purchase what they wanted. If a white seller believed that item too good for a “Negro”, he would flat out refuse, even if the money was in his hand. They wouldn’t even sell toilet paper to some blacks. Ask Emmett Till. He tried to buy toilet paper in the south and was rejected. But you can’t. Racists killed him.The Sears Catalogue took away the shame from blacks who wanted to purchase things they worked hard for as well. It gave them a sense of dignity that whites had worked to take away from us. My mom bought home that book for years. Up until I was about sixteen years old. We used to absolutely love it.“They couldn't buy the same clothes as white people. They couldn't buy the same food as white people...This was part of the sort of everyday white supremacy of Jim Crow,” Hyman says. “And so, the Sears catalog allowed them a way to buy clothes that were nicer than were available in that country store, to buy food that the white people ate... It offered them a choice where they didn't have to feel second-class in their shopping lives.”What do you think this does to an entire race of people? My mother who was born in 1941 faced incredible discrimination and so did my father who was born in 1937 as a sharecropper. This wasn’t ancient history folks. These are my PARENTS.Sharecroppers…There were other rules, many of them unwritten, that blacks had to follow. Black people had to fret over their children daily as they faced a constant terror in the South. These unwritten rules that people followed then are a bit different from the unwritten rules that we follow today. Here are some of the ones that were followed to the letter during the time of Jim Crow….A black male could not offer his hand (to shake hands) with a white male because it implied being socially equal. Obviously, a black male could not offer his hand or any other part of his body to a white woman, because he risked being accused of rape.Blacks and whites were not supposed to eat together. If they did eat together, whites were to be served first, and some sort of partition was to be placed between them.Under no circumstance was a black male to offer to light the cigarette of a white female -- that gesture implied intimacy.Blacks were not allowed to show public affection toward one another in public, especially kissing, because it offended whites.Jim Crow etiquette prescribed that blacks were introduced to whites, never whites to blacks. For example: "Mr. Peters (the white person), this is Charlie (the black person), that I spoke to you about."Whites did not use courtesy titles of respect when referring to blacks, for example, Mr., Mrs., Miss., Sir, or Ma'am. Instead, blacks were called by their first names. Blacks had to use courtesy titles when referring to whites, and were not allowed to call them by their first names.If a black person rode in a car driven by a white person, the black person sat in the back seat, or the back of a truck.White motorists had the right-of-way at all intersections.It is interesting when some whites try to say that “there are no laws on the books stopping black people from doing what they want to do today”. However, many of these laws were not “on the books” either and they stopped black people dead in their tracks then as they do today.Jim Crow TodayThere are many examples I can come up with to show that Jim Crow is still with us.Today, it is shown as a sign of disrespect when blacks are called “boy”. We aren’t given the benefit of the doubt. When black people face racial trouble, we often appeal to a white person to “help”.For example, when a woman wasn’t allowed to cash her check with her husband, she instantly appealed to a white person. If you watch these racist videos, you will often see this “appeal” to a white person. It is done all the time but really isn’t talked about. I will talk about this phenomenon more in a later blog post. But pay attention to it.Black people are STILL assumed to be lazy, violent, and stupid. I can’t tell you how often I come across these sentiments right here on Quora. Black people often act in ways that is different than they act among people they are more comfortable with because if they were to act a certain way, these stereotypes that others have are enforced.The way that black people dress is usually taken by some to ascertain their social class, intelligence, or even who they are as people. You can't tell by the way someone dresses who they are but this is an idea that holds well in this country.Even how black people wear their hair. I was told by a white woman with red/blue hair that black people need to “dress” better so that people won’t think of them as thugs. If I wear my hair red, I’m assumed to be ghetto. If a white woman does it, she’s creative and fun.Black people are assumed to always be on welfare, even though whites through their sheer numbers, are on welfare as well. It’s not just black people. It’s white people too. But if black people are on welfare, its because they want to be there and dont want to work. White people are on welfare because they need it. They aren’t assumed to be automatically lazy.If a black person is in college/university, they are assumed to have been “given” that spot. It’s never because they worked for it. Obama is a brilliant man, intelligent, with a great understanding of the constitution, and editor of the Law Review, but people will say it was Affirmative Action that put him there. It is assumed that blacks don’t work hard, and are ‘given’ things. Some even believe that black people