IIT Admission: How to Get In, What Seats Are Available, and What It Really Takes

When you hear IIT admission, the competitive process to enter India’s top engineering institutes through the JEE exam. Also known as IIT JEE admission, it’s the gateway for over a million students each year aiming for one of the most respected degrees in the country. This isn’t just about scoring high—it’s about understanding how seats are allocated, who gets priority, and what your rank actually means in the real world.

IIT seats, the total number of undergraduate engineering positions across all 23 IITs in India. Also known as IIT engineering seats, there are exactly 18,000 available in 2025, split between general, OBC, SC, ST, and EWS categories. Each IIT has its own quota, and some programs like Computer Science fill up faster than others. Your rank doesn’t just determine if you get in—it determines which IIT and which branch you’ll get. The top 1% of JEE Advanced scorers don’t just get into IITs—they fight over the same 2,000 seats in the top five IITs. The rest? They’re competing for the remaining 16,000 across 18 other campuses, often with different cutoffs, infrastructure, and placement outcomes.

IIT JEE, the national-level entrance exam that decides who gets into India’s premier engineering schools. Also known as Joint Entrance Examination, it’s not just a test—it’s a filter. Two stages: JEE Main to qualify, JEE Advanced to compete for seats. And even if you clear both, your final rank is what matters. A 99.9 percentile doesn’t guarantee a top IIT if your category has fewer seats or if you’re aiming for a hot branch like AI or Electrical Engineering. The pressure isn’t just from the exam—it’s from the system. Students spend years preparing, often moving to coaching hubs like Kota or Delhi, sacrificing sleep, hobbies, and sometimes mental health. But here’s the truth: most people who crack IIT don’t do it because they’re geniuses—they do it because they showed up every day, even when they didn’t feel like it.

What you won’t find in brochures: how many students drop out after the first year, how many switch to other degrees, or how many end up working in fields unrelated to engineering. IIT admission is a milestone, not a finish line. The real challenge starts after you walk in. That’s why the posts below don’t just talk about ranks and cutoffs—they show you what happens before, during, and after the exam. You’ll see real numbers on seat distribution, what it takes to get into specific branches, how coaching affects your chances, and why some students with lower ranks still end up with better careers than those with top scores.