DASA Cutoffs for Top NITs: JEE Main Percentile and Rank Breakdown

29th September, 2026 | Abhishek Malani | 13 Min Read
Introduction
Ask ten NRI families what rank they need for CSE at NIT Trichy through DASA and you’ll probably get ten different answers, most of them lifted from a forum post that’s two admission cycles old. The real answer lives in the round-wise DASA opening and closing ranks, and those numbers shift every year. This guide goes through what the 2025 cutoffs looked like at the NITs students ask about most, how the CIWG numbers compare with the general DASA numbers (the gap surprises people), and how to turn your JEE Main percentile into something you can actually hold up against a closing rank.
Student checking DASA cutoffs and JEE Main ranks for NIT admission

Table of Contents

How DASA Cutoffs Actually Work

After every seat allotment round, DASA publishes an opening rank and a closing rank for each institute, programme and category. The opening rank is the best rank that got a seat in that programme; the closing rank is the last rank that did. Two things trip people up straight away.
  • The ranks are JEE Main All India Ranks: Not percentile, not raw marks. Your percentile is only useful once you convert it into a rank (more on that below).
  • There’s a separate list for CIWG and for everyone else: DASA publishes cutoffs for the CIWG pool and the general (non-CIWG) pool separately, so you need to read the right one.
  • Each round has its own numbers: DASA ran three rounds in 2025, so a single seat can have up to three closing ranks, and the later ones tend to drift a little as candidates withdraw or float.
A quick reality check before the numbers: everything below comes from 2025 round data as reported on Collegedunia, Careers360 and TestPrepKart. It’s a solid guide to the range, not a promise for your year. The 2026 round files are also out now, so open the official PDF for the cycle you’re applying in before you lock anything down.
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DASA 2025 Closing Ranks at Top NITs

Here’s how Computer Science closed at several NITs in 2025. Where a figure is marked “Not confirmed”, I couldn’t verify it in the sources I checked, so don’t treat a blank as a zero.
Institute General DASA closing rank (CSE, 2025) CIWG closing rank (CSE, 2025)
NIT Tiruchirappalli
16,522 (Round 1) to about 17,478 (final round)
Not confirmed
NIT Surathkal
33,736
22,657
NIT Calicut
Not confirmed
77,929
NIT Rourkela
1,40,041
1,02,778
NIT Delhi
9,26,908
2,45,423
NIT Srinagar
Not confirmed
4,27,477
NIT Jalandhar
Not confirmed
4,81,635 (Round 1)
The spread is huge. Trichy and Surathkal close in the tens of thousands, Rourkela and Calicut around the one-lakh mark, and the newer or less crowded NITs stretch to four or five lakh. That’s why “a good DASA rank” means nothing until you name the institute and the branch.

DASA Cutoff for CSE at NIT Trichy

NIT Trichy is the seat everybody wants, and the numbers show it. In 2025, general-category B.Tech CSE closed at 16,522 in Round 1 and had crept to roughly 17,478 by the final round. Across all programmes, Trichy’s general DASA closing ranks that year ran from 16,522 all the way up to 9,74,217, so CSE sits at the very sharp end of the range. On the CIWG side, the overall closing ranks at Trichy ran from 1,384 to 3,33,855 across programmes, but I couldn’t pin down the exact CSE figure, so pull that one straight from the CIWG file.
One comparison worth making: JoSAA, the domestic counselling, closed Trichy CSE at 4,463 in the general category in 2025. DASA closed around 17,000. Both are “NIT Trichy CSE”, but they’re different counselling processes with different candidate pools, so never read one against the other.

NIT Surathkal DASA CIWG Cutoff, Year by Year

Surathkal is a useful one to study because the data goes back a few cycles, and it shows how much a single year can swing.
Year General DASA closing rank (CSE) CIWG closing rank (CSE)
2022
14,144
Not confirmed
2023
40,284
29,462
2024
23,169
16,568
2025
33,736
22,657
Look at the general column: 14,144, then 40,284, then 23,169, then 33,736. That’s nearly a threefold jump between two neighbouring years. If someone tells you they know exactly what CSE at Surathkal will close at next year, they don’t. Use the range, not a single point. Surathkal’s CIWG seats across all programmes closed between 22,420 and 5,87,729 in 2025, and CIWG Information Technology closed at 46,502, so branch choice moves your chances far more than most people expect.

CIWG vs. General DASA: What the Numbers Show

Plenty of families assume CIWG is the “easier” door. The 2025 data says otherwise. In every case where I found both figures for CSE, the CIWG closing rank was lower (tighter) than the general one:
  • NIT Surathkal: CIWG 22,657 against general 33,736
  • NIT Rourkela: CIWG 1,02,778 against general 1,40,041
  • NIT Delhi: CIWG 2,45,423 against general 9,26,908
The likely reason is simple. CIWG seats are capped at one-third of the DASA pool, and Gulf-based applicants apply in large numbers, so those seats fill at better ranks and close earlier. Counsellors who track this closely say the same thing: CIWG seats tend to close ahead of general DASA seats.
So think of CIWG as a fee advantage, not a rank discount. You pay roughly the domestic tuition rate, but you still need a competitive JEE Main rank, and sometimes a sharper one than the general pool needed. If you’re CIWG-eligible and don’t get a CIWG seat, you can still be considered in the general DASA pool, though keeping both routes open means paying the same initial fee as a Non-SAARC applicant.

