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If JEE Main does not work out

JEE Main is one way to reach 3 destinations. Here are the others we have recorded — 7 routes that do not pass through it at any point.

Every one of them links to the body that runs it, so you can check it rather than take our word for it. None of them is easy, and none of them is guaranteed — they are simply open, and separate from the one that closed.

One path stopped, others continuing to the same destinationThree paths run left to right towards one destination. The middle path stops at a bar partway along. The other two curve around it and reach the destination.

Still leads to

Design and build physical things

Machines, structures, power systems, vehicles, factories. The work of turning a requirement into something that exists and holds up.

  1. After Class 10Open entry, or admission on Class 10 or 12 marks

    Diploma after Class 10, then join a degree in its second year

    1. Step 1. Take a three-year polytechnic diploma after Class 10 instead of Classes 11 and 12.
    2. Step 2. You can go straight to work as a technician or junior engineer at the end of it.
    3. Step 3. Or use lateral entry to join the second year of a B.Tech, finishing the degree in three more years.

    This is the route most students are never told about. It reaches the same degree, starts two years earlier, and does not pass through JEE at any point. West Bengal admits through JEXPO; other states run their own equivalent, and admission is often on Class 10 marks alone.

    Where to check this

  2. After Class 12Selective, with more places than the best-known routes

    A state engineering entrance, for colleges in your own state

    1. Step 1. Sit the state entrance examination — WBJEE in West Bengal.
    2. Step 2. Admission is to engineering colleges in that state, with places reserved for students domiciled there.

    A separate examination with its own paper and its own competition. Many students sit both this and JEE Main; a rank in one has no bearing on the other.

    Where to check this

  3. After Class 12Many more applicants than places

    A university’s own entrance test

    1. Step 1. Sit the institution’s own examination — BITSAT for BITS Pilani, Goa and Hyderabad.
    2. Step 2. Admission is to that institution only, on its own rules.

    Independent of JEE entirely. Several private universities run their own tests on the same pattern.

    Where to check this

Everything that leads to design and build physical things

Still leads to

Build software and work with data

Writing programs, designing systems that handle scale, and working with data. One of the few fields where what you have built matters as much as where you studied.

  1. After Class 10Open entry, or admission on Class 10 or 12 marks

    Computer science diploma after Class 10, then a degree by lateral entry

    1. Step 1. Take a polytechnic diploma in computer science or information technology after Class 10.
    2. Step 2. Work as a developer or technician, or enter the second year of a B.Tech through lateral entry.

    Software is the field where what you have actually built counts for most. Starting to build two years earlier is not a consolation prize.

    Where to check this

  2. After Class 12Many more applicants than places

    A university’s own entrance test

    1. Step 1. Sit BITSAT.
    2. Step 2. Admission is to BITS Pilani, Goa or Hyderabad on its own rules.

    A completely separate gate from JEE, with a different paper and a different cohort.

    Where to check this

  3. After Class 12Selective, with more places than the best-known routes

    CUET-UG, then a B.Sc or B.C.A. at a central university

    1. Step 1. Sit CUET-UG in the subjects the course requires.
    2. Step 2. Admission is to a central or participating university’s three-year degree rather than a four-year B.Tech.

    A science degree rather than an engineering one. For software work specifically, employers are far more interested in what you can build than in which of the two you hold.

    Where to check this

Everything that leads to build software and work with data

Still leads to

Design buildings and places

Architecture and planning — how a building stands up, how it is used, and how it sits in the place around it.

  1. After Class 12Selective, with more places than the best-known routes

    NATA, then a B.Arch

    1. Step 1. Sit NATA, the aptitude test conducted by the Council of Architecture.
    2. Step 2. Admission is to five-year B.Arch programmes at schools of architecture.

    The test is on drawing and spatial reasoning as much as on mathematics, so preparation looks nothing like preparation for an engineering entrance.

    Where to check this

Everything that leads to design buildings and places

One more thing worth saying plainly

A rank is a measurement of one paper on one morning against one cohort. It is a real constraint on which door opens next, and it is not a measurement of what you are capable of. The routes above exist because the education system has more doors than the ones people talk about — not as consolation for missing this one.

If you are struggling, talk to someone you trust. This page can list routes; it cannot do that part.