Electronics and Communication Engineering was the subject of choice on the first day of general counselling for engineering admissions, as well over half of the 488 students allotted seats on Friday selected that stream.
“I feel there’s good scope in this field… I want to stick to core electronics,” said Rekhna Rajendran, ranked number one by virtue of her age, despite sharing the top score with many others. Fellow top rankers E. Manoj Kumar and D. Jayendirakarthik, on the other hand, also chose ECE, but intend to pursue a software career.
Educational consultant Jeyaprakash Gandhi says students are playing it safe. By choosing ECE, they can be part of the software boom, but in case IT sector demand drops in the next four years, they can still opt for a career in electronics and hardware, he says.
“Last year, ECE and Computer Science were almost equally popular. This year, ECE seems to be the predominant choice,” he points out. While 267 students chose ECE, only 121 chose Computer Science on the first day, including two of the top 10, while Information Technology lagged behind with just eight seats allotted.
Electrical and Electronics Engineering, which also has the virtue of being a circuit branch option with prospects in core industries, snagged 30 students.
Handing over allotment orders to the top 10 rankers in the morning session, Higher Education Minister K. Ponmudy said the government had ensured that the new engineering colleges under its control offered courses in Civil and Mechanical Engineering. These key core subjects would be given a boost in this way, he said.
Students are not buying that message entirely, going by the first day’s choices. Only one student chose Civil Engineering, despite the boom in the infrastructure sector. However, Mechanical Engineering fared better, with 39 takers pushing it to third place.
“It was my first choice. I never considered anything else, since this is what I am interested in,” said J. Pradeep of Erode district, one of the highest ranked students to choose Mechanical Engineering.
Aeronautical Engineering was also a popular niche option, with 16 seats allotted.
One seat each in Chemical, Automobile and Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering rounded off the day’s allotment. Although 660 students were called for counselling, only 490 turned up.
At the end of the day, 73,372 seats were still left vacant, including the 7,154 seats added to the government quota at the last minute on Friday morning from the 45 new engineering colleges which have been approved by the All-India Council for Technical Education and received affiliation from one of the four Anna Universities over the last week.
Another 26 colleges are still in the process of inspection and affiliation and are expected to surrender another 3,500-plus seats to the government quota over the next few days. Over 1.15 lakh candidates are competing for these seats.
The College of Engineering, Guindy, a department of Anna University, Chennai, was the top option in terms of institutions, with 301 students making it their choice. While 107 students chose the Madras Institute of Technology, also a department of the Anna University, Chennai; 5 students chose other government colleges in Chennai and Tiruchi.
Among aided institutions, PSG College of Technology took 69 students, while Thiagarajar College of Engineering took 3. Only three students opted for self-financing colleges on the first day.
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