get extra points on the SAT or ACT just for being black. They are even more believed to be affirmative action beneficiaries if the college/university is prestigious.Here are some more “rules” that black people had to follow….Never assert or even intimate that a white person is lying.Never impute dishonorable intentions to a white person.Never suggest that a white person is from an inferior class.Never lay claim to, or overly demonstrate, superior knowledge or intelligence.Never curse a white person.Never laugh derisively at a white person.Never comment upon the appearance of a white female.These would get a black man/woman/child killed. You couldn’t even defend yourself if you were being beaten up by a white person. You were not allowed to strike back. Putting your hands up could be seen as being aggressive, and could get you killed.Here…Jim Crow laws touched every aspect of everyday life. For example, in 1935, Oklahoma prohibited blacks and whites from boating together. Boating implied social equality. In 1905, Georgia established separate parks for blacks and whites. In 1930, Birmingham, Alabama, made it illegal for blacks and whites to play checkers or dominoes together. Here are some of the typical Jim Crow laws, as compiled by the Martin Luther King, Jr., National Historic Site Interpretive Staff:Barbers. No colored barber shall serve as a barber (to) white girls or women (Georgia).Blind Wards. The board of trustees shall...maintain a separate building...on separate ground for the admission, care, instruction, and support of all blind persons of the colored or black race (Louisiana).Burial. The officer in charge shall not bury, or allow to be buried, any colored persons upon ground set apart or used for the burial of white persons (Georgia).Buses.All passenger stations in this state operated by any motor transportation company shall have separate waiting rooms or space and separate ticket windows for the white and colored races (Alabama).Child Custody. It shall be unlawful for any parent, relative, or other white person in this State, having the control or custody of any white child, by right of guardianship, natural or acquired, or otherwise, to dispose of, give or surrender such white child permanently into the custody, control, maintenance, or support, of a negro (South Carolina).Education.The schools for white children and the schools for negro children shall be conducted separately (Florida).Libraries. The state librarian is directed to fit up and maintain a separate place for the use of the colored people who may come to the library for the purpose of reading books or periodicals (North Carolina).Mental Hospitals. The Board of Control shall see that proper and distinct apartments are arranged for said patients, so that in no case shall Negroes and white persons be together (Georgia).Militia. The white and colored militia shall be separately enrolled, and shall never be compelled to serve in the same organization. No organization of colored troops shall be permitted where white troops are available and where whites are permitted to be organized, colored troops shall be under the command of white officers (North Carolina).Nurses. No person or corporation shall require any White female nurse to nurse in wards or rooms in hospitals, either public or private, in which negro men are placed (Alabama).Prisons. The warden shall see that the white convicts shall have separate apartments for both eating and sleeping from the negro convicts (Mississippi).Reform Schools. The children of white and colored races committed to the houses of reform shall be kept entirely separate from each other (Kentucky).Teaching. Any instructor who shall teach in any school, college or institution where members of the white and colored race are received and enrolled as pupils for instruction shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof, shall be fined... (Oklahoma).Wine and Beer. All persons licensed to conduct the business of selling beer or wine...shall serve either white people exclusively or colored people exclusively and shall not sell to the two races within the same room at any time (Georgia).Yeah. A trip. Do you think that a society, which was so deeply divided, can just come together after being apart for so long? After decades of this, do you think a Supreme Court decision was enough to change the minds of millions of white people? NO. NO. NO. This was not enough. You can see the attitudes that many white people still harbor. Check the comment section of Quora alone. Those comments are tame. Go to Yahoo News and YouTube to see how attitudes are still the same.Nothing has changed. People are still teaching their kids to be racist. You may think you’ve taught your kids not to be prejudiced and then did so with your actions. Your children see much deeper than you think. Some attitudes are subconscious and others are more blatant. AS your children grow older, you’ll see what your teachings have manifested. Diversity helps combat these negative attitudes but even that is being seen as a bad thing nowadays, especially on the Right. They believe that a diversity of different beliefs is more important than racial diversity.Hogwash. That only leads to more of the same. And more of the same isn’t working. We know that. Racism is alive and well, and we’re keeping it that way by pushing the same attitudes that have persisted this entire time.EducationOur education systems are vastly different due to segregation in this country. I can talk about the same things