Chennai: In line with last year’s trend, which saw students of core engineering courses — electronics and communication engineering (ECE), electrical and electronics engineering (EEE) and mechanical engineering — attracting more job offers during campus placements, these courses are likely to draw more applicants this counselling season.Experts say CSE and ECE may be the most preferred courses this year. They also predict a drop in the cut-off by 4 marks in top colleges, as only 6,627 students scored above 190 out if 200 this time, against 13,958 last year. Both CBSE and state board students had scored low in physics, chemistry and math subjects. “This year there will be a shift towards core engineering courses. Though computer science may retain the same interest as last year, computer-related courses such as cyber security, business systems may see a decline compared to courses such as EEE,” career consultant Jayaprakash Gandhi said. Toppers too, he said, may prefer core courses in top colleges.Principal of Trichy’s Saranathan Engineering College D Valavan agreed and said students were focusing on core courses following job cuts in IT services companies.ECE in particular has seen a sharp rise in preference by the growing focus on semiconductors, VLSI , embedded systems, said UniqShift Ventures founder and campus hiring and early careers strategist Ganesh Thirunavukkarasu M. “Many students today see ECE as a branch that offers both core engineering and software opportunities, giving them greater career flexibility. AI and data science appears slightly ahead of CSE due to hype around artificial intelligence,” he said.He forecast ECE, AI and data science and computer science engineering will be in good demand this year.Ganesh Thirunavukkarasu M, founder of UniqShift Ventures and campus hiring, early career strategist, said the competition for the most preferred courses is likely to be between CSE, AI and data science, and ECE this year. “Core engineering students got good placements last year as their numbers were less and there were enough job offers from core companies. This sentiment is reflecting in the admissions,” he said.ECE students had better campus placements due to the boom in the semiconductor industry last year, he added.Educational consultant D Nedunchezhiyan, however, asked students to prefer reputable colleges over specific courses during counselling. “About 10.75 lakh students are studying computer science, but not even 5,000 study material science or metallurgy in the country. Very few students study courses such as earth sciences, which have wider career opportunities,” he said.Higher education minister P Viswanathan on Wednesday released the engineering rank list, in which 53 students got 200 out of 200, as compared to 143 students securing 200 last year.“With a drop in the cut-off by four marks, a student who scored 190 in the rank list should include colleges and courses that had 194. For scores above 195, the cut-off may drop by two marks,” Jayaprakash Gandhi said.He also said the cut-off may drop by up to 10 marks for scores around 150 as compared to last year. Second- and third-round students may find choosing colleges and courses challenging.This year, 484 colleges will take part in counselling with intake expected to increase by 19,657. Seven new engineering colleges will take part in counselling this year, which will be conducted ahead of medical counselling from July 20 to Aug 30.“We are expecting NEET re-exam results by the third week of July. Anna University’s four campuses will be permitted to enrol 15% more students to prevent vacant seats after medical counselling,” TNEA secretary T Purushothaman said.
