CHENNAI: At least 133 students have scored a perfect 200/200 cut-off mark this year in Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions (TNEA), as per the rank list released by higher education minister K Ponmudy on Tuesday. Last year, only 13 students had scored full marks.
Engineering counselling in the State will begin on August 20. Academicians said with 468 candidates being placed in 199- 200 cut-off band and 3,023 students in 195-199 band, competition for seats in top engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu will be fierce this year.
“Even top-rankers may have a tough time in getting the course and college of their choice. Toppers should also exercise maximum number of options during selecting college and courses,” said career consultant Jayaprakash Gandhi. Releasing the rank list,
Ponmudy said marks scored by applicants in Class 10 and Class 12 were taken into consideration this year to arrive at the inter-se merit list to break the tie among students. Last year, random number assigned to students was used to break the tie when two or more students got the same score. Among the top 10 rank holders, five are girls.
While Renjitha K,a student of SNSM Higher Secondary School, Kollam, has topped the rank list, Harinika M and Lokesh Kannan M were placed second and third. Though 1.69 lakh candidates had paid registration fee to participate in TNEA counselling, rank list of only 1,58,157 students was released on Tuesday as 10,000 applications were rejected on various grounds. Ponmudy said 1,48,811 seats are available in 431 colleges for counselling this year. The minister said if students have any grievances they can visit TNEA Facilitation Centre to resolve them.
Grievances to be addressed by August 19
Ponmudy said if students have any grievances related to their ranks they can visit the nearest TNEA Facilitation Centre. TNEA will address them on a priority basis by August 19. Under the 7.5% preferential reservation for government school students, for which 10,968 seats had been allotted, 12,606 boys and 9,981 girls had submitted their applications.
The government will bear the tuition fee for these students. To avoid seats going vacant this year, the government has made it mandatory for candidates to pay their fee within seven days of getting allotment, failing which they will lose their seats. It is usual for students to leave engineering seats and join medicine once they get selected for MBBS.
Last year, of the 2,370 seats in Anna University, over 580 seats remained vacant. Of those who got selected this year, 95,397 are boys, 62,750 are girls and 10 are transgenders. Of the 3,102 students who applied under sports category, 1,258 candidates have made it to the merit list. At least 203 students with disabilities, too, have made it to the list.
Lone govt schoolgirl from Villupuram scores 200
Sixteen-year-old B Brindha of Villupuram became the lone government school student to score 200 out of 200. The student of SR Government Girls HSS, Valavanur, was part of ‘elite school programme’ for bright kids from poor families