Tamil Nadu Engineering Counseling Starts Today

CHENNAI: Counseling for Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions (TNEA) starts on Monday. Experts advise students to choose well-performing institutions over merely pursuing Computer Science (CS) due to the increase in CS seats.

Last year, there were 96,981 seats for Computer Science, IT, and related branches. This year, the number has risen to 1,19,229. Many colleges have increased seats for these streams by 10% to 15%, adding 22,248 more seats.

“There are enough CS seats available now,” said R Velraj, Vice Chancellor of Anna University. “Students shouldn’t settle for colleges with poor infrastructure just to get a CS seat.”

Career consultant Jayprakash Gandhi advised against the CS craze. “Students wrongly believe that core engineering branches like electrical, electronics, and mechanical offer fewer career opportunities. Those who add AI or CS skills to their core engineering degrees will be highly sought after by recruiters,” he said.

This year, 433 colleges are participating in the three-phase online counseling, with a total of 2,40,091 engineering seats available in the state. For the single-window counseling under TNEA, 1,79,938 seats have been submitted by colleges, while the rest will be filled through management quota admissions. Last year, there were 2,21,526 engineering seats available.