Every year, JEE Advanced raises questions beyond the results. In 2025, 54,378 students cleared JEE Advanced, but with only 18,160 seats, nearly 36,000 found themselves stranded despite “success.” The cut-off is set through subject-wise and aggregate marks, followed by an all-India ranking. Yet the difference between an 18,000th and a 30,000th rank holder may come down to a handful of marks, underlining just how razor-thin the margins are.
Clearing JEE Advanced doesn’t necessarily get one a seat elsewhere, contrary to JEE Main, which directs students to NITs and state institutions. For many, it’s either a seat in an IIT, another attempt, or grudgingly settling for other options such as BITS, DTU, or private institutions.
Coming close but not making it
Seventeen-year-old Swaraj Prakhar recently cleared JEE Mains and is now preparing to reappear for the Advanced exam. “During my peak, I studied close to 10 hours a day,” Swaraj recalled. “The hardest part was the second screening test, the Advanced . I often used free periods in school to revise or solve JEE problems. Time management was tough, and restricting myself from sports or social activities was even harder. But that discipline helped me to reach here.”
Despite his efforts, exam pressure took a toll. “I expected 99 percentile, but panic led to silly mistakes,” he said. For Advanced, he has shifted focus to conceptual clarity and problem-solving depth, while also battling the psychological weight of performance.
Currently Swaraj holds a B.Sc. (Hons) seat at IIT Guwahati but has opted for a partial drop to reattempt JEE and BITSAT. “If not engineering, I’d consider law, but my priority is being in an environment of bright, ambitious minds. IIT is about more than academics, it’s exposure and growth,” he said.
Support from teachers, friends, and family keeps him grounded. “I cried a lot at times, but I learned to accept reality and work harder. One of my teachers told me, ‘Everyone walks at their own pace,’ and that stayed with me.”
Despite clearing JEE Advanced in 2025, 21-year-old Harshit Panda chose not to join an IIT. Instead, he enrolled in B.Tech Computer Science at Delhi Technological University (DTU), prioritising his personal goals over the prestige of the IIT brand. “The intense competition for IIT seats largely stems from a lack of awareness and the widespread obsession with the IIT brand, often pursued more for parental validation than passion. Many students end up investing their most crucial years in this race, missing out on opportunities better aligned with their skills and growth,” he explained.
Reflecting on reforms, he pointed to IIT Madras’ Online BSc program as a promising model. “If more IITs offered flexible programs, especially in fields like software and computer science, it would open doors for a wider pool of learners while maintaining the rigor and exposure of IITs. That shift could help IITs move from being exclusive gatekeepers to inclusive enablers of talent,” he said.
To the 36,000 students who clear JEE Advanced each year but don’t secure a seat, Harshit offers a reality check: “IIT is not a guaranteed ticket to success—it’s only a head start, and even that depends on how you perform once you’re there. Institutes like NITs and DTU offer excellent opportunities. With consistent effort and smart networking, you can match or even surpass many IIT graduates in the long run.”
The logic of the Advanced
Coach Chaitanya Rastogi explains, “Mains shows who has studied; Advanced shows who can adapt under pressure.” Yet as professors note, India’s definition of “merit” still ignores creativity, curiosity, and diversity, leaving the bottleneck unresolved.
For Chaitanya Rastogi, popularly known as Chaitanya Sir, who has trained thousands of IIT and NEET aspirants, the IIT admission process is not just selective but designed to filter talent in layers. “JEE Main and Advanced are two very different exams. Mains tests broad subject knowledge, but Advanced is a second churning; it looks for how well a student can apply concepts under extreme pressure,” he explained.
Every year, nearly 15 lakh students attempt JEE Main, and around 2.2 lakh qualify for JEE Advanced. Yet, only about 17,000 finally make it to an IIT seat. “That second filtration is necessary,” said Rastogi. “Mains can show who has studied well, but Advanced reveals who can think fast, adapt to surprises, and solve problems creatively.”
He pointed out how the exam design itself demands more than memory. “Advanced papers are unpredictable, full of multiple-response and application-based questions. Students face two long papers in one day. That’s where analytical ability, stamina, and decision-making under pressure get tested.”
For Rastogi, this two-step filtration is what gives IIT graduates their global edge. “IIT isn’t just testing knowledge; it’s testing resilience, speed, clarity of thought, and problem-solving. That’s why even abroad, IITs are respected far more than most Indian institutes. The second churning ensures only the most adaptable survive.”
A key reason why three times as many people are announced as having passed Advanced as there are seats in IIT is the many admission quotas. Test framers factor that making a much bigger pool for Advanced would help them find candidates to ensure seats are filled under the quotas.
Of the total 17,740 seats across 23 IITs, the General Quota makes up 40.5%, with 6,819 open seats and 356 for Persons with Disabilities (PwD). The Economically Weaker Section (EWS) holds 10% of seats, including 1,694 general and 86 EWS-PwD seats. The OBC-NCL (Other Backward Classes–Non-Creamy Layer) quota covers 27%, with 4,558 general and 231 PwD seats. For the Scheduled Caste (SC) category, 15% of seats are reserved, comprising 2,532 general and 132 PwD seats. Meanwhile, Scheduled Tribes (ST) candidates get 7.5%, with 1,276 general and 56 PwD seats.
Additionally, a 5% horizontal reservation applies within every category for PwD candidates. To promote gender diversity, supernumerary seats with 20% reserved for women are also introduced. Each IIT further reserves two seats for Defense Services candidates under preferential allotment.
Experts emphasize that in IIT admissions, every fraction of a mark can be decisive. “Yes, even 0.1 mark matters. The same score can correspond to many different ranks,” an IIT professor said.
With lakhs of students competing for a limited number of seats, entrance exams are not just qualification-based but essentially elimination tests. For the past four years, however, female candidates have been included in the common ranking system, though supernumerary seats still ensure more opportunities for women in IITs. The evolving system reflects both the intensity of competition and the efforts to ensure diversity in India’s most prestigious engineering institutions.
Until 2020, separate merit lists were maintained for female candidates, which allowed them to secure Computer Science at IITs with relatively lower ranks. “Earlier, girls’ ranks were calculated differently. Before 2020, a boy needed to score within the top 100 to get Computer Science, while a girl could get the same course with a rank within 500,” the professor added.
An SSB-awarded IIT professor explained why the pressure around JEE and IIT admissions continues to grow, creating one of the toughest academic bottlenecks in the world. “The issue is not just about investment or infrastructure. We have seen newer IITs of Goa, Dharwad, Jammu set up more than 15 years ago. Yet, they haven’t reached the stature of the old five IITs. This proves that simply building campuses and pumping money isn’t enough. What we need is a nurturing environment: good labs, vibrant culture, strong mentorship,” he said.
Published - September 24, 2025 10:10 pm IST
