CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu Higher Education Department on Tuesday released the engineering rank list for 2026 admissions, with educationists predicting a drop of one to 10 marks in cut-off scores compared to last year due to fewer students securing centum marks in core subjects.
S Akshitha of Dharmapuri topped the rank list, followed by A Rohith Balan of Tiruppur in second place and A Vengada Krishnan of Namakkal in third.
Under the 7.5 per cent reservation for government school students, ST Devadharshini of Salem secured the first rank, K Pugazhesh of Tiruchy stood second, and R Janarthanan of Tiruvannamalai secured the third rank.
The number of students scoring a perfect cut-off of 200 fell sharply from 141 last year to 52 this year. Likewise, the number of students with a 199 cut-off declined from 717 to 212, while those scoring 198 dropped from 2,511 to 949.
Educationist R Ashwin told DT Next that the decline in cut-off scores was primarily due to fewer students obtaining centum marks in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics this year.
Another educationist, Jayaprakash Gandhi, advised students to choose engineering colleges after careful evaluation and proper guidance instead of focusing solely on ranks.
Counselling authorities also cautioned students and parents against middlemen claiming they could secure engineering seats in exchange for money, stating that all eligible applicants would be allotted seats through the counselling process.