Computer Science Engineering was the most preferred branch followed by Artificial Intelligence and Data Science, Electronics and Communication Engineering, and Information Technology, in the first round of TNEA 2024 academic general counselling, an analysis by career consultant Jayaprakash Gandhi states.
Thirty-two out of 52 students who had scored 200/200 opted for Computer Science Engineering. A total of 17,679 out of 26,254 eligible students were allotted seats.
Most of the institutions had increased the number of seats in computer science-related courses substantially, and a few institutions had reduced the number of seats in mechanical and civil engineering branches. The lesser preference for civil, aero, chemical and mechanical branches was along expected lines. Even specialised courses like ceramic, rubber-plastic, textile, petroleum, leather, fashion tech, and pharmaceutical weren’t much preferred by the toppers even in top institutions, the analysis states.
In the first round, 10.86% of the seats were filled; the remaining 1,44,713 seats will have to be filled in the remaining two rounds for which 1,70,947 students will be competing. According to the analysis, 50,000 seats could remain at the end of the academic counselling.
Only 20 colleges filled more than 60% of the seats in the first round itself, and 30 colleges could fill over 40% of seats The most-preferred central institute was Central Electro Chemical Research Institute which had filled 96.43% of seats.
As many as 177 out of 443 colleges could not fill even a single seat at the end of first round. Last year, the number of colleges in this category was higher at 193. Surprisingly, out of 326 colleges that could fill seats only in single-digit numbers, eight were government institutions/ university colleges of engineering, Mr. Jayaprakash Gandhi pointed out, adding that even the Central Institute of Petrochemicals Engineering could make only single-digit admissions.
Choices made by students from rural parts indicate that they were still not familiar with choice-filling in TNEA online counselling process, he said, observing that a few colleges had taken advantage by admitting some students in second-level colleges with the support of social-media influencers, Mr. Jayaprakash Gandhi surmised.
The most preferred government and government-aided colleges were MIT, CEG campus, Coimbatore Institute of Technology; Thiagarajar College of Engineering, Madurai; PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore; School of Architecture and Planning, Chennai (for B.Plan); Government College of Technology, Coimbatore; Alagappa Chettiar Government College of Engineering, Karaikudi; AC Tech campus, Anna University, Chennai; and Government College of Engineering, Tirunelveli.
