Cut-off dips, no. of applications increase as students keep options open

With the second merit list for first year degree college admissions under University of Mumbai (MU) declared online on Tuesday, the cut-offs have dipped by a slight margin with large number of applications for certain courses. Students are applying at multiple colleges this year to keep several options open as many have scored high marks in Class 12 exams across state and private boards.

In the second merit list, the cut offs for certain courses in major colleges fell by a 1-5 per cent mark from the first list. The cut-off for Bachelor of Arts (BA) Psychology dropped to 95.17 from the 96 per cent of the first list while, for biotechnology it fell from 86 to 83 in the general category in KC College, Churchgate, which is now under the Hyderabad (Sind) National Collegiate (HSNC) cluster university.

Hemlata Bagla, principal of KC College said, "There is a fall in the cut-off by a slight margin for certain programmes. We have increased the divisions for courses such as Media and Management Studies because there is large number of applications."

The difference in the cut-off in the second and first merit list is not much because there are many students who have scored high marks in the Class 12 board exams, said

Marie Fernandes, principal of St Andrew's College, Bandra. Fernandes said, "Our cut-off for Bachelor of Accounting and Finance (BAF) stood at 85.69 per cent while for Arts (BA), it stood at 84.60 per cent in the open category of the second list. The cut-offs are high even in the second list because many students have scored high marks."

Students are applying at multiple colleges this year to be on the safe side, said Anushree Lokur, incharge principal of Ramnarain Ruia College, Matunga. Lokur said, "The availability of vacant seats for the third merit list can be decided only after students confirm admissions. Students are applying at multiple colleges to be safe." The cut-off stood at 84% for Bachelor of Science (BSc) aided and 82 per cent for Computer Science (CS) in Ruia College.

Some colleges were not able to declare the second merit list on Tuesday due to limited staff, prolonged period for confirmation of admissions after the first list and other technical difficulties in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. Ashok Wadia, principal of Jai Hind College, Churchgate, said, "Students need additional time to submit documents and pay fees online after the first merit list. Various processes are delayed due to the pandemic situation but we will declare the second merit list online soon."