that I’ve always talked about with education, but I’ll go another route today.Let’s talk about other groups. Let’s talk about disabled people. Let’s talk about the deaf community…Pearl Pearson is a black man. He was beaten by a white police officer because he was trying to get his deaf placard and couldn’t hear instructions given to him by the officer. AS he was yelling in pain in the back of the police car, the officers laughed about “fucking him up.”Even though they learned he was deaf, the prosecutor still went forward with charges against him for resisting arrest, even as he could not hear the instructions. The White prosecutor smiled, ignored this issue and went forward, only, ONLY DROPPING THE CHARGES when he realized that it would take more money to hire a black ASL interpreter.Now sign language in America is just ASL. Why are black people doing something different? Is it because we always have to be difficult? Is it because we just have too many “ebonics” in our language? Is it because we are just different than whites and too stupid to learn what everyone else is learning?If you thought any of those things, congratulations. You’re racist.Black ASL is different because of, you guessed it normal folks…segregation. Because black deaf schools were segregated, so did ASL. The language changed a bit due to the separation of our school systems.So the language is different.Many of the black teachers had a poor understanding themselves about signing so distinct differences were created. These schools had way less resources than white deaf children. This set white deaf people up for a much better future than black deaf people.So if deaf black people went through these inferior school systems, then what do you think black children who were not disabled went through? What are they going through today? Inferior schools like the one I went to held back many students who were talented, they just didn’t have the resources. In 1997, we had to share books. We had a computer class with NO computers. NONE. ZILCH. So I'm supposed to compete with white kids who grew up with computers in their homes?Yeah. I was expected to and if I couldn’t it was seen as somehow my fault instead of the continued segregation that I nor any black person ever fucking asked for.We didn’t ask for this. But it happened anyway.White PrivilegeThis is an ongoing thing that has definitely surpassed Jim Crow. Watch this video. It was made in 1969 and yet the same things are still going on. Some of the statements made by whites and blacks are some of the same arguments you hear today!Surprised? I’m not. The more we change, the more we all have stayed the same. We’ve made little progress honestly. The laws have changed, but minds have not. How is it that we’ve gone all these years since before I was born to see little progress in what some white people think?White privilege.It’s real. It’s alive. And if you’re white, you have it. There was a saying that poor white people used to say, “At least (you’re) I’m not a Ni****!”They knew that they had privilege then and they wield it with a mighty fist today.Violence and “Law and Order”Lynchings. This form of racial terror had an impact on this country. The blood of black people spilled onto the ground has done nothing but encourage more violence onto black people.The Jim Crow laws and system of etiquette were undergirded by violence, real and threatened. Blacks who violated Jim Crow norms, for example, drinking from the white water fountain or trying to vote, risked their homes, their jobs, even their lives. Whites could physically beat blacks with impunity. Blacks had little legal recourse against these assaults because the Jim Crow criminal justice system was all-white: police, prosecutors, judges, juries, and prison officials. Violence was instrumental for Jim Crow. It was a method of social control. The most extreme forms of Jim Crow violence were lynchings.Vigilante justice was nothing more than “law and order” for whites who thought this system was better for black people. Necessary to keep the peace.In each of the race riots, with few exceptions, it was white people that sparked the incident by attacking black people.In the majority of the riots, some extraordinary social condition prevailed at the time of the riot: prewar social changes, wartime mobility, post-war adjustment, or economic depression.The majority of the riots occurred during the hot summer months.Rumor played an extremely important role in causing many riots. Rumors of some criminal activity by blacks against whites perpetuated the actions of the white mobs.The police force, more than any other institution, was invariably involved as a precipitating cause or perpetuating factor in the riots. In almost every one of the riots, the police sided with the attackers, either by actually participating in, or by failing to quell the attack.In almost every instance, the fighting occurred within the black community. (pp. 14-15)The report omitted the following: the mass media, especially newspapers often published inflammatory articles about "black criminals" immediately before the riots; blacks were not only killed, but their homes and businesses were looted, and many who did not flee were left homeless; and, the goal of the white rioters, as was true of white lynchers of single victims, was to instill fear and terror into blacks, thereby buttressing white domination.The Jim Crow hierarchy could not work without violence being used against those on the bottom rung. George Fredrickson (1971), a