For years, meritorious students who cracked IIT-JEE filled their preference forms — listing their choices of institutes and disciplines based on their ranks. Then, IIT officials pored through millions of these preferences and allotted every student a stream in one of the IITs. This, for 58 years, was the final word.

But no longer — this time round, the premier tech colleges have altered the admission drill. With the IITs deciding to hold a second round of admissions, students who are allotted a seat on the basis of their preferences in the first round but are not happy will get another chance.

Based on those who do not take up the seat allotted to them, a second round of admissions will be conducted. Also, before the second round kicks in, students admitted in the first round would be allowed to select better streams, albeit in the same institution.

Assume a total of 100 students crack the JEE and are invited for counselling. They fill in their preferences (there is no cap on the preferences one can give) and each is allotted a seat in an institute and a stream based on his/her rank and the choices punched in.

Then, suppose some students, say ranks 29, 33, 48, 56, 77 and rank 86, are not happy with the allotted choice and don't join. Everyone from rank (after 29) 30 would be given a chance to select a better stream (if a seat is available) in the institute s/he has taken admission to.

Reshuffling of streams will take place at individual institute level. If a civil engineering seat falls vacant, say in IIT Kanpur, students below that rank in the same institute will be allowed to select a preference higher than has been allotted to them. But no student can change the institute they want to join at this level.

Following that, the second round of offer letters will go out, depending on the total vacancies. Last year, this newspaper had written about seats going vacant. Sources in the ministry stated that some seats had gone abegging and this year's new admission method will try and check this wastage.