Got a rank below two lakh in NTA JEE Main and think you don’t stand a chance? That is not entirely true. Several top engineering colleges, including the National Institutes of Technology (NIT) admitted students at ranks lower than that in JEE Main result in 2021 but there’s another criterion the candidate must fulfill. Here’s the NITs and BTech courses that had cut-offs lower than two lakh in the JoSAA counselling.
Got a rank below two lakh in NTA JEE Main and think you don’t stand a chance? That is not entirely true. Several top engineering colleges, including the National Institutes of Technology (NIT) admitted students at ranks lower than that in JEE Main result in 2021 but there’s another criterion the candidate must fulfill. Here’s the NITs and BTech courses that had cut-offs lower than two lakh in the JoSAA counselling.
The Joint Entrance Examination Main (JEE Main), conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) for admission in undergraduate engineering programmes does not have any qualifying marks. The cut-off marks announced by the NTA with the JEE Main result are for screening students who will be allowed to appear for JEE Advanced for admission to the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT). Therefore, every student who appears for JEE Main, including the ones who have got negative marks in any or all three subjects, is assigned a JEE Main rank. Plus, all students assigned ranks are eligible to participate in the seat allocation process of Joint Seat Allocation Authority, or JoSAA counselling . Screening for admissions is based on the Class 12 qualifying status and the JEE Main rank.
This means that a student who has passed Class 12 with the minimum specified marks and who has appeared for JEE Main and secured a rank will be eligible for admissions in the order of their merit, or position on the rank list. This has allowed students with relatively low ranks, such as between 2 lakh and 8 lakh and even below, to secure admission in some of the National Institutes of Technology (NIT). This unique situation is restricted to the NITs where each institute has 50 percent seats reserved for students from the same state in which the NIT is located. This is the home state quota. Here’s a look at the NITs where students with JEE ranks from two lakh to eight lakh and below have secured admissions.
For this analysis, Careers360 has considered only open category seats in the home state quota.
Given below are the ranks at which general category candidates secured admission in NIT Agartala in 2021.
Course | Opening Rank | Closing Rank |
Production Engineering | 193269 | 244457 |
Biotechnology and Biochemical Engineering | 163622 | 206236 |
Engineering Physics (5 Years BTech-MTech Dual Degree) | 143729 | 205461 |
Chemistry (5 Years BSc-MSc Dual Degree)) | 97019 | 202543 |
The above table shows that at NIT Agartala, branches like Production Engineering and Biotechnology and Biochemical Engineering are not as popular as other branches like Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science Engineering, and Chemical Engineering.
The dual degree courses like Engineering Physics and Chemistry also are not as popular as the core branches
Given below are the ranks at which admission to the BTech branches opened and closed during JoSAA counselling in 2021 for the general category.
Course | Opening Rank | Closing Rank |
Mechanical Engineering | 198146 | 698231 |
Electrical Engineering | 208568 | 540524 |
Electronics And Communication Engineering | 84955 | 512001 |
Electrical Engineering | 208568 | 442309 |
Civil Engineering | 178435 | 250132 |
Computer Science And Engineering | 73474 | 207107 |
Seats under the home state quota in NIT Arunachal for even core branches have been allotted to students with JEE Main ranks below 2 lakh. Even traditionally popular courses like Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) and Electronics and Communication Engineering (ECE) had their cut-offs dropping to below 2 lakh in the final round of JoSAA counselling.
NIT Meghalaya has seen allotments to JEE Main ranks below 2 lakh but only for female applicants under the home state quota for three out of four branches, including EEE, ME and CE.
Course | Opening Rank | Closing Rank | Gender |
Electrical And Electronics Engineering | 177385 | 393925 | Female |
Mechanical Engineering | 193746 | 384755 | Female |
Civil Engineering | 139212 | 266835 | Female |
Civil Engineering | 160377 | 200209 | Male |
Only Civil Engineering has seen the last JEE Main rank for open and male category to below 2 lakh.
Like at NIT Arunachal Pradesh, NIT Sikkim admitted students with low ranks to popular programmes. In one case, the closing ranking in JoSAA seat allotment dropped to below 8 lakh.
Course | Opening Rank | Closing Rank |
Mechanical Engineering | 536796 | 813029 |
Civil Engineering | 476681 | 721753 |
Electrical and Electronics Engineering | 216198 | 391585 |
Electronics and Communication Engineering | 217067 | 369681 |
Computer Science and Engineering | 116959 | 202572 |
While NIT Sikkim has seen the last seat in Computer Science Engineering, one of the most popular branches, allotted to students with JEE Main ranks just above 2 lakh, other core branches like ME, CE, ECE and EEE have seen allotments to JEE Main ranks below 3 lakh.
The table below shows that the closing rank was below 7 lakh and 8 lakh for several courses.
Course | Opening Rank | Closing Rank |
Electrical and Electronics Engineering | 352847 | 823633 |
Electronics and Communication Engineering | 146512 | 784612 |
Mechanical Engineering | 529992 | 784194 |
Computer Science and Engineering | 197705 | 652841 |
Civil Engineering | 184253 | 599963 |
Students with JEE Main ranks below 2 lakh have obtained seats in core branches in NIT Mizoram in 2021. The table shows seat allotment for JEE Main ranks above 5 lakhs.
Just one programme admitted at ranks lower than 2 lakh.
Course | Opening Rank | Closing Rank |
Civil Engineering (4 Years, Bachelor of Technology) | 205631 | 238971 |
The last seat in Civil Engineering at NIT Puducherry in 2021 was allotted to a home state student with a JEE Main rank below 2 lakh. NIT Puducherry is a relatively new NIT compared to NITs in Agartala, Mizoram or Meghalaya.
This shows that there are not enough students with good JEE Main ranks for the seats under the 50 percent quota when compared to popular institutions such as NIT Warangal, NIT Trichy, NIT Calicut and VNIT Nagpur.
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