One lakh seats vacant as students wait for top choices after 2 CAP rounds

State Common Entrance Test (CET) announced schedule for third round of engineering admissions on Saturday

Pune: The second round of engineering admissions for the academic year has seen low response, with only 29,910 students confirming their admission for 162,205 allotted seats. So far, across both rounds, 64,841 students have secured admissions.

State Common Entrance Test (CET) announced schedule for third round of engineering admissions on Saturday. ((PIC FOR REPRESENTATION))

The state’s Common Entrance Test (CET) cell announced the schedule for the third centralised admission process (CAP) round of engineering admissions on Saturday.

Following the conclusion of the first round where 34,931 students took admission, the state CET released the second allotment list on August 11. Of the 189,277 candidates who filled in their preferences in the second round, 162,205 were allotted seats. Yet, over 1 lakh students are waiting for a better opportunity in the upcoming rounds.

While 14,016 students received auto-freeze allotments, taking away the facility to participate in further rounds after selecting one of their top choices, others opted to not take admission in the round for better options in the next.

Candidates can fill or revise their preference forms between August 16 and 18 for the third round. The third allotment list will be released on August 21, followed by the admission period from August 22 to 25 for candidates allotted seats in this round. The process for the fourth round of admissions will begin on August 26.

In the third CAP round, if a student is allotted a college from their top six preferences, the allotment will auto-freeze. If a seat is allotted beyond the top six preferences, students may either self-freeze and exit the process, or choose “not freeze/betterment” to remain eligible for future rounds by paying fees. Over a lakh students still await admission with two more rounds to go.

“I did not confirm the admission in the first two rounds as I hoped for a college with better faculty and placement records. With more rounds to follow, I did not want to compromise,” said Saurabh Mohitkar, an engineering aspirant.