historian, stated it this way: "Lynching represented...a way of using fear and terror to check 'dangerous' tendencies in a black community considered to be ineffectively regimented or supervised. As such it constituted a confession that the regular institutions of a segregated society provided an inadequate measure of day-to-day control" (p. 272).There is no “law and order” when the law and order works to suppress other citizens. This has never been a ‘law and order’ society. Ever. It’s a myth. It is a “majority rule” country where those who are deemed inferior will stay there, not because they want to, but because the larger society has agreed to keep them in that place.To acknowledge their own ignorance and racism is a step too far for some people and they simply aren’t willing to do it. They probably never will, just like the racists and segregationists before them. They went to their graves unrepentant racists. This is where so many of you are headed.Here lies Jim Crow. But Jim Crow is not dead. Jim Crow is alive and well. Jim Crow still lives in the hearts of many who wish to keep us divided. They wish to keep us separate and work hard for that. These are people who wish to keep their privilege and don’t believe in a united America. That only serves to keep themselves on top and others on the bottom.Jim Crow is alive and well. We can and should work together. Our shared history is terrible, frightful, racist, and evil. But we can only change our history in the future by not repeating the past.But some people never seem to learn.............Blog Post with Fiction Interlude….An Interlude for a Colored Girl here —->Sonya Abarcar's post in One More Thing...Sources:A Look At Housing Inequality And Racism In The U.S.Exposing Housing DiscriminationThe Surprising Ways Race Remains a Factor in Mortgage LendingHow Sears Catalog Fought White Supremacistshttps://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/sign-language-that-african-americans-use-is-different-from-that-of-whites/2012/09/17/2e897628-bbe2-11e1-8867-ecf6cb7935ef_story.html

NO.I recently completed my course of study at VIT so I think I'm in a fair position to comment. I faced the wrath of the endless procedures in the past few days as well as bid farewell to some of the closest friends I've ever made. So I'll try to answer this objectively.Short Answer :There are a lot of facets to life at VIT. Sometimes, you feel like howling at the top of your lungs and just getting away and at times, you can't get enough of it. But the negatives definitely outweigh the positives. There is an attitude of indifference by the university when its not bending toward sadism. The university tries to project that its doing the best for students but derives its thinking from ancient times. The girls are treated like lowly creatures, the students like cattle and the college is run more like a business than an academic institute. There are some good factors like placements which may improve its standing a little. But I'd rather send my child to a lesser ranked university if it avoids him/her the trouble of facing the ridiculous rules and persistent nagging by the faculty, the staff and the admin.(Very) Long Answer :I've compiled a list of pros and cons which should substantiate my view better.CONSAdministration : The university is run by the Viswanathan family. While I'm sure all of them are extremely skilled and learned, the functioning of the institute comes in doubt when the administration is run based on lineage instead of qualification. They are born and bred in the same culture so there's barely any diversity in views and opinions. Yet, I have met the Chancellor and Sekar sir personally and I can say that they are truly amazing and inspirational people. I just wish I could say the same for the others who are more involved in running the institute.Rules : This is unarguably the biggest downside of being a student in VIT. The rules range from merely idiotic to completely ridiculous. So what if students want to celebrate their birthday in the hostel? So what if a student wants to sit on a pavement? And so what if a girl and a guy roam together to have a chat in the evening? Such archaic rules might've held semblance in the early 1900s but they are still implemented in 2013 in VIT.In-time : 6pm on weekends for girls is probably the most bizarre rule I've come across. Ever. While someone enlightened them of this fact and it was changed to 8pm recently, the notion of different in-times for girls and guys baffles me. On top of that, there are different timings for entering the campus and hostel. Moreover, the current in-time is not very convenient for those who get over with classes late in the evening and are in desperate need of some respite. The university is attended by 18 - 23 year olds. I'm sure that if they're capable of deciding the government of the country, they can decide the right time to go to their beds. Suggestion, keep a uniform campus in-time which extends a few hours "after-dark".Gender Bias : Being a guy, I really pity the condition of girls in VIT. As if the prison-like barbed wire boundaries of their hostels weren't enough, they suffer the brunt of the above-mentioned rules the most. The process of permissions required for one small visit to your hometown takes days if not weeks and entails faxes, long queues, signatures and whatnot. And if a girl's friends make plans for a movie on the weekend or a trip to a nearby metropolitan, god help their souls.Bureaucracy : The bureaucracy and red