It's surprising to see only a few students shortlisted this year

There may be little competition this year to secure a seat in Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) as only 18,138 successful candidates will compete for 11,279 seats in 23 premier institutes across the country. As in the past, students from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh performed well in the JEE Advanced, assuring them of seats in IITs, NITs and other premier engineering colleges across the country.

Although, the number of students selected is more than 1.6 times the number of seats on offer, when compared with last year figure of over 50, 000 students who were shortlisted, the figure this year fell flat. In 2017, for 10, 998 seats, over 50, 000 candidates qualified in the JEE Advanced examination.

“It’s surprising to see only a few students shortlisted this year. The nodal institute, which conducted the exam, may be decided not to give false hope to students by shortlisting more or they might release a second list later,” Ramesh Babu P, director FIITJEE, Vijayawada, told TOI.

He said that shortlisting fewer students, however, might be detrimental as the youngsters might get demoralised.“This move can do more harm than good as students might be disappointed with the final outcome. Irrespective of whether or not they get a seat in IITs, getting shortlisted is a big thing for many and it inspires them to achieve bigger things in life in future,” Babu added.