IIT Admissions 2018: Only 14 Girls in Top 500 Ranks of JEE Advanced

Even though IITs have reserved 14% seats for female students, the number of females making it to the top ranks in the JEE Advanced 2018 merit list has not increased. Only 14 girls have made it to the list of top 500 ranks of JEE Advanced 2018. On the other hand, only 46 girls featured in the list of top 1,000 ranks in the national-level engineering entrance exam, indicating that only a few girls will get admission in IITs this year. Last year, the number of girls in top 1000 ranks was 68.

As per the gender diversity plan of the HRD Ministry, IITs will add at least 8% (800) more seats to accommodate more girl students. IITs are hoping to enhance the representation of female students in popular engineering streams like electrical engineering and computer science. On the other hand, the older IITs will have 3% of girl students in computer science under female-only seat quota.

Also Read: IITs Female Intake to be Improved by 20% by 2021

This year, close to 3,000 girls featured in the list of top 24,500 JEE Advanced ranks. Among the top 5,000 ranks in the entrance test, there were only 410 girls, while 935 girls featured in top 10,000 ranks of the common rank list.

As per the admission rules, female candidates aspiring to get admission in IITs are eligible for a seat under the female-only pool and gender-neutral pool. Usually, girls consider gender-neutral pool only if they fail to secure a seat in the female-only pool. However, the current scenario clearly indicates that girls might not go for the gender-neutral pool for getting admission.

Also Read: IIT Bhubaneswar to Offer 22 Supernumerary Seats for Female Candidates

Despite numerous attempts, IITs are still struggling to improve the gender diversity on campus. With a motive to attract female students to join IITs, the admission committee has also reduced the cost of application form.