tape culture at VIT draw direct inspiration from government offices. One lost document will cost you a hundred letters, a thousand signatures, innumerable hours at the finance department and unpleasant encounters with the not-so-cordial staff of VIT. And, god forbid, if you lose your ID card or want to vacate the hostel, the full force of the universe shall fall upon you.Staff : The staff, in general, believe that they belong to a superior species and all other souls shall fall and kneel before them. Language may be one reason for their indifference but the sadistic and repulsive attitude exuded by them in one interaction surpasses most hostile dealings one would have in their lifetime. Though one may sometimes have interesting conversations with the annas, akkas and guards, they are usually rare occurrences.Language: Following the previous point, the employees of the university often forget that not all students have been well versed in Tamil since they started breathing. Concepts become harder to learn and ideas and opinions harder to explain because of the wide language barrier. The accented English can still be bearable but the process of repeating one point repeatedly for better comprehension becomes frustrating at times. I once had a professor who started teaching a lesson in English and concluded the last 15 minutes of his lecture in Tamil. In addition, there is blatant disregard for the fact that Hindi is our official language.Location : The university lies on the outskirts of a village-esque town called Vellore. It might boast of the best hospital in the country but has little on offer when it comes to city life. Malls and showrooms turn into two-story dingy plazas, clubs and bars turn into slabs and planks under a shed and restaurants turn into sagging tables with plastic chairs. The nearest 'big city', Chennai, has some decent spots for exploration but hasn't caught up with the true sense of the word metropolitan.Weather : There is only one season in Vellore throughout the year. Summer. Winter is never coming. 'Nuff said.Crowd: The number of students VIT enrolls in a year is sufficient to form an army for a small nation. The amount of students in each branch kills the feeling of unity and ruins the competition. Sure, there is always the strive to do better than most but when you're competing with 600 plus people to score well in only your branch, it is not very encouraging. And then there are 5000 people to compete with if you take a university core. Plus, the number of people on campus in the evening have seemed more like cattle and less like civilized beings in recent times.Lack of fundamental rights : Freedom of speech and expression are an alien concept in VIT. Part of the reason this answer is written in anonymity is because the university will accumulate innumerable resources to hunt down the source and curb any feeling of antagonism towards itself.Mass hatred : Due to the above factors, there's a feeling of mass hatred towards the institute. It becomes quite hard to like a place when everyone around you constantly despises and demeans their surroundings.PROSFFCS: The credit system is one of the best in the country, in my opinion. It is truly flexible in the sense of the word and gives the students way too many options to explore the plethora of subjects on offer while completing their degree. The system is at par with numerous reputed universities across the world.Ingenuity : Contrary to popular belief, the administration is genuinely trying to make an effort to make VIT a significant entity in the academic community. The chancellor is an excellent visionary and wants the university to reach great heights. While it barely shows to students in the university, a lot of work is done to improve the status of the university.Diversity : I could never have imagined to meet such a diverse and exceptional crowd in my life. After four years, I practically know at least one person from each state of the country. I've learnt a lot about numerous cultures and made amazing friends from the most diverse backgrounds. I've also met some of the most genuine and grounded people I've ever come across.Infrastructure : Compared to most top-notch universities in the country, VIT has a stellar infrastructure. It is definitely proportional to the fees they charge and provide amazing labs, good auditoriums and fairly decent classrooms.Good Looking People : For an engineering college, there are some very good looking people and in good numbers as well. They may seem like a dime in a dozen at first but that is quite substantial if you scale a dozen to the population of VIT. Does it matter? Of course. They're nice to look at and you might end up dating one of them.Placements : VIT has a very good placement record and can boast of upto 90% placement. While the jobs may seem futile and worthless, they matter to those who belong to the lower rung of society and aren't as fortunate as others. I've seen people with low pointers get placed in reputed companies such as Deloitte, Bank of America, IBM among others. And for someone who really knows their craft, sky is the limit with VIT's backing.Patience : The university has definitely taught me patience. I'm sure I can now deal well with the most nerve-wrecking situations and intolerable people. VIT has taught me to be patient with people and processes. Is that a good thing or bad? That's upto you to decide.Reputation : Believe it or not, VIT has a good reputation in the country and the industry. It has produced some