JEE Main Percentile Required for DASA

Here’s the awkward part: DASA doesn’t work off percentile. It works off your JEE Main AIR. I didn’t find a published minimum percentile in the sources I checked, so the number that matters is the closing rank for the seat you want. Eligibility rules (for example the Class 12 requirement) are in the current DASA brochure and are worth re-reading each year.
To translate, use this: rank is roughly the number of candidates multiplied by (100 minus your percentile), divided by 100. The pool size changes every year, so take the exact figure from NTA’s result notice. Purely as an illustration, assume about 14 lakh candidates. The ranks from the tables above then land roughly here:
Closing rank (2025) Roughly equals a percentile of Example seat
17,478
about 98.8
NIT Trichy CSE (general, final round)
22,657
about 98.4
NIT Surathkal CSE (CIWG)
33,736
about 97.6
NIT Surathkal CSE (general)
1,02,778
about 92.7
NIT Rourkela CSE (CIWG)
2,45,423
about 82.5
NIT Delhi CSE (CIWG)
4,81,635
about 65.6
NIT Jalandhar CSE (CIWG, Round 1)
These are illustrations based on an assumed pool, not official conversions. Once you have your actual rank from NTA, ignore the percentile column and go by the rank.

Where to Find the Opening and Closing Rank PDFs

Skip the screenshots on social media and go to the source. DASA seat allocation runs through the DASA and CSAB-Special portal, reachable at dasanit.org and csab.nic.in, and the round-wise opening and closing rank files are published there after each allotment round. When you download one:
  • Pick the cycle you’re applying in, then look at the earlier years too, so you can see the swings.
  • Open the CIWG list if you’re CIWG-eligible, and the general list to compare.
  • Filter by institute and programme, then note the closing rank of the last round, since that’s the most forgiving version of the number.

How to Use Cutoffs While Filling Choices

  • Start from your rank, not your dream college: Find the seats whose closing ranks sit above and below your AIR, across at least two or three past years.
  • Add a cushion: Because ranks swing year to year, treat a seat as realistic only if your rank is comfortably inside the closing rank, not right at the edge.
  • Build a spread: Include a few reach seats, several realistic ones, and a couple of safe ones. A list with only three famous institutes can leave you with nothing.
  • Weigh branch against institute: A strong institute with a less crowded branch can be a smarter bet than a mid-tier institute’s CSE seat, depending on your goals.
  • Don’t assume the safe line is the same everywhere: One published rule of thumb puts a conservative CIWG target for CSE, ECE or IT at around AIR 2,00,000, with mid-tier NITs accepting up to about 4,00,000. That roughly fits Rourkela, Calicut or Delhi, but it’s far too generous for Trichy or Surathkal CSE, as the tables show.

Mistakes That Skew Your Expectations

  • Comparing your percentile straight to a rank: They’re different scales. Convert first.
  • Reading JoSAA cutoffs as DASA cutoffs: Trichy CSE closed at 4,463 in JoSAA and around 17,000 in DASA in 2025. Different pools, different lists.
  • Trusting a single year: Surathkal’s CSE closing rank moved from 14,144 to 40,284 in one step. Always look at several cycles.
  • Assuming CIWG means a lower cutoff: In the 2025 pairs above, the CIWG seat closed earlier, not later.
  • Trusting pages that show tiny DASA ranks: Some third-party pages list DASA ranks in the double or low triple digits for seats the official files close in the tens of thousands. Check which rank type a page is using before you compare yourself to it.
  • Ignoring later rounds: Seats that look out of reach in Round 1 sometimes loosen in Round 2 or 3.

How Quest for Success Can Help

Most of the stress around DASA comes from not knowing which numbers to trust. We help Gulf and other NRI students read the actual round-wise files, work out where their JEE Main rank realistically lands, and build a choice list across institutes and branches that doesn’t depend on a single lucky year. If you’re still preparing for JEE Main, we can help you set a rank target that matches the seats you actually want.

Summary

DASA cutoffs are published as JEE Main AIR in opening and closing rank files after each round, separately for CIWG and general candidates, and 2025 ran across three rounds. At the top end, general DASA CSE closed around 16,500 to 17,500 at NIT Trichy and 33,736 at NIT Surathkal, while mid-tier NITs closed anywhere from about one lakh to over nine lakh. Surathkal’s CIWG CSE closing rank was 22,657 in 2025, following 16,568 in 2024 and 29,462 in 2023, and its general CSE rank swung from 14,144 to 40,284 within a single year, so single-year numbers deserve caution.
Across Surathkal, Rourkela and Delhi, CIWG seats closed at tighter ranks than general seats in 2025, which makes CIWG a fee benefit rather than a rank discount. Percentile isn’t what DASA uses, so convert your percentile into a rank using the year’s candidate pool, then compare that rank with closing ranks from the official DASA and CSAB PDFs, ideally across several years and the final round. Build a mixed list of reach, realistic and safe seats rather than betting on three famous institutes.
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FAQs

For general-category DASA, B.Tech CSE closed at 16,522 in Round 1 and had moved to roughly 17,478 by the final round. Confirm the exact CIWG figure in the official CIWG file.

In the 2025 CSE pairs I found (Surathkal, Rourkela and Delhi), the CIWG closing rank was lower, meaning tighter, than the general one. CIWG gives you a fee advantage, not an easier rank.
DASA seats are allotted on JEE Main AIR, not percentile. Convert your percentile to a rank using that year’s candidate pool, then compare it with the closing rank of your target seat.
From the DASA and CSAB-Special portal, at dasanit.org and csab.nic.in, where round-wise files are published after each allotment round.
No. They’re different counselling processes with different candidate pools. In 2025, Trichy CSE closed at 4,463 in JoSAA (general) and around 17,000 in DASA.
No. Ranks shift between rounds as candidates withdraw or float, and they can swing a lot between years, so look at several cycles and the final round before deciding.
Not sure where your JEE Main rank realistically fits for DASA? Reach out to Quest for Success; we’ll help you read the cutoff files and build a choice list you can rely on.
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