Admission Criteria

  • The final examination of the 10+2 system, conducted by a Central or State Board recognized by the Association of Indian Universities (AIU).
  • Intermediate or two-year Pre-University examination conducted by a Board or University recognized by the Association of Indian Universities.
  • Final examination of the two-year course of the Joint Services Wing of the National Defence Academy.
  • Senior Secondary School Examination conducted by the National Institute of Open Schooling with a minimum of five subjects.
  • Any Public School, Board or University examination in India or in a foreign country recognized as equivalent to the 10+2 system by the AIU.
  • H.S.C. vocational examination.
  • A Diploma recognized by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) or a State Board of Technical Education of at least 3 years duration.
  • General Certificate Education (GCE) examination (London, Cambridge or Sri Lanka) at the Advanced (A) level.
  • High School Certificate Examination of the Cambridge University or International Baccalaureate Diploma of the International Baccalaureate Office, Geneva.
  • Candidates who have completed Class XII (or equivalent) examination outside India or from a Board not specified above should produce a certificate from the AIU to the effect that the examination they have passed is equivalent to the Class XII examination.
  • In case the Class XII examination is not a public examination, the candidate must have passed at least one public (Board or Pre-University) examination earlier.

  • The Candidates must satisfy at least one of the following two criteria with Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics as compulsory subjects in the Class XII (or equivalent examination):
    1. Must have passed class XII (or equivalent) Board examination with a minimum of five subjects and secured at least 75% aggregate marks. The aggregate marks for SC, ST and PwD candidates should be at least 65%.
    2. Must have passed class XII (or equivalent) Board examination with a minimum of five subjects and be within the category-wise (category as per the central list http://www.ncbc.nic.in, https://socialjustice.gov.in and https://ncst.nic.in) top 20 percentile of successful candidates in their respective Class XII (or equivalent) board examination.

      The percentile calculation will be done for all the required subjects in a single academic year only. Therefore, candidates appearing for improvement in Board examinations can EITHER appear in one or more subjects and secure 75% aggregate marks (65% for SC, ST and PwD) after improvement, OR, appear for improvement in ALL subjects to be in top 20 percentile (see Section titled “Regarding the cut-off marks for the top 20 percentile” of Information Brochure) of the corresponding academic year.

      In all cases, the marksheet is required to have been issued by the same examination board and marksheets from separate boards are not permitted.
  • The marks scored in the following five subjects will be considered for calculating the aggregate marks and the cut-off marks for fulfilling the top 20 percentile criterion.
    1. Physics
    2. Chemistry
    3. Mathematics
    4. A language (if the candidate has taken more than one language, then the language with the higher marks will be considered)
    5. Any subject other than the above four (the subject with the highest marks will be considered).
  • For calculation of the total marks for five subjects, if the marks awarded in a subject is NOT out of 100, then the marks will be scaled (up or down) to 100 so that the total aggregate marks is out of 500.
  • If a Board awards only letter grades without providing an equivalent percentage of marks on the grade sheet, the candidate should obtain a certificate from the Board specifying the equivalent marks and submit it at the time of acceptance of the allocated seat. In case such a certificate is not provided, the decision taken by the Joint Implementation Committee of JEE (Advanced) 2026 will be final.
  • For candidates who appeared in the Class XII (or equivalent) Board examination for the first time in 2025 and reappeared in ALL subjects (for whatsoever reason) in 2026, the best of the two performances will be considered.
  • If a Board gives aggregate marks considering both Class XI and Class XII examinations (in the 10+2 system), then only Class XII marks will be considered.
  • If a Board gives aggregate marks considering the results of both years of a 2-year Intermediate or equivalent course, then the marks scored only in the final year will be considered. In case such a Board gives marks of both years separately, then also the marks scored only in the final year will be considered.
  • If a Board gives aggregate marks considering the results of all three years of a 3-year diploma or courses of equivalent duration, then the marks scored only in the final year will be considered.
  • If a Board follows a semester system, then the marks scored in the final two semesters will be considered.
  • In case any of the subjects Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics and Language are not evaluated in the final year (e.g., in a 3-year diploma course), then the marks for the same subject from the previous year/s will be used for calculating percentage of aggregate marks.
  • If a Board does not give marks scored in individual subjects but gives only the aggregate marks, then the aggregate marks given by the Board will be considered as such.
  • The above will also apply correspondingly to those candidates who first appeared for their Class XII examination in 2024 but the examination Board of Class XII (or equivalent) declared the results for the academic year 2023-24 on or after June 18, 2024.
Regarding the cut-off marks for the top 20 percentile
  • The category-wise cut-off marks for the top 20 percentile are calculated based on the marks scored by the successful candidates who appeared in their respective boards for all the required subjects, in the particular year.
  • The cut-off marks for PwD candidates will be the same as the lowest of the cut-off marks for GEN, OBC-NCL, SC and ST categories.
  • It is clarified that top 20 percentile cut-off for the academic year 2025–26 will be considered against the successful candidates who appeared in the Class XII (or equivalent) examination in 2026.
  • Similarly, top 20 percentile cut-off for the academic year 2024–25 will be considered against the successful candidates who appeared in the Class XII (or equivalent) examination in 2025.
  • Candidates who appeared in Class XII (or equivalent) examination for the first time in 2025 and wish to (or have to) reappear in 2026 with the objective to qualify through top 20 percentile cut-off criteria, must reappear in all the subjects. For such candidates, top 20 percentile cut-off for 2026 will be considered.
  • In case a Board does not provide information about the cut-off for the top 20 percentile, the candidate will have to produce a certificate from the respective Board (in the format) stating that he/she falls within the top 20 percentile of successful candidates. If the candidate fails to do so, then the cut-off marks, in the respective categories, of the Central Board of Secondary Education will be used.
  • The above will also apply correspondingly to those candidates who first appeared for their Class XII examination in 2024 but the examination Board of Class XII (or equivalent) declared the results for the academic year 2023-24 on or after June 18, 2024.
Regarding the aggregate marks of 75% (or 65% for SC, ST and PwD)
  • The aggregate marks scored by the candidate in the 2026 Class XII (or equivalent) Board examination will be considered for candidates who will appear in the Class XII examination in 2026.
  • The aggregate marks scored by the candidate in the 2025 Class XII (or equivalent) Board examination will be considered provided the candidate does not reappear in the Class XII (or equivalent) examination in 2026 in any of the subjects.
  • If a candidate had appeared in his/her Class XII (or equivalent) in 2025 and wishes to improve his/her aggregate marks to meet the “aggregate marks of 75% (or 65% for SC, ST and PwD) criterion”, he/she can reappear for any number of subjects he/she wishes for improvement. The percentage marks in this situation will be calculated by considering the marks obtained in 2025 or 2026, whichever is higher, in the respective subjects, in his/her two attempts in 2025 and 2026.
  • The above will also apply correspondingly for the candidates who first appeared for their Class XII examination in 2024 but the examination Board of Class XII (or equivalent) declared the results for the academic year 2023-24 on or after June 18, 2024.
  • The marksheet submitted by the candidates for their Class XII (or equivalent) examination must be issued by a single examination Board.

