JEE Main 2014: How will state quota/domicile help you in admissions

Having dealt with explaining percentile and normalisation, how to calculate ranks as well as scores, how to map scores to ranks and understanding quotas/reservations and categories, we now look at how a state code of eligibility or state domicile can affect you in JEE admissions.

What is this state code of eligibility? Almost all national and state level entrance exams in India such AIPMT, UPSEE, OJEE, RPET, VITEEE, JEE Main, JEE Advanced etc require you to mention your state in your application form. Herein, you have to mention the state from which you have passed class 12th/equivalent qualifying examination by virtue of which you become eligible to appear in the JEE (Main) for admission to B.E/B.Tech and B.Arch/B. Planning courses on offer at various institutions/colleges offered at different states and union territories.

The important thing to note here is that if a candidate has passed class 12th/equivalent qualifying examination from one state but later appears for improvement exam from another state then in his/her application form (in the column for state from where he is eligible to apply for the exam), he/ she should mention the state from which he originally sat for the exam and not the one from where he gave the improvement exam.

Also, Indian nationals who appear for their class 12th/qualifying exam from an institution abroad are eligible to apply from a state wherein they have a permanent address proof in India, which is also mentioned on the passport of the candidate. However, the candidates who have passed/appeared in the qualifying examination from Nepal/Bhutan have already been given a state code of eligibility, mentioned in the official information brochure of JEE Mains 2014 as code 99.

Ramesh Batlish, FIITJEE’s centre head at Noida, explained the admission process of NITs on the basis of state code of eligibility saying, “NITs have 50% weightage for outside state students and 50% weightage for in-state students. So, for getting admission to one of the NITs, students have to do their class 11th and 12th from that particular state. So, there it’s nothing to do with the domicile or where they reside.” Elaborating on this he said, “If a student studies from one state and has a permanent address proof of another state, it does not matter. Basically, wherever the student has completed his class 11th and 12th, the student will become eligible for that state’s NIT. State code of eligibility is the same as the state from which the candidate has cleared his class 11th and 12th.”

An NIT alumnus and gold medalist in mechanical engineering, Gopal Sharma, further explains the state quota apart from the 50% home state quota (HS) and 50% quota for the rest of India in central colleges (NITs) by saying, “There are a few additional seats for foreign students too. Now an obvious question arises – What is the provision for the students of Union Territories? For them, the full Home State Quota will be made available at the nearest NIT. These seats will be from the 50% Rest of India seats of that NIT.”

Batlish further explained the difference between state code of eligibility and domicile by saying, “Apart from the JEE Mains we also have state engineering entrance exams. So, let us assume a student has a domicile of X state and is taking the class 11th and 12th from Y state. So now he becomes eligible for the NIT of Y state, but along with this, he also becomes eligible to sit for entrance exams of state engineering colleges of X state. But he would not be eligible for NITs of X state.”

He further explained the eligibility criteria for state quotas and domiciles with the help of an example, “If I am a student of UP and I have a domicile of Karnataka, then I do not become eligible for NIT of Karnataka. On the other hand, I become eligible to apply for state government colleges of Karnataka.” However, he revealed that candidates can access this eligibility only when they appear for state engineering college entrance exams of Karnataka such as COMEDK, Karnataka CET etc. As per him, this is how domicile eligibility for admissions at different states actually works.

Talking about qualifying for admissions on the basis of state quota in JEE, experts reveal that preference is given to candidates who are from the same state in which the NIT is placed. Say for instance, a student has completed his class 11th and class 12th from Himachal Pradesh and manages to get a rank of 15,000 in his JEE Mains. Another candidate has passed his 11th and 12th from Gujarat and has a rank of say 8,000. In such a situation there is a high chance that the student from Himachal Pradesh would be given preference for admission at NIT Hamirpur (located in Himachal Pradesh) over the student from Gujarat.

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