766 dump IITs for other tech schools

Updated on: Thursday, June 23, 2011

It is not uncommon for students who lie at the bottom of the heap in the JEE rankings to drop the IITs and opt for colleges that offer them seats in attractive streams. This year, 766 candidates did not turn up for the IITs’ first round of counselling, many of them having opted for other institutes. Even among the top 100 JEE rankers, two have decided to look the other way. This was just like last year, when one student opted for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and another joined the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER).

JEE officials in IIT-Bombay say students dump the IITs for other colleges if they do not get courses of their choice. But several former JEE chairmen said they had not seen a single case of any top 100 student ditch the premier tech schools for anything “less”. But an IIT-Bombay official said, “We will see more such cases soon. IISER is already attracting some top brains. But foreign universities are now pulling in aspiring engineers at the undergraduate level.” Each year, the IITs release the names of students (in an extended JEE merit list) who do not make the cut, but are often selected by several other institutes.

766 dump IITs for other tech schools

More Education news