Even as the first round of admissions for general courses came to an end on Friday, several top-rung colleges have around 30-50% seats vacant.

COMMERCIAL BREAK
SCROLL TO CONTINUE READING

For instance, Sathaye College has around 110 science seats vacant in science. “We have 40% science, 50% arts and 25% commerce seats vacant,” said principal Kavita Rege. “This is unexpected. I urge students to secure their seats fast.”

In Ruparel College, more than 50% science seats were vacant. Mithibai College had 30-40% seats vacant in all streams. Among commerce colleges, Podar and Hinduja colleges had 35% vacant seats.

Officials said it was difficult to give an exact number of those who had taken admission. He said, “There are some students who cancelled the bifocal admission and opted for the general course. The number of such students is unclear.” Cancelled bifocal seats would be surrendered to general courses.

Principals said this trend meant that students were ill-informed about admissions. “Due to high cut-offs, students have not got colleges of their choice, and perhaps they are waiting for better allotments,” said Suhas Pednekar, principal, Ramnarain Ruia College. “Also, many students have already taken admission in bifocal stream and so they might not have opted for general science.”

On the positive side, Kirti Narain of Jai Hind College said a huge number of vacant seats might augur well for the second merit list, as the cut-off would drop by 2-3%.

Students said they were waiting for betterment. “I did not get into science bifocals, but I got into Vivek Vidyalaya, Malad, in the first list. I am waiting for betterment,” said Revathi Joshi, a student of IES Modern English School, who scored 90%.

Some did not take admission as they were allocated wrong colleges. “I was given a college which was not even in my preferences,” said Amina Sheikh, who scored 92%, from Mother Teresa School, Malad.