MBBS aspirants gobble up engineering seats in Tamil Nadu

CHENNAI: With no clarity yet on the fate of medical admissions in the State, the competition for seats in top engineering colleges was intense on Day 1 of general category counselling on Sunday. Many toppers said that though they aspired to study MBBS, they attended the engineering counselling due to uncertainty on whether they would get a chance in the medical admissions, which have to be based on National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET).

“I selected Electrical and Electronics Engineering in College of Engineering, Guindy,” said Hari Vishnu M, the second rank holder. But his twin brother, Hari Vignesh, has a cut off mark of 199.25 and despite his high marks, is doubtful of getting a seat in CEG due to the intense competition this year.

J Jagadeeshan from Sivagangai, who wanted to take up Mechanical Engineering, was worried that there were only 19 seats available in CEG at 2 pm. His session was at 5 pm. “I hoped to join PSG College, but there are no vacancies remaining for mechanical engineering for candidates under the BC category. I actually wanted to join MBBS and would surely take up medicine if I get a seat.

If the medical counselling was conducted ahead of the engineering, as usual, this confusion could have been avoided,” he said. Also, many students lamented how the cut-off marks for top colleges would have been much lower if the medical counselling was conducted earlier.

SP Kirthana, who wanted to take up Electronics and Communications Engineering, lamented how medical aspirants were taking up the most sought-after subjects. “I got 197.5 cut off and my session is at 6.30 pm. I am worried that the seats would get taken up by then. All those who should have taken MBBS are now blocking the seats,” she said.

“But even we are helpless. The government should not have delayed the medical counselling,” says A R Swetha, another MBBS aspirant who took a biomedical engineering seat.