S. Adhithyan from Coimbatore has cracked the Indian Institute of Technology-Joint Entrance Examination (IIT-JEE) (Advanced) with an All-India rank of 549 in the Scheduled Caste category.
He has attended the first round of seat allocation and has selected B.Tech. Mechanical Engineering course at the Indian Institute of Technology, Varanasi. This IIT is his tenth choice. He plans to attend the second and third rounds of seat allocation to try his luck for a seat of higher preference, i.e. in an older IIT such as IIT-Madras or IIT-Mumbai. Though his first choice is mechanical engineering, as he wants this to be his base to pursue higher education in avionics or space science, his other interest in computer science is no degree lesser. If he gets B.Tech. computer science in another IIT in the forthcoming counselling sessions, he plans to grab it first and then decide on a suitable higher education option.
This year, only the top 1.5 lakh candidates of the IIT-JEE (main) were allowed to sit for the IIT-JEE (Advanced), and those selected were allotted seats based on category-wise all-India ranking. Having completed school from G.K.D. Matriculation Higher Secondary School, Adhithyan started coaching at the IIT Study Circle from Std. IX. For one who “ wanted to clear the IIT-JEE (Advanced) and enter any IIT”, it is a dream come true.
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But the dream did not just happen. It involved the toil and sweat of Adhithyan and also his parents. At his time of elation, he, in all humility attributes his success to his parents’ support – V. Soundarapandiyan and G. Balambal, both working as Superintendents in the Customs and Central Excise office in Coimbatore – than to his hard work.
“The IIT Study Centre had an intensive coaching session every Sunday. I spent one hour or more every day studying the material. Though both of them are working, my parents were always there, to drop me or pick me up from classes, and always encouraging me, but never pushing me,” he says.