Times have changed

When I got the snail mail saying that I have been admitted to BITS Pilani, I told my friends that I have 'secured' an admission to one of the most prestigious colleges in India. I definitely felt elated by the prospect of joining a very good university with lot of intelligent students coming in and competing among themselves.


After a couple of years, when I passed out of BITS, my friends have emailed me saying that they have 'secured' an admission to Stanford/MIT/TAMU/LSE. They must have felt on cloud 9 too, because they are about to join some of the world's best colleges. But now, I have come across an email from a friend who said '...One of my colleagues has 'secured' an admission into XXX school for his daughter...'. I started to wonder how times have changed drastically and what the phrase 'securing' an admission has transformed in meaning!


In my childhood, there is nothing that I have heard of 'securing an admission' to join a school, of course unless it is THE best school in the country! But now, I have seen so many parents trying hard and paying hefty donations to get their children admitted to 'International' schools with world class facilities and able teachers. A couple of months ago, I have read an article in MINT (my personal favorite) which mentioned about the difficulties NRIs face to get their children admitted to a very good school. As soon as the school administration staff comes to know that the parents are NRIs, they charge heavy fees and ask for more donations! And these days, I have seen schools conducting written tests for parents! (:O)! How ridiculous can it be? May be, by the time I get married and have kids, I might have to join TIME or something of that sort and prepare for these written tests with the same vigor and dedication as I did for CAT and GMAT! I hope, I can secure admission to IIM - A level school when I give that entrance examination for my kid! :)