11 lakh students to appear the AIEEE-2012

With more than 11 lakh students set to take the All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE) this Sunday, the test remains the leading competitive examination for admission to professional undergraduate courses in the country. But, figures show that entrance examinations conducted by private and deemed universities are also gaining popularity. 

VIT Engineering Entrance Examination has the most takers this year at 1.5 lakh. SRM University expects 1 lakh students to take the engineering entrance test this year. Applications for the entrance tests offered by Manipal University, one of the biggest campuses in the country, has crossed last year's figure of 96,000, with four candidates vying for one engineering seat in the Manipal and Mangalore campuses of the university. At Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham University, 30,000 students have applied for admission to engineering courses. 

Though some institutions, conducting their own entrance test, also accept AIEEE scores or those of common entrance tests conducted in the respective states, many students apply for both entrance tests. "Students stand a better chance of getting a seat through our entrance test than through AIEEE, because 85% of our admission is based on how the candidate has scored in our test, while they have to compete with a lot more students who have taken the AIEEE test for 15% of the seats," said A K Balakrishnan Nair, chairman of the engineering entrance exams at Amrita University. No wonder then that there is a 10% increase in the number of applications received by the university in 2012 when compared with last year. 

Students said convenience and access to information were advantages to taking the entrance test conducted by private universities. "Most private or deemed universities have live chats or a call centre to address our queries. We can't afford to take a risk because we don't have enough information on where the scores are accepted or what is the weightage," said K Anand, a Class 12 student of a city school, who has applied for five engineering entrance tests. He says that he will also sit for the single window counselling system through which students are admitted to engineering colleges in the state. 

Private institutions assert that if the college is good enough students would flock. "We only accept the scores of our entrance tests. One advantage is that a top scorer stands a good chance of getting a scholarship or a sponsorship. We also facilitate spot education loans on all the counselling days at the university," said dean of admissions at SRM University R Muthusubramaniam. 

The number of applicants for the AIEEE has increased by around 50,000 when compared to last year.

Source: TOI