IITB students counsel freshers

The convocation hall at IIT-Bombay on Tuesday morning was filled with the anxious faces of those who were hoping to get placements and branches of their choice after they got rank-listed in IIT-JEE 2009.

Around 500 candidates from the OBC category turned up on the first day of the counselling session held on the IIT campus. The Bombay zone alone has one-third of the total candidates from states like Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Goa and Karnataka. Out of the 10,035 ranked candidates, 3,379 candidates are from this zone and IIT-B will be conducting a counselling session for all of them till June 24.

"The counselling session is basically being held to verify the relevant educational qualifications and identification proofs of the candidates who have been rank-listed. We also provide counselling on various courses and procedures of each institution,'' Amiya K Pani, chairman of JEE-2009, said.

This time, IIT-B officials have come up with the idea of getting second and third-year IIT students to act as counsellors. Around 50 students from IIT-B are currently counselling the candidates on career-related issues. "The rank-listed students had many doubts like whether to give preference to a good branch or to look out for an IIT that is close to home,'' a counsellor said.

The Bombay zone has 3,379 rank-listed candidates who will be counselled in the following week. "We have introduced two more IITs at Indore and Mandi this year. The candidates also had doubts about whether the new IITs will have facilities similar to the older ones. We told them the quality of faculty and academics in any of the IITs will not be compromised,'' he said.

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