The cut-off marks for admission to courses in engineering and medicine will come down by 1.25 to 1.5 marks this year, according to Jayaprakash A. Gandhi, educational consultant. This trend will be mainly due to the ‘tough’ question papers for Biology and Chemistry in the recently held higher secondary examinations.
Addressing students and parents at The Hindu Education Plus career counselling event organised here on Wednesday, Mr. Jayaprakash predicted that a student could land in one of the top 50 engineering colleges with a cut-off above 186 and a rank of below 25, 000. The prospects would be almost the same that of last year for those with a cut-off below 170. In medicine, 198 would be a safe bet. However, he cautioned that the decline in cut-off marks in medicine would be disadvantageous to the current students as aspirants from previous years would also make an entry.
Mr. Jayaprakash advised the students to do their homework well before pitching for a course. They should take into account its employment potential by identifying the projects and technologies in the horizon. “Choose a course with growth and opportunities,” he said. Mr. Jayaprakash rated computer science, electrical and electronics and civil engineering as the top notch courses for the year and discouraged students from opting for mechanical engineering, in which opportunities were slowing down, or biotechnology, which was research-oriented. But mechanical engineering was good for women. They should be mentally prepared to work in the IT sector if they chose electronics and communication engineering, which had reached a saturation point. Aeronautical engineering should not be preferred as the country did not have enough industry to employ these engineers, he said.
He saw a good scope for B. Arch., B. Sc. (Agri) and veterinary courses; Economics and English Literature in the arts stream; Mathematics in science stream and Law courses.
