How Hard Is the JEE Route?
The moment someone wants to get in, they turn to the data. They find that in 2025, 14,75,000 students appeared for JEE Mains. Of these, 2.5 lakh students qualified JEE Mains and became eligible to take Advanced. But even those 2.5 lakh students don't all go to take the exam. Only 1,80,000 students actually show up. Of these, a mere 54,000 students qualify JEE Advanced.
But that is qualification, not selection. Out of these 54,000, seats will go to only 18,160 students, because that is all the seats there are across the IITs. And if I talk only about IIT Guwahati, its total seats are just 962. So in reality, out of 14,75,000 you have to land in these 962. Even if you don't count on landing in those 962 exactly, you still have to get a rank of around 4-5000 to get a decent seat, and that too only at IIT Guwahati. Landing among the top 5,000 out of 14,75,000, you can understand how tough that is. So if this isn't easy, there is one way where you won't have to run such a long race. Reach an IIT straight after 12th.
About IIT Guwahati
IIT Guwahati is a college established in 1994, in Guwahati, Assam. The campus is about 700 acres and sits right on the bank of the Brahmaputra river. The whole campus lies on this side of a hill, and on the other side of it you can see the Brahmaputra flowing. It's a fun sight, a very beautiful place. In the NIRF rankings its All India rank is 8 and its world rank is 334. It is a fully residential campus, with modern labs and research facilities.
Route 1: Online BS Program (No JEE Required)
IIT Guwahati has launched a four-year online BSc (Hons) program. It doesn't require any JEE examination. And IIT Guwahati is not the only one; a total of four IITs have launched such programs.
There are two degrees:
- BSc (Hons) Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (DSAI): launched in 2023.
- BSc (Hons) Biomedical Science and Engineering: launched in 2025.
This course runs through the Coursera platform, which manages the online degrees of many colleges. Teaching will happen through Coursera, but the degree will be from IIT Guwahati. Coursera or anything similar is not written anywhere on the degree; it is a proper IIT Guwahati degree, just like the one regular students get. There is no need to go anywhere, there is no attendance, and you can learn at your own pace.
Why AI? Because AI is booming right now. In India there is 42% growth, and a market of 17 billion is expected by 2027. Seats are limited in offline colleges. IIT Guwahati's offline program also teaches Data Science, but it has only 120 seats. The same IIT Guwahati professors will teach, the studies will be the same, and the degree will be the same. You just have to study from home.
Focus areas:
Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Big Data Analytics, Programming and Statistics.
Time:
It takes a minimum of four years. You can complete it whenever you like between four and eight years. There is no fail or semester-back system. If your studies get interrupted midway, you get too much work, or some problem comes up, you can finish it in five-six years as well.
Eligibility:
You need at least 60% in 12th, and Mathematics must be a compulsory subject.
Admission:
It happens in two ways.
- JEE-based entry: If you have qualified JEE Mains and are eligible for Advanced, you will get direct admission.
- Regular entry: If you haven't qualified Mains, you will have to take an online qualifier test. It is not like JEE; it doesn't even ask Physics or Chemistry. Only Mathematics and aptitude are asked. For this you also get a preparatory online course, Mathematics Essentials. Whatever is taught in it, the same questions will be asked in the exam.
Test format:
2 hours, 80 questions, 1 mark for every correct answer and zero for a wrong one, meaning there is no negative marking. The test is held on Coursera and is proctored; you take it from home. They will get you to download a Google Chrome extension called Honor Lock on your system, which will stop you from changing tabs or windows during the test. They will scan your room with the camera and microphone to check that nobody else is in the room you are sitting in, so that there is no cheating.
Exit option:
You get an exit option every year. If you study for one year and leave, you will get an Advanced Certificate in Data Science and AI; after 2 years a Diploma; after 3 years a BSc degree (meaning you officially become a graduate); and after 4 years a BSc Hons. It's not that if you study one year and quit you get zero. And if, after taking an exit, you feel you made a mistake, you can come back anytime within 4 years of your admission date.
Fees:
At a regular IIT, the 4-year fee is 10 to 12 lakh. Here the 4-year fee is just ₹3.5 lakh. And you don't have to pay all the fees together; you pay only for the year you enter. The admission fee is ₹50,000, once at the time of admission. After that you pay every trimester.
Other benefits:
- You will get an official IIT Guwahati email ID and ID card.
- Access to online student groups, clubs and fests.
- An on-campus fest happens two-three times a year, and you can attend it.
- Campus immersion sessions happen from time to time during the year. Online students will be called to campus, and then you can stay in the hostel and mess and get the college experience.
Placement:
IIT Guwahati will provide placement support, and so will Coursera's recruitment platform. But this is an online course and there will be a lot of students, so getting placed won't be easy. You will have to be very capable. More than half the students take the course in a burst of enthusiasm and then quit. But it's an IIT, brother; it will teach properly and will also hold exams. If you don't match the level, you simply won't be able to move forward. You will have to put in the effort. One student came in at rank 37 (out of about 14,000 students), and one student was selected for an international onsite internship in Tokyo, Japan. Students who are capable and working hard are doing well.
