CHENNAI: With counselling for Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions (TNEA) set to start from Monday, experts recommend opting for better-performing institutions instead of joining the Computer Science (CS) rat chase. While, last year, only 96, 981 seats were available in Computer Science, IT and allied branches in the state, the number has increased to 1,19,229 this year.
“Majority of the colleges have increased seats of Computer Science, IT and allied streams by 10% to 15 % in this academic year. There are 22,248 more seats for the subject this year available. As there are sufficient seats available, students need not panic and opt for a college with poor infrastructure just because they want a Computer Science branch,” said Vice Chancellor of Anna University, R Velraj.
Career consultant Jayprakash Gandhi warned the students against joining the Computer Science rat race. “There is a misconception among students that career prospects in core engineering branches like electrical, electronics, and mechanical are not on par. If a student gains AI or any CS-related skill along with his core engineering degree, he will be the first choice for any recruiter,” said Gandhi.
As per sources, this year, a total of 433 colleges will participate in the three-phase online counselling and the total number of engineering seats available in the state is 2,40,091. For single window counselling, conducted under TNEA, colleges have submitted 1,79,938 seats, while the remaining seats will be filled by the college through management quota admissions. Last year, 2,21,526 engineering seats were available.
On Monday, counselling for 7.5% of government school students’ reservation quota for differently abled, eminent sports persons and wards of ex-servicemen will be conducted. Higher education minister K Ponmudy will inaugurate the counselling process at 10 am.
Notably, this year TNEA has released a rank list of 1.99 lakh students eligible to participate in the counselling. The counselling for general candidates will begin on July 29 and the entire process will conclude on September 11.