JEE Main 2026: The National Testing Agency (NTA) has released the schedule for the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main 2026. This time too, JEE Main will be conducted in two sessions. The first session of JEE Main 2026 will be held in January and the second session in April. Only successful candidates will be eligible to appear for JEE Advanced. Only those with top scores on JEE Advanced will be admitted to IITs. This means that admission to IITs previously required passing two challenging JEEs. Now, any student can enroll in IITs without a JEE. Of the 23 IITs operating in the country, six will offer admission without a JEE score.

Let's find out which six IITs offer admission without a JEE. How will these IITs offer admission without a JEE?

Until now, five of the 23 IITs in the country have admitted candidates without a JEE score. These included IIT Bombay, IIT Kanpur, IIT Indore, IIT Madras, and IIT Gandhinagar. The latest addition to this group is IIT Kharagpur, which has announced admissions without JEE scores.

Admissions through Sports Quota and Science Olympiads
In fact, these six out of 23 IITs admit students without JEE scores who possess exceptional talent. This talent should be in sports, as well as in science and math Olympiads. Simply put, these six IITs offer admissions without JEE scores based on sports quotas and Olympiad medals. All IITs have established guidelines for this purpose. For example, these IITs give preference to candidates who have won medals in international and national competitions.

Regarding seats, IIT Kanpur has reserved 17 seats for five B.Tech courses under the Olympiad quota. Meanwhile, IIT Madras has reserved 34 seats in 17 B.Tech courses under the Olympiad quota. IIT Madras also reserves seats for admission under the sports quota. IIT Bombay offers admission under the Olympiad quota in B.Sc. Mathematics. Similarly, IIT Gandhinagar also reserves seats under the Olympiad quota. More information can be obtained by visiting the respective IIT's website.

Appearing in the JEE Main is mandatory.
Of course, admission to the six IITs under the sports and Olympiad quota is possible without a JEE score. Such students are exempt from appearing in the JEE Advanced, but they are required to appear in the JEE Main.

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