great minds in the past few years and has ranked consistently well among the top engineering colleges of the country.This served as a vent for my accumulated frustration over the past few years. So I'm sure I've missed quite a few points which may have skipped my mind. But I think the pros tally up well with the cons.However, college years are the most formative years of one's life. They are the years that you grow as a person and that you'd never get back. I wouldn't want my child to curse his/her college constantly and face the unbearable rules and attitude. I'm sure there are numerous colleges in India with a diverse crowd, good infrastructure, better reputation and a decent placement record. I'm definitely not going to trade these factors for a period of regret, inactivity and constant suppression. College is the time when people explore, enjoy and create memories.So I'd rather have my child get a smaller pay package, a less diverse set of friends and a college with decent infrastructure. But I'd prefer not to let him/her waste these crucial years by getting stuck in the vicious cycle of apathy at VIT. Unless VIT reads this and decides to do something about their system, of course.

I recently completed my course of study at VIT so I think I'm in a fair position to comment. I faced the wrath of the endless procedures in the past few days as well as bid farewell to some of the closest friends I've ever made. So I'll try to answer this objectively.Short Answer :There are a lot of facets to life at VIT. Sometimes, you feel like howling at the top of your lungs and just getting away and at times, you can't get enough of it. But the negatives definitely outweigh the positives. There is an attitude of indifference by the university when its not bending toward sadism. The university tries to project that its doing the best for students but derives its thinking from ancient times. The girls are treated like lowly creatures, the students like cattle and the college is run more like a business than an academic institute. There are some good factors like placements which may improve its standing a little. But I'd rather send my child to a lesser ranked university if it avoids him/her the trouble of facing the ridiculous rules and persistent nagging by the faculty, the staff and the admin.(Very) Long Answer :I've compiled a list of pros and cons which should substantiate my view better.CONSAdministration : The university is run by the Viswanathan family. While I'm sure all of them are extremely skilled and learned, the functioning of the institute comes in doubt when the administration is run based on lineage instead of qualification. They are born and bred in the same culture so there's barely any diversity in views and opinions. Yet, I have met the Chancellor and Sekar sir personally and I can say that they are truly amazing and inspirational people. I just wish I could say the same for the others who are more involved in running the institute.Rules : This is unarguably the biggest downside of being a student in VIT. The rules range from merely idiotic to completely ridiculous. So what if students want to celebrate their birthday in the hostel? So what if a student wants to sit on a pavement? And so what if a girl and a guy roam together to have a chat in the evening? Such archaic rules might've held semblance in the early 1900s but they are still implemented in 2013 in VIT.In-time : 6pm on weekends for girls is probably the most bizarre rule I've come across. Ever. While someone enlightened them of this fact and it was changed to 8pm recently, the notion of different in-times for girls and guys baffles me. On top of that, there are different timings for entering the campus and hostel. Moreover, the current in-time is not very convenient for those who get over with classes late in the evening and are in desperate need of some respite. The university is attended by 18 - 23 year olds. I'm sure that if they're capable of deciding the government of the country, they can decide the right time to go to their beds. Suggestion, keep a uniform campus in-time which extends a few hours "after-dark".Gender Bias : Being a guy, I really pity the condition of girls in VIT. As if the prison-like barbed wire boundaries of their hostels weren't enough, they suffer the brunt of the above-mentioned rules the most. The process of permissions required for one small visit to your hometown takes days if not weeks and entails faxes, long queues, signatures and whatnot. And if a girl's friends make plans for a movie on the weekend or a trip to a nearby metropolitan, god help their souls.Bureaucracy : The bureaucracy and red tape culture at VIT draw direct inspiration from government offices. One lost document will cost you a hundred letters, a thousand signatures, innumerable hours at the finance department and unpleasant encounters with the not-so-cordial staff of VIT. And, god forbid, if you lose your ID card or want to vacate the hostel, the full force of the universe shall fall upon you.Staff : The staff, in general, believe that they belong to a superior species and all other souls shall fall and kneel before them. Language may be one reason for their indifference but the sadistic and repulsive attitude exuded by them in one interaction surpasses most hostile dealings one would have in their lifetime. Though one may sometimes have interesting conversations with the annas, akkas and guards, they are usually rare occurrences.Language: Following the previous point, the employees of