Good showing indicates a rush for engg courses

PUNE: While the scores of joint entrance examination (JEE) Main would play a larger role in engineering admissions than the higher secondary certificate (HSC) marks, experts believe that with the overall pass percentage crossing the 90 mark, takers for engineering seats would increase significantly.
With students scoring significantly well, there is a feel-good factor and as a result, more students would want to take admission to engineering courses.
Education expert Durgesh Mangeshkar said, “Several students in my class have got more than 90%. It is leading to higher expectations from students about joining certain courses or streams. This will definitely boost the number of engineering applicants in Pune.”
The deciding factor for admissions to top engineering colleges in the state would be the Jee Main examination although 50% weightage is given to each examination -- JEE and standard XII. If two students would have scored similar percentage in standard XII, but their JEE Main marks differ, then the student who has higher marks in JEE exam would get preference, he added.
As many as 97,429 students in the state have scored distinction this year, as against 79,543 students last year. The number rose by 17,886 students in a single year. Out of these, 14,115 students are from Pune, the highest among all divisions in the state while Konkan has the lowest number of students achieving distinction with 2,186.
D S Meshram, joint director, directorate of technical education, said, “The results have been extremely good this year and this will affect the merit list cut-off. Students must expect the cut-offs to be high as a result. If a student has not got satisfactory marks in JEE Main, but scored well in HSC exam, then he/she will benefit as the latter scores will balance it out for admissions.”
Meshram also said that this also indicates stiffer competition to make it to top engineering colleges this admission season.
The scores will also play a big role for admissions to the 30 National Institutes of Technology (NIT) in the country as 40% weightage is given to standard XII marks for admission to these institutes.
Engineering colleges give 50% weightage to standard XII marks and the remaining 50% to the entrance examination score.