&gt; students who could not find admission anywhere else in India through merit, as measured by board examinations of course, but had parents who could buy a seat for the kid with a fantastic sum of money.<p>Well, I don&#x27;t know much about the past but that is certainly not so much the case now. Sure, everybody still wants to get into the IITs, and the peer quality here is not a match for say, IIT Bombay, but there are some very good people here. I myself could have gotten myself into a public school, but chose Manipal because of it&#x27;s exposure life quality. I suspect that is the major driving factor for students.<p>There are no bought seats now. And there are heavy scholarships for meritorious students too. And this is just talking about the engineering school.<p>The Med School here, KMC, is one of the best in the country without a doubt (even though shit expensive).