The first batch had 700 students, the second had 1000 and the third had 1400. Students are slowly moving toward online degrees.
Application:
It starts in March and runs until the last week of April. The session starts in September.
Route 2: Offline BS, Biomedical Science and Engineering
Now you can get into the offline course here too without clearing JEE Advanced, and its value will be just the same as the other IIT courses. It was launched recently and most people don't know about it. It is an interdisciplinary program, with a combination of AI, Computer Science, Mathematics, Data Science, EEE and Biomedical Engineering. You will have to understand a bit of Biology too.
Don't get confused between BS and BTech. Just as we do BTech in India and then go abroad for an MS, in the same way the undergraduate program of an MS is the BS. This used to exist at the IITs earlier too. IIT Bombay's BS in Mathematics closed in 2025 at a JEE Advanced rank of 1067. Someone with rank 1067 could have got Computer Science as well, yet the student chose the BS. So don't worry too much about the degree.
About the course:
This is a four-year BS program, equal to a BTech. It has medical science as well as engineering. It is not just a pure science or research-oriented course; the engineering content is quite substantial. The syllabus has portions of CSE with AI, EEE, Mechanical, Biomedical Engineering, and some of Data Analytics and Mathematics. Mathematics will definitely be taught, because a good engineer is a good mathematician. Mechanical, design and biomedical devices will also be taught.
IIT Guwahati has started this course together with the Jyoti and Bhupat Mehta School of Health Sciences. You will also get the chance to learn in collaboration with AIIMS Guwahati and NIPER Guwahati. You will go to medical institutes, interact with surgeons and see what the requirements are. An engineer's job is exactly this: to build what the world needs. The last two semesters are full of electives and projects, which you can choose as you like.
Why biomedical engineering? Look at a CT scan, an MRI machine. So much equipment is used in medicine, but who makes it? Where does the technology come from? Where engineering and medicine merge, that is biomedical engineering. There are big companies like Siemens Healthineers, and Germany is quite far ahead in making medical equipment. The size of the industry is 497 billion in 2026 and will reach 847 billion by 2035. People are looking more toward Computer Science right now and not at this trade, but when I spoke to a professor at IIT Kanpur, he told me that biomedical engineering is going to grow in the future in the same way Computer Science has grown. This course is currently available at limited IITs (Bombay, Madras, Delhi) and it is obtained through JEE Advanced.
Placement and career:
IIT Guwahati has a BTech in the Biosciences (BSB) department, and its students get decent placements. Pharmaceutical companies, biotech labs, research and innovation, and most students also go into the IT sector by coding. Some go into data analyst and consulting roles. At the IITs, skill matters a lot along with the branch. If you are at a top IIT, you will get the opportunity too, whatever the branch. Later you can do anything: medical device companies, digital health, AI in healthcare, regenerative medicine, startups, or an MS/PhD from foreign universities.
Eligibility:
- You should have passed 12th in 2025 or 2026.
- You must have Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics and Biology (PCMB).
- At least 75% aggregate marks.
- You will have to take the IISER Aptitude Test (IAT) 2026.
Admission process:
This is neither through JEE Mains nor through JEE Advanced. Admission is through IAT, but just taking IAT will not be enough. You will also have to fill IIT Guwahati's own form separately, because IIT Guwahati itself will conduct the counselling. The application has to be made online only; there is no other medium. Selection will be based on IAT 2026 merit and Class 12th performance. In shortlisting, marks up to Class 10th may also be looked at, so between two students, the one with the better 10th will get an advantage. Counselling will happen after the result.
About IAT:
IAT gives admission to seven IISERs. Apart from that, there may also be a chance at IISc Bengaluru, IIT Madras (biomedical), IIT Guwahati and now IACS Kolkata. IACS is the place where C.V. Raman's laboratory was, the first institute in India to bring a Nobel in science. Now BTech has also come to the IISERs, along with the BS. A student who is interested in pure science should definitely fill the IAT form.
Course fees:
The tuition fee is ₹1 lakh per semester. Including hostel fees and medical insurance, it will come to about ₹1,63,000 in the first semester and ₹1,40,000 in the second. The fees get updated from time to time.
- SC, ST, PwD: no tuition fee, meaning ₹1 lakh is waived.
- Parents' income: if it is below 1 lakh, the tuition fee is waived, and if it is below 5 lakh, one third of the tuition fee is still waived.
- Medical insurance: you get medicines free from the health care centre and hospital, and if they refer you outside, you get reimbursement.
The full fee details are given on the IIT Guwahati website. For the IIT Guwahati brand, this fee is worth it.
Whichever Branch You Pick, Check This First
Before taking any branch, look at its curriculum. Then see what job paths will open up after the studies, what paths will open up for higher studies, and, if you want to go into a government job, which jobs are reserved for that branch and which are open to everyone. Do all this research beforehand. For the rest, you have plenty of time to apply.
So that was the whole story of getting into IIT Guwahati without JEE Advanced: DSAI and Biomedical online, and the BS in Biomedical Science and Engineering offline.