Kannur girl bags 13th rank in IIT-M entrance exam DC

One month was
all she got to prepare
for the entrance
examination of the
coveted Humanities and
Social Science Course of
IIT-Madras. But this 17-
year old girl from Kannur
cracked the test in
style and was ranked
13th in the all-India level
test.
Meet Shalini Jithendran
of Prashanthi House at
Kuttimakkal near
Thalassery in Kannur,
who brought laurels to
her native place by
getting into one of the
most prestigious
institutions in the
country.
IIT-M’s Humanities and
Social Science is a five-
year-long Integrated
M.A. course for the best
46 students in the
country. Shalini says she
was never keen on
applying for the
Humanities course as
she was preparing for
medical and entrance
examinations from
Kanjirappally in
Kottayam.
“I was taking coaching
for medical and
engineering entrance
exams while studying in
St. Antony’s Public
School in Kanjirappally. I
came to know about
the IIT-M course very
late and so I had only a
month to prepare for it.
Ecology, History,
Economics, Analytical
Ability and English were
the subjects of the
entrance test. I
referred to my old
Economic textbooks,
which helped me a lot.
But it came as a
surprise when I scored
top marks and was
ranked 13th,” she says.
After clearing the IIT-M
test she has decided to
leave her medicine and
engineering aspirations
behind and join the
Humanities and Social
Science course.