AT LEAST one lakh families in the State have one big concern this season. These families have at least one teenager aspiring to enter engineering education. But they seek a guide to know where they stand in the competition.

Sound method
A reasonably sound method for knowing whether one will get into a college or branch of his/her choice is to look at the cut-off scores for the previous year in each college.

For example, a student with a score of 270 out of 300 will certainly be wondering he will get a seat in Anna University. If so, in what branch?

Another student who has got 255/300 ponders about his choices. "Will I get into a tier-I college?" It is here that last year's admission pattern helps.

Upgraded syllabus
But then, ``we need to factor in two or three things — this year's upgraded syllabus content, the degree of difficulty in the TNPCEE and the delay in announcing the modalities of admission,'' says the principal of a school in Mylapore, Chennai.

This would account for small changes each year.

This year, the downswing in students' performance in the TNPCEE is likely to bring down the cut- off scores for each college and branch, says career analyst Jayaprakash Gandhi.

Mr. Gandhi has come up with the likely scenario of cut-off scores for the highly rated colleges for the current year.

Larger chunk
He says: "We may have more seats this year in the government pool as the colleges have been asked to surrender a larger chunk of seats that the last. So the minimum scores in each branch in top rated private colleges will change and dip by a score of 3.0 points or more."

The matrix in the College of Engineering-Guindy (CEG) has changed, as all the IT branch seats and 60 seats under the ECE branch are converted to the self-supporting (higher fees) stream.

It means, poorer students with merit who are looking for an aided course, will have lesser choice.

They may choose government college or a core branch in CEG itself.

The accompanying table presents a likely scenario for this year with the cut-off for 2005.

Legend for abbreviations: CEG - College of Engineering Guindy, MIT - Madras Institute of Technology; GCT - Government College of Technology, Coimbatore; Thyagaraja - Thyagaraja Engineering College, Madurai.