Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions counselling: ‘Pick varsity wisely’

CHENNAI:  As counselling for the Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions (TNEA) for general category students is set to begin on Saturday, experts have advised students to do their homework and mindfully choose a suitable college and course. The two-month-long counselling process concluding on November 13 will be conducted in four rounds. 

According to academicians and career guidance experts, the students should select the colleges after carefully verifying the infrastructure, faculty, placements, skill training provided at the institute and events for student engagement. These factors are crucial in ensuring quality education at colleges, they pointed out.

Akila Muthuramalingam, the principal of KPR Institute of Engineering and Technology, said students should shortlist at least four to five prospective colleges, and verify their credentials. Every college website has mandatory disclosure about their facilities, and it is authentic as they share the same with AICTE. The students should check the websites and select a good college with proper infrastructure and placement facilities,” she said.

Muthuramalingam added while computer science and related IT courses are in high demand, students should not hastily pick any college just to pursue the subject. “Students can choose any stream as IT companies are hiring candidates from other engineering streams also. If any student wants to join the IT sector, they can easily do so after undergoing skill training,” she explained.

Career consultant Jayaprakash Gandhi stated while filling choices, students should pick many options of colleges and courses as the competition is high, this time. While the counselling was earlier set to start on August 25, it was postponed due to the delay in the announcement of the NEET results. The State government rescheduled the counselling to avoid wastage of seats in Tamil Nadu’s engineering colleges as every year, several students abandon their engineering seats to pursue medical courses after qualifying for the NEET. Notably, last year, over 600 seats at Anna University remained vacant.

The first round of counselling for students who secured cut-off marks from 200 to 184.5 will be held from September 10 to 15. At least 14,424 students will be called to participate in the first round. As many as 1.58 lakh students will compete for 1.4 lakh engineering seats. Supplementary counselling will be conducted from November 15 to 17 and SCA to SC counselling will be held from November 19 to November 20.