FYJC admissions: Cut-offs soar at Mumbai’s top colleges in third merit list

The third merit list for first year junior college (FYJC) seats announced on Tuesday saw an increase in cut-offs at reputable colleges in Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). The cut-offs soared after students were allowed to fill their college preferences afresh for the third list. 

The office of deputy director of education declared the merit list at 11am. The declaration had been deferred earlier owing to a