Delay in competitive exams may increase demand for BA, BCom, BSc

With uncertainty regarding the scheduling of entrance exams for professional courses due to the Covid-19 outbreak, several aspirants for these courses are now likely

With uncertainty regarding the scheduling of entrance exams for professional courses due to the Covid-19 outbreak, several aspirants for these courses are now likely to seek admissions to vanilla courses like Bachelor of Arts (BA), Bachelor of Commerce ( BCom) and Bachelor of Science (BSc), say experts.

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Entrance exams like the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) and the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) have been pushed to September due to the pandemic. Traditionally, students who appear for these exams get their scores around the same time as the Class 12 results.

“Since colleges are starting their admissions process this week, many students will want to secure a seat for BSc as a back-up,” said Subhash Joshi, trustee, Science Parivar, a chain of coaching institutes in the city. Joshi said that this might also increase the overall cut-offs for these courses, as many top scorers who wish to take up professional courses will first apply to city colleges.

Kiran Mangaonkar, principal, GN Khalsa College, Matunga, said that the number of students opting for the BSc course has been on the rise for the past three-four years. “Many students are seeing better job opportunities after BSc compared to engineering, and have therefore been opting for vanilla courses over professional ones. In the current situation, more students, including engineering and medical aspirants, might end up securing a seat in BSc or BSc-IT courses in university-affiliated colleges until they bag a seat in the professional course and institute of their choice. “There is also a chance that these students may cancel their admissions once they are allotted a seat in the professional courses,” Mangaonkar added.

Sanjana Ramnath, an 18-year-old student, cleared her HSC exams in the Arts stream from Jai Hind College with 94.3% and was among the top three scorers in the stream this year. While her original plan was to appear for the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) and secure a seat in one of the top law colleges, she now plans to postpone this dream by a year. “The current situation seems very uncertain, and the constant delays in conducting entrance exams and eventual admissions will affect academics as well. I want to avoid that,” said Ramnath, who now plans to apply for a seat in the Bachelor of Arts (BA) course at a good college, and apply for CLAT in 2021 instead.