Dear Karan,
I would not suggest you to drop and waste one of your year as the competition these days is increasing a lot and since their is no guarantee that one would make it next year . Since you have got a rank of 18,737 then you should go for some college in AIEEE. 18,737 is a good rank in AIEEE. If you have filled up the choices and cover from all best college with their branches, then I would suggest you to wait and watch for 2nd and 3rd councelling. You may get a god NIT like trichi, surathkal , warrangal etc with branches like chemical, civil, mettalurgy etc.
You also have another option of joining the NIT or any other college you are getting, and then prepare for IIT. But certainly NITs will be a better choice. Since you will be having all the required material for preparation, as you have said that you have prepared for the two years, you could go on practicing these the whole year with the preparation at your college. Also, college syllabus is almost a resembalance to JEE syllabus with the topics cover in a bit depth. Thus that too will help you a lot. So going for a college and preparing for JEE is also a good option as it will save one of your precious academic year.
The last option is to drop. But for that you need to be a lot prepared of frustration you will face while studying the same syllabus again. You will have a lot of depressing moments facing your friends who are in college and you need to courageously face all this. If you are prepared for this then go for a drop.
If you drop, then certainly go for the 2nd and the 3rd councelling of AIEEE as you might get a good college of AIEEE.
I should made one thing clear to you that NITs share almost same respect as IITs and some of the NITs like Trichi, Warrangal, Surathkal, Kurushetra etc have almost same standard of teaching. Best of luck for your future.
