New Delhi, June 18: IIT Bombay continues to be the first choice among students seeking admission to the Indian Institutes of Technology.

Eighty-six of the top 100 IIT-JEE rankers have marked IIT Bombay as their preferred institute, with all but nine of them securing offers for admission to their course of choice at the institute. (See chart)

IIT Delhi has turned out to be the second choice among the toppers. Among the courses, computer science and engineering has been the most sought after, followed by electrical engineering and mechanical engineering in that order.

After a three-day delay, the IIT-JEE authorities yesterday released the course allotment details of the 17,465 candidates short-listed for counselling. Eventually, 15,989 registered their choices, spelling out their preferred courses and institutes, against the 9,647 seats on offer at the 16 IITs and the Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad.

Some 9,500 candidates including 11 foreign nationals have been allotted seats in the first round, the IIT-JEE authorities said. They include 907 girls: 447 from the general category, 222 from the Other Backward Classes (OBC), 154 from the Scheduled Castes and 84 from the Scheduled Tribes.

General and OBC candidates who have been allotted seats must pay a registration fee of Rs 40,000 each by Friday. Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe candidates have to pay Rs 20,000 each.

IIT Bombay professor K. Narasimhan said the institute offered its students a lot of scope in extra-curricular activities.

“IIT Bombay is a happening place. There are a lot of student activities on the campus all the time — much more than any other IIT,” he said.

“These relate to culture, management, entrepreneurship and other areas. This helps the students secure all-round development.”

Narasimhan said IIT Bombay had been admission seekers’ institute of choice for the past several years.

This year, 325 candidates were short-listed against the 4.5 per cent new sub-quota for minorities within the 27 per cent OBC quota. However, the Andhra Pradesh High Court quashed the minority sub-quota, ruling that religion could not be a ground for reservation, and the sub-quota seats were merged with the main OBC pool.

IIT-JEE authorities today declined to reveal how many of these 325 candidates had succeeded in securing admission offers under the main OBC quota.