Cutoffs may dash IIT dream of JEE rankers

Cutoffs may dash IIT dream of JEE rankers

Even as normalization of percentile of JEE (Main) and class XII marks continues to create confusion for students seeking admission to NITs, admission to prestigious IITs is beset with its own problems.
    The basis for admission to
16 IITs is performance in JEE (Advanced). The other crucial condition is that those who have done well in JEE (Advanced) should be in the top 20 percentile in class XII examination conducted by various school boards.
    While the JEE (Advanced) score came late June, on Sunday top 20 percentile eligibility cutoffs for this academic session was announced. This created a peculiar situation.
    After the JEE (Advanced) score came, online counseling began and many got seat in IITs based on their all India rank. Then came the top 20 percentile cutoff and many students found out they had not qualified despite having done well in JEE (Advanced). Andhra students to be worst hit by new IIT cutoff rule
New Delhi: The 20 percentile in class XII board results rule for admission to the IITs will hit students from many states. Among the worst hit would be students from Andhra Pradesh with the highest cutoffs of 91.8%, followed by Tamil Nadu (90.9%) and Kerala (85.2%). There is a report of one student from Andhra Pradesh who despite securing the All India Rank within 3,000 would not get the admission because he does not fulfill the class XII cutoff of his state. Since Hyderabad is one of the biggest hubs of IIT coaching many students from neighbouring states take admission in class XI in Andhra Pradesh.
    The lowest cutoffs are for Tripura (53.2%), Jharkhand (56.2%), Assam (56.6%) and Uttarakhand (57.8%). CBSE’s cutoff is 81.6%, ICSE (83.2%), UP (73%), Bihar (65%) and West Bengal (61.2%). Eligibility till last year across boards was 60%. These cutoffs are for general category students. However, IIT-Delhi’s H C Gupta, who is overseeing JEE (Advanced) this year, disagrees. He says, “Cutoff of top 20 percentile would not affect more than 20 students across sixteen IITs. Even with 60% class XII eligibility criteria till last year few students could not get admission despite clearing JEE.”
    There are 10,000 seats in IITs — around 5,000 for general candidates and rest for reserved category students.