IIT-Bombay remains first choice for top rankers in JEE-Advanced

The Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JoSAA) on Friday released the first six allotment list, setting off the joint counselling process for IITs, NITs and IIITs. Professor Bishnupada Mandal of IIT-Guwahati, who is the organising chairperson of JEE Advanced 2023 and responsible for the IIT part of the joint counselling, told The Indian Express, “IIT-Bombay predominantly remains the most preferred choice (among those who have qualified for JEE Advanced), but IIT-Kharagpur has received the maximum number of applications.”

According to data released by JoSAA, a total of 2,15,917 candidates are registered for the joint counselling process — 1,63,744 boys, 52,170 girls, and three transgender candidates — meant for admission to all IITs, NITs, and IIITs. A little over 30,000 candidates registered for joint counselling have applied for admission to IIT-Kharagpur.

JoSAA Counselling 2023: IITs preferred by toppers (Graphics by Angshuman Maity)

Though the IITs, NITs and IIITs have started several new-age technology programmes, the traditional engineering branches continue to remain top choices.

Overall, computer science engineering remains the most popular branch with 50,38,460 choices, followed by electronics and communication engineering with 35,39,687 applications across all IITs, NITs and IIITs.

JoSAA Counselling 2023: Number of candidates (Graphics by Angshuman Maity)

The number of applications is far more than the number of total candidates registered for joint counselling since students are permitted to apply to several institutes and programmes in their order of preference. Each programme preference, irrespective of where it is placed on a candidate’s list and against which institute it has been chosen, is counted as one unique choice for that specific programme.

Professor Mandal said, “Candidates tend to analyse thoroughly before choosing courses. There is a general tendency to prefer established courses and IITs. As new courses have just begun, students might want to see their track record.”

JoSAA Counselling 2023: Course choices (Graphics by Angshuman Maity)

Friday was the first seat allotment under JoSAA, which is expected to hold a total of six rounds of counselling. A total of 1,80,372 candidates appeared for the JEE-Advanced this year, of which 43,773 candidates cleared the entrance test and are now eligible for admission to various undergraduate programmes in 23 IITs. There are 7,509 girls among the qualified candidates. Those who have qualified for JEE Advanced are now participating in the joint counselling process along with those who qualified for JEE Main for admission to IIITs and NITs.

This year, a total of 17,485 seats are up for grabs in all 23 IITs, including 1,692 supernumerary seats for female candidates. The number has gone up from last year when there were 16,598 seats in total, including 1,567 female supernumerary seats.