2016 ENGINEERING ENTRANCE EXAMS SCENARIO

In the past 15 years, there are major changes every 2-years or so in the Engineering Entrance Exams scenario at State and National level. There are about 3500 Engineering colleges in India having about 18 lakh seats of which about 350 Engineering colleges and 1.5 lakh seats are available in Maharashtra alone. Every year, about 8 lakh seats remain vacant in India of which about 50000 seats remain vacant in Maharashtra alone !  It must be noted that hardly 60000 seats belong to A-grade Engineering colleges across India. The constant changes in admission rules create confusion in the minds of students, parents and teachers. This article attempts to lend clarity to the admissions criteria for different Engineering colleges for the year 2016.

 

1) IITs : Admission to the IITs is on the basis of JEE ADVANCED All India Ranks only. Additionally, the student must score atleast 75% marks Aggregate of 5 subjects in XII Boards as eligibility criteria for admission to the IITs. IITs have about 10000 seats of which about 5000 are for General Category and 5000 for Reserved Category. An All India Rank of Top 6000 is usually required for admission into the IITs for an General Category student. 

 

2) BITS PILANI : Admission to BITS PILANI is on the basis of the BITSAT exam. But the student must score atleast 75% in subjects of PCM in XII Boards as eligibility criteria for admission to BITS. BITS have 3 campuses at PILANI, Goa and Hyderabad and 1800 seats. A score of 300 marks out of 450 marks is usually required to secure admission into BITS.

 

3) NITs / IIITs : Admission to NITs / IIITs for 2016 is on the basis of a complicated rule wherein 60% weightage is given to JEE MAINS marks and 40% weightage is given to XII Boards Aggregate marks. An All India Rank List is prepared on the basis of this 60-40 Rule and admissions are granted as per their Ranks. However, 3 Govt. panel experts have recommended scrapping of the 60-40 rule as it is highly flawed. Therefore, it is expected that from 2017 onwards, admission to the NITs & IIITs shall be on the basis of JEE MAINS marks only with zero weightage to XII Boards marks.

 

4) Maharashtra Engineering Colleges : Admission to almost all the 350+ Engineering colleges of Maharashtra in 2016 is on the basis of the following rule :

 

· Admission to 65% seats (State quota) is via MHT-CET exam

· Admission to 15% seats (All India quota) is via JEE MAINS exam

· Admission to remaining 20% seats is by Management quota

There is no weightage to XII Boards for 2016. The student is however expected to score 50% marks in PCM subjects as eligibility criterion. The famous college of COEP in Pune is an exception to the above rule. COEP admits 100% of its students by MHT-CET only. 

From 2017 onwards, the Union HRD Ministry has planned to again change the admissions criteria of IITs and NITs. As per media reports, there are plans of introducing an Online Aptitude Test based on Logic questions from which 4 lakh students shall be selected who shall appear in JEE after XII Boards. The JEE MAINS and JEE ADVANCED shall be merged into a Single JEE from 2017 and 40000 Ranks shall be declared who shall then be admitted into the IITs and NITs by a joint counselling process. A minimum of 2-years preparation is expected from students for all these Entrance exams in Std. 11-12. Students and Parents need to keep a tab on the changes happening in the Entrance Exams scenario and prepare for the same accordingly.