TNEA 2026 rank list out: Dharmapuri's Aksitha S tops engineering admissions, check complete topper list by category

The Directorate of Technical Education on Wednesday released the Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions (TNEA) 2026 rank list, with 2,36,017 students figuring in the list ahead of this year's counselling process.

Higher Education Minister P. Viswanathan released the rank list. This year, 53 candidates secured the maximum cut-off score of 200 out of 200, underlining the intense competition for engineering seats. Aksitha S from Sri Ram Higher Secondary School, Boomisamuthiram, Dharmapuri, secured Academic General Rank 1 with a perfect cut-off of 200.00. Counselling for special category candidates will be held on July 13 and 14, while online general counselling is scheduled between July 20 and July 30. The top ranks in the academic stream were shared by students from Dharmapuri, Tiruppur, Namakkal, Ariyalur and Kanyakumari. All the top five candidates secured the maximum cut-off of 200.00.

Academic Stream (General): Top 5

Government school students under 7.5% quota

The separate merit list for students applying under the 7.5 per cent government school reservation was led by Devadharshini P from Model School, Veerapandi, Salem, who secured 199.00 marks. The top five candidates came from government model schools across Salem, Tiruchirappalli, Tiruvannamalai and Erode.

Vocational stream also records near-perfect scores

In the vocational stream, Mithun Varshan B from Vivekananda Higher Secondary School, Paundamangalam in Namakkal, secured the top rank with a perfect 200.00 cut-off. Students from Coimbatore and Namakkal occupied most of the top positions.

Vocational government school category

The vocational stream under the 7.5 per cent government school reservation was topped by Madhan Kumar S of Government Higher Secondary School, Onnupuram, Tiruvannamalai, with 199.00 marks.

Notably, all the top five candidates in this category studied at the same government school in Onnupuram.

Counselling to begin in July

With the rank list now out, the admissions process moves to counselling. Candidates belonging to special categories will participate in counselling on July 13 and 14, followed by online counselling for other candidates from July 20 to July 30. The release of the rank list marks the start of the seat allocation process for engineering admissions across Tamil Nadu, with thousands of students now waiting for their counselling rounds and college allotments.