Bifocals Science and Commerce Merit List for Junior Colleges
The bifocals science and commerce merit list for junior colleges,
which was announced on Tuesday 12th july 2011, was a mixed bag of both surprises
as well as upsets. While the cut-off in one college crossed 98%, most
city colleges saw a marginal increase by a percentage or when compared to 2010. This,
despite the fact that the number of students who applied for the competitive course
dropped by half this year. In another surprise, one that has students and principals
puzzled, the entry-level marks for a few sought-after city colleges like SIES and
KC were lower that their cutoffs in 2010.
Ramnarain Ruia College in Matunga had one of the highest cut-offs in Electronics
with 98.18% the highest in many years. At the same time, R D National College in
Bandra which is also popular with students had a cutoff of 91.45% in Computer Science.
The range and disparity in the cut-offs this year are huge, say students and principals.
Even in the commerce bifocal stream, there was a big difference in the merit lists:
Podar College in Matunga closed at 96% for Marketing and Salesmanship while the
Office Management course at KC in Churchgate was only 88.72%. Last year, the cut-off
at KC for the same course was 92.5%.
Its not just students who are unhappy with the cutoffs. Even principals whose colleges
got lower cut-offs than last year expressed their disappointment.
In an irony of sorts, the cut-offs were more competitive for students who applied
under the minority quota. The open merit lists are always higher than the minority
list cut-offs, This year, however, the trend has changed in our college, at least,
said Harsha Mehta, Principal of SIES College of Science in Sion, where the cut-off
in computer science went down from 94.18% in 2010 to 92.36% this year.
Vijay Joshi, Principal of K J Somaiya College at Vidyavihar, said: We had expected
the cut-offs to be much higher this year, but the increase is marginal. It is surprising
that some colleges have seen a dip in the percentages this year, which has not been
the case in the last few years.
Anxiety levels were high even among top scorers. While students like Ashish Bana
who scored 96% in the ICSE board exam heaved huge sighs of relief when they saw
their name on the merit list, others like Hardik Harsoria who had scored 92% failed
to make the cut. College principals believe that the reason behind this sudden change
in trend is the anxiety that has hit parents and students this year. Even the so-called
high scorers are worried about getting a seat in a college and course of their choice,
said Sangeeta Srivastava, principal of T P Bhatia College in Kandivli where the
cut-off for Computer Science was 92.27% this year. For instance, until last year,
hardly any students took Mechanical Maintenance as a bifocal subject but this year,
our cut-off for the same subject is 90%.
Of the total 11,528 seats available under the bifocal category for online admissions,
11,022 seats were allotted in the first list. The second bifocal merit list will
be announced on July 18, and principals predict there won’t be a huge drop in percentages.
This year, the numbers of applicants in the bifocals streams have gone down drastically
with only 18,000 students applying for the course as opposed to 31,000 in the last
year.
Many students did not get SMS alerts from the Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation
Limited. We did not get any message by 5 pm, but when I logged on to the website,
I found out that was allotted a seat, said a student.
Numbers Game
- Total number of bifocal seats in the online process: 11,528.
- Seats allotted in the first merit list: 11,022.
- Seats vacant after the first merit list: 506.
- Number of applications for bifocals: A little over 18,000.
Courtesy: Times of India
