Engineering Rank List Out, 21% More Students Vie for Seats This Year

THE number of students who applied for this year's single-window counselling for Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions (TNEA) saw a sharp increase of 20.9% with the ranklist released on Friday by Higher Education Minister Govi Cheziaan featuring 2,41,641 students, compared to the nearly 2 lakh students in the rank list last year. This is the sharpest increase since 2022, when the number stood at 1.58 lakh students.

- BINITA JAISWAL

The number of students securing a perfect 200 out of 200 too rose to 144 this year, twice more than the 65 students last year, as more centums were recorded in Class 12 core subjects this year. Of the 144 students, 139 are from the state board while the remaining five are from other boards.

This increase is seen as an indication that the cut-off marks for top engineering colleges will rise and there will be fierce competition among students to get a seat of their choice.

There were 1,32,582 male and 1,09,055 female candidates, and four trans persons in the rank list. "Last year, only 2,862 students had scored above 195 marks, but this year, the number is 5,251. It is likely there will be a rise of 2 to 2.5 marks in the cut-off for top engineering colleges," said career consultant Jayprakash Gandhi.