Engineering admission insights

Guidelines about the basic process, seats available, online admissions and the different rounds by Professor Avinash Chatorikar of Vidyalankar.

When an engineering aspirant stands on the threshold of the admission process, several questions come to mind. From which subjects should be chosen to the preferable colleges, ideal specializations given the current scenario, the entrance procedures, different admission rounds... there are numerous queries to which one has no answers. This is the stage where a student needs proper guidance. Let us look at some of the key aspects of the engineering admission process and understand it from a student perspective.

The significance of 'Engineering CAP'
Excluding autonomous institutes, the Centralised Admissions Process for admission to engineering colleges is referred to as 'CAP'. There is a separate procedure for admission to autonomous/ university colleges (VJTI, COEP, VIT, SGGS, ICT) with a different admission form and process. If admission is secured in an autonomous institution, the student cannot apply for CAP.

Total seats included in CAP
So far there are about 1,15,000 seats available this year. This includes 21,000 and 32,000 seats for Mumbai and Pune University respectively.

The seats reserved for students who have cleared MHT CET in Maharashtra are known as Maharashtra State Seats. These consist of 100% seats of SNDT (only for girls), 85% of BATU, 65% of private non-minority and 25% of private minority institutions. For students who have cleared AIEEE exam, 15% of seats of private non minority institutions and about 7.5% seats for minority institutions are available. These are known as All India Seats.

Online admission form
The students who are eligible either for Maharashtra State Seats/ All India Seats or also eligible for both types of seats are required to fill only one online form on the www.dte.org.in/fe2011 website within the prescribed time limit. Those who are eligible for All India seats will have to pay additional fees by DD. After filling this form it is to be confirmed at Application Receipt Centre (ARC) by producing certificates and other necessary documents. After rounds the merit list is prepared. The subsequent entrance process depends on this merit list. This process can start immediately after MHT CET results and ends in early July.

Number and types of rounds
There are 4 rounds in all. Online Option Form is to be filled for the first three rounds because they are of 'Allotment' type, while the fourth one is 'Counselling' type. These start approximately from the second week of July and continue till the end of August.
CAP round one requires only one online option form to be filled through which students can apply for admission to any participating college of engineering in Maharashtra. It is necessary to consider the status and category of college while selecting the college.

While choosing the preference order i.e. which college should be given first preference and which one the second and what should be order for the others, etc., students have to be very sure about it. While going through preferences given by students in past years, students in Maharashtra have generally given top preference to Computer/ Telecom/ Mechanical Engineering.

For round 1 of CAP, students can give a maximum of twenty options. For round 2 and 3, up to 30 and 40 options can be submitted respectively. These rounds are identical to round one i. e. Allotment Type. The round 4, which comes afterwards is of counselling type. Students should remember that round 2, 3, 4 are essentially vacancy rounds. Therefore, as one goes from round 1 to round 4, the vacancies keep on reducing.

Fees charged
There is a fee fixation committee, through which the college fees are fixed. These may vary from Rs. 50,000 to Rs. 1,00,000. This amount is based on the expenses incurred by the college in previous year.

Allotment of institute level seats
In private unaided colleges, the management can fill maximum 20% seats under institute level quota. Students will have to apply separately to each college.

It is quite natural for students to get confused because of all these complicated systems. Therefore they need help and guidance, which is available through the seminars conducted by Vidyalankar from May 17 up to June end, 2011.

Please note that the above information is based on the admission process in 2010. If there are any changes for 2011, students may take a note about it once 2011 rules & regulations are announced by DTE.