Principals anticipate lower cutoffs in Maharashtra engineering colleges

The average cutoff ranged between 85 percentile and 88 percentile last year, while this year, it is likely to hover between 80 and 83 percentiles

Mumbai: Principals of engineering colleges in the city anticipate that cutoff marks of admissions this year will be lower than the previous year as over 70,000 students who opted for Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics (PCM) in the Maharashtra Technical Common Entrance Test (MHT CET) scored between 70 to 90 percentiles.

The State Common Entrance Test (CET) cell announced the results of MHT-CET on Sunday evening, Representational Image. (HT PHOTO)

The average cutoff in most engineering colleges ranged between 85 percentile and 88 percentile last year, while this year, it is likely to hover between 80 and 83 percentiles.

The State Common Entrance Test (CET) cell announced the results of MHT-CET on Sunday evening, following the release of detailed data the previous day which showed that 38,848 students with PCM scored between 90 and 100 percentile. Experts said around 15,000 of these students are likely to opt for the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) and other national institutes owing to high scores in the national-level Joint Entrance Examinations (JEE). As a result, most top colleges in the state are likely to see competition among students in the 70-90 percentile bracket.

Hari Vasudevan, principal of DJ Sanghvi College of Engineering in Vile Parle, highlighted the anticipated decline in cutoffs for engineering colleges this year, saying. “After the first two rounds, we expect a decline in cutoffs. Many students in the 70 to 90 percentile range will opt for allied courses such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data science.”

Despite this shift, Vasudevan noted a continued interest in core engineering branches like mechanics, electronics, and telecommunications. “Last year, all 180 seats in our electronics and telecommunications streams were filled. We expect the same this year,” he said.

Suresh Ukarande, dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Technology at Somaiya Vidyavihar University, said, “This year, we are expecting more admissions across all engineering colleges compared to the last five years. After most preferred streams like computer science and artificial intelligence, we anticipate higher admissions in mechanical and electronics and telecommunications streams.”

Ukarande said more students were likely to opt for electronics and telecommunications this year owing to the central government’s announcement of an investment of ₹76,000 crore in the semiconductor industry over the next five years.