the university often forget that not all students have been well versed in Tamil since they started breathing. Concepts become harder to learn and ideas and opinions harder to explain because of the wide language barrier. The accented English can still be bearable but the process of repeating one point repeatedly for better comprehension becomes frustrating at times. I once had a professor who started teaching a lesson in English and concluded the last 15 minutes of his lecture in Tamil. In addition, there is blatant disregard for the fact that Hindi is our official language.Location : The university lies on the outskirts of a village-esque town called Vellore. It might boast of the best hospital in the country but has little on offer when it comes to city life. Malls and showrooms turn into two-story dingy plazas, clubs and bars turn into slabs and planks under a shed and restaurants turn into sagging tables with plastic chairs. The nearest 'big city', Chennai, has some decent spots for exploration but hasn't caught up with the true sense of the word metropolitan.Weather : There is only one season in Vellore throughout the year. Summer. Winter is never coming. 'Nuff said.Crowd: The number of students VIT enrolls in a year is sufficient to form an army for a small nation. The amount of students in each branch kills the feeling of unity and ruins the competition. Sure, there is always the strive to do better than most but when you're competing with 600 plus people to score well in only your branch, it is not very encouraging. And then there are 5000 people to compete with if you take a university core. Plus, the number of people on campus in the evening have seemed more like cattle and less like civilized beings in recent times.Lack of fundamental rights : Freedom of speech and expression are an alien concept in VIT. Part of the reason this answer is written in anonymity is because the university will accumulate innumerable resources to hunt down the source and curb any feeling of antagonism towards itself.Mass hatred : Due to the above factors, there's a feeling of mass hatred towards the institute. It becomes quite hard to like a place when everyone around you constantly despises and demeans their surroundings.PROSFFCS: The credit system is one of the best in the country, in my opinion. It is truly flexible in the sense of the word and gives the students way too many options to explore the plethora of subjects on offer while completing their degree. The system is at par with numerous reputed universities across the world.Ingenuity : Contrary to popular belief, the administration is genuinely trying to make an effort to make VIT a significant entity in the academic community. The chancellor is an excellent visionary and wants the university to reach great heights. While it barely shows to students in the university, a lot of work is done to improve the status of the university.Diversity : I could never have imagined to meet such a diverse and exceptional crowd in my life. After four years, I practically know at least one person from each state of the country. I've learnt a lot about numerous cultures and made amazing friends from the most diverse backgrounds. I've also met some of the most genuine and grounded people I've ever come across.Infrastructure : Compared to most top-notch universities in the country, VIT has a stellar infrastructure. It is definitely proportional to the fees they charge and provide amazing labs, good auditoriums and fairly decent classrooms.Good Looking People : For an engineering college, there are some very good looking people and in good numbers as well. They may seem like a dime in a dozen at first but that is quite substantial if you scale a dozen to the population of VIT. Does it matter? Of course. They're nice to look at and you might end up dating one of them.Placements : VIT has a very good placement record and can boast of upto 90% placement. While the jobs may seem futile and worthless, they matter to those who belong to the lower rung of society and aren't as fortunate as others. I've seen people with low pointers get placed in reputed companies such as Deloitte, Bank of America, IBM among others. And for someone who really knows their craft, sky is the limit with VIT's backing.Patience : The university has definitely taught me patience. I'm sure I can now deal well with the most nerve-wrecking situations and intolerable people. VIT has taught me to be patient with people and processes. Is that a good thing or bad? That's upto you to decide.Reputation : Believe it or not, VIT has a good reputation in the country and the industry. It has produced some great minds in the past few years and has ranked consistently well among the top engineering colleges of the country.This served as a vent for my accumulated frustration over the past few years. So I'm sure I've missed quite a few points which may have skipped my mind. But I think the pros tally up well with the cons.However, college years are the most formative years of one's life. They are the years that you grow as a person and that you'd never get back. I wouldn't want my child to curse his/her college constantly and face the unbearable rules and attitude. I'm sure there are numerous colleges in India with a diverse crowd, good infrastructure, better reputation and a decent placement record. I'm definitely not going to trade these factors for a period of regret, inactivity and constant suppression. College is the time when people explore, enjoy and create memories.