CHENNAI: With 5,000 more students competing for seats in top engineering colleges in the first round of counselling compared to last year, experts say it would be smarter for students to list more choices for better chances of a seat allotment.
General online counselling to fill 1.4 lakh seats in 440 engineering colleges will be conducted from September 27 to October 17. More than 1.3 lakh students are expected to take part in the four rounds of counselling this year.
As many as 14,788 candidates with cutoff mark range 200 to 186 will be called for the first round of counselling that began with fee payment on Monday. In comparison, only around 9,000 candidates took part in the first round last year. Candidates can update their choices on October 1 and 2 for the first round.
Experts advised students to prepare a list of choices well ahead of the schedule, enter their choices with college codes to avoid any confusion between colleges bearing similar names, and to avoid doing the step at browsing centres to avoid middlemen.
Career consultant Jayaprakash Gandhi said students can use last year’s rankings as a guide while choosing preferences. “The cut-off will have huge variation compared to last year. Students called for the first round need to give more choices as more students are competing in this band this year. Particularly, students with cut-off in the range of 186 to 192 should give at least 200 choices to get seat allotment,” he said.
He urged students to verify the college’s infrastructure, fees and placement details before listing it as a choice. “They should lock the choices only after several rounds of verification. They also need to confirm the tentative seat allotment to get provisional allotment,” he added.
P V Navaneethakrishnan, former director of entrance examinations and admissions, Anna University, said students should select a course based on aptitude and basic liking instead of peer pressure. To avoid getting confused with all the 60 or more branches available, he suggested grouping engineering branches into seven large groups. “Students need to consider potential job opportunities, pay packages, and prospects to study further before selecting a course,” he said.
He also asked the students to select colleges based on infrastructure facilities, quality of teaching, NAAC and NBA accreditation status and placements.
