Telangana's top rankers prefer IITs over state colleges

metro india news  I hyderabad

Telangana is witnessing a growing trend of its brightest engineering aspirants opting for premier national institutions over colleges within the state. Despite securing top ranks in the Telangana Engineering, Agriculture and Pharmacy Common Entrance Test (TG EAPCET), many students are showing little interest in joining even reputed engineering colleges in Hyderabad, choosing instead to pursue admissions in Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), National Institutes of Technology (NITs), and leading private universities in other states.

Education experts attribute this migration primarily to better career prospects, higher salary packages, stronger brand value, and wider global opportunities offered by premier institutions. According to them, many top-ranking students appear to treat the state entrance examination as only an additional option while focusing their primary efforts on the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) for admission into IITs and NITs.

Students and parents believe that graduating from IITs and NITs significantly improves placement prospects, with several multinational companies offering lucrative salary packages even before students complete their courses. This perception has encouraged many high-performing candidates to leave Telangana despite the availability of reputed engineering institutions within the state.

While several top rankers do secure seats at IIT Hyderabad and NIT Warangal, many who qualify in JEE Advanced prefer prestigious institutes such as IIT Madras, IIT Bombay and IIT Delhi. Families are willing to bear the higher educational costs, considering the long-term returns. The four-year fee at an IIT is approximately Rs. 8 lakh, while the average placement package is around Rs. 21 lakh per annum. NIT graduates receive average packages of nearly Rs. 17.5 lakh annually. In comparison, although engineering education at JNTU costs only about Rs. 2 lakh, average placements of around Rs. 6 lakh per annum, along with comparatively limited brand recognition, career growth and overseas higher education opportunities, influence students to opt for national institutions.

Experts also point out that Telangana has only around 10 to 20 engineering colleges that consistently maintain high academic standards. Many other institutions continue to face challenges related to faculty strength, infrastructure, research facilities, laboratories and campus placements. Beyond IIT Hyderabad and NIT Warangal, the state has few institutions ranked among the country's top engineering colleges, further encouraging students to pursue admissions elsewhere.

The preference for JEE has also become evident in admission trends. A candidate securing a JEE rank within 5,000 has a strong chance of obtaining a Computer Science Engineering seat in an NIT, whereas even a top-10 rank in TG EAPCET does not guarantee admission to an IIT. This has shifted the focus of many aspirants towards national-level entrance examinations.

This year, nearly 3.4 lakh candidates appeared for TG EAPCET, and education officials estimate that nearly 90 per cent of the top 1,000 rankers had also taken the JEE examination. Experts believe that unless institutions such as JNTU and Osmania University significantly improve their national rankings and research reputation, the state will continue conducting the entrance examination while its best-performing students pursue higher education outside Telangana.

The ongoing EAPCET counselling process further reflects this trend. Only 47 candidates from among the top 100 ranks registered for counselling. Of these, just five belonged to the top-10 ranks, while only 42 candidates from ranks 11 to 100 completed registration. The low participation among top-ranked candidates indicates that a majority have already secured admissions through JEE or opted for institutions outside the state. Registration numbers improve only among candidates with relatively lower ranks, highlighting the growing challenge Telangana faces in retaining its top engineering talent.