The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Anna University releases rank list of engineering seats

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Thursday, Jun 26, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Anna University releases rank list of engineering seats

Priscilla Jebaraj

Competition will be tougher than ever this year

Top nine students have tied with a cut-off of 200
Ranked using arbitrary process of ascending age order

CHENNAI: Competition for engineering seats in the State will be tougher than ever this year. On Wednesday, Anna University released the rank list of the 1.23 lakh students competing for 69,731 seats in government colleges and the government quota of self-financing colleges.

The top nine students in the rank list have all tied with a cut-off of 200, scoring centum in Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry, as well as their optional subjects. Therefore, they were ranked using an arbitrary process of ascending age order, with Rekhna Rajendran of Salem district taking first place.

This system means that although Chennai student Asha Ganesan was the State topper in the higher secondary examinations, she is ranked at number seven in the counselling process, since she is younger than many of her peers. “As soon as she saw the ranking, she was a little upset, even though she understands the process,” says her father. “We were happy getting her into UKG at age four, but may be she is paying the price now.”

Asha, who plans to choose the Electronics and Communication Engineering stream at Anna University when general counselling begins on July 11, points out that the system is even tougher on other students.

“I feel that it is not good to use age. For my mark, it may be okay, but I feel sorry for students with lower marks, whose ranking and seat choice will get decided by their date of birth,” she says.

Age now plays a critical role in a situation where every cut-off mark sees a tie between 200 and 300 students, according to initial analysis of the marks.

If their individual subject marks are also identical, students’ date of birth could make the difference between success and failure in getting the seat of their choice. In 54 cases, tied students even shared a birthday, so admission authorities had to resort to using their random numbers to break the tie. Last year, the random number was used less than five times, authorities say.

C. Pallavi, who is the top Chennai student in the rank list, placed at number six, points out that using age as a tie-breaker is not new. However, other students feel the age factor should be replaced by a random number system. “It’s not our fault to be born older or younger,” says Chennai student Harish Sriram, who was the state’s third ranked student in the higher secondary examination, and comes within the top 50 in the counselling rank list.

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