Just few FYJC seats left in top colleges, cut-offs unlikely to drop in 2nd round

MUMBAI: About 1.19 lakh first year junior college seats will be on offer in the second round of admissions, but only a handful in the most sought-after institutions. So, principals are expecting cut-offs to either remain same or dip only marginally when the second merit list is announced on July 20.
After the first round of admissions, the list of vacancies was announced at 11 pm Friday. Students can use the details to choose the colleges of preference for the second round.
At most top colleges, only a few seats are available. “We have only 13 seats left and our first list closed at 91.83%. There are usually many students with the same marks,so we aren’t expecting the cut-offs to drop lower than 91.75%,” said Parag Ajagaonkar, principal, NM College. About 75,000 students out of the 1.56 lakh who were allotted seats did not report for admission. Of these, most are waiting for a better chance in the second merit list.
Similarly, at VG Vaze College, Mulund, authorities are not expecting a change in cut-offs. “Almost 93% of our commerce stream seats are taken. We already have enquiries from students who have scored more than our first list cut-offs and want to put our college as the first preference in the next round. If that happens, our cut-offs may not see a dip,” said vice principal Vidyadhar Joshi.
On Saturday, in yet another delay, the admission portal opened for students to make changes in their admission forms at 3pm instead of the 10 am as planned. The list of vacancies too disappeared from the portal for a few hours. “We wanted to change the preference of colleges but were just not able to log in. Then we went to a guidance centre from where we were sent to Charni Road. We could finally edit the forms at 3.30 pm,” said Sameena Shaikh, a parent. Several other parents and students too lined up at the deputy director’s office with similar queries. Some students also surprised to find the application forms details for Pune city when they logged in. Officials said students lost time in form filling due to the delay. “The online changes can be made till Tuesday (July 18) so students have two days at hand,” said an official.