  • The seats across IITs, NITs, IIITs and other Government Funded Technical Institutes (GFTIs) will be offered and allocated through a common process by the Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JoSAA), to be held in online mode for current year.
  • The candidates who secured a Rank in JEE (Advanced) 2026 are eligible to participate in Joint Seat Allocation process for a seat at an IIT.
  • All the candidates who are eligible for admission will have to participate in the joint seat allocation process by filling in their preferential choices of the courses and Institutes.
  • The detailed instructions for filling-in the choices and the seat allotment procedure will be made available by JoSAA 2026 through JoSAA Business Rules of 2026.
  • The schedule of the joint seat allocation will be announced separately by JoSAA 2026.
  • The list of courses that will be offered by the IITs for admission for the academic year 2026-27 will be made available at the time of online filling-in of choices.

  • The seats reserved for SC, ST and PwD candidates which remain vacant will be allotted to the candidates of respective categories for admission to a preparatory course of one-year duration on the basis of relaxed admission criteria [see Clause 22. RANK LISTS in Information Brochure].
  • Admission is given to the candidates in the preparatory course provided (i) the seats reserved for the respective category are vacant, (ii) candidates satisfy minimum norms, and (iii) candidates have not accepted a seat in the preparatory course earlier.
  • Selected IITs will run preparatory courses of one-year duration for SC, ST and PwD candidates intended to prepare them to pursue the academic program (for Academic Year 2027-28) to which they have been allocated. At the end of this course, candidates are declared as ‘pass’ or ‘fail’. The institute at which one-year preparatory course is run for a candidate may be different from the institute allocated to the candidate for their academic program.
  • On successful completion of the course, the candidates will be offered direct admission in 2027 (Academic Year 2027-28) to the already allotted undergraduate course at the originally allocated IIT.
  • Candidates admitted to the preparatory course in 2026 are eligible to appear for JEE (Advanced) 2027 subject to fulfilling other eligibility criteria.
  • Filling-in of choices for preparatory courses is to be completed through the JoSAA online portal.

    PwD candidates with locomotor disability and colour blindness cannot opt for B.S. in Applied Geology/Exploration Geophysics. A certificate to this effect from a government registered medical practitioner has to be uploaded at the time of online reporting for seat acceptance. IITs may constitute a medical board to test the validity of the candidate’s medical condition. The opinion of the medical board shall be final and on this basis, the admission to the concerned IIT may be cancelled if it is found that the candidate suffers from any form of colour blindness.

  • Section 46 (1) of the Mines Act, 1952 states that

    “No woman shall, notwithstanding anything contained in any other law, be employed
    (a) in any part of a mine which is below ground,
    (b) in any mine above ground except between 6:00 and 19:00 hrs.”

    [See also the Gazette Notification 393{S.O.506(E)} dated 29th January 2019]

    However, female candidates will be admitted to Mining Engineering or Mining Machinery Engineering related courses at IIT (ISM) Dhanbad, IIT Kharagpur and IIT (BHU) Varanasi.