Why is the cutoff of IIIT Allahabad considerably low (around 5k), even if it can be compared to top notch institutions like IITs?

There are several reasons for the low cutoffs of IIIT Allahabad. These are-

• No Home State Quota- IIITA doesn’t have a home state quota for its seats. So the seat availability for students from across India increases, and the cutoffs get lowered. 

• Almost double the seats in IT as compared to the NITs- IIITA offers more than 200 seats for the IT branch. Alongside this, there are two integrated M.Tech programs for IT. This allows for more IT seats at IIITA than the CSE seats at NITT and NITW combined. This is another reason for a lower cutoff for the IT stream.

• Without any strong reasons, students prefer CSE over IT.

• A strong inclination among the students for studying in their Home NITs.

• The old NITs were established much before IIIT Allahabad.

This is why IIIT Allahabad has low cutoffs for its B.Tech courses even though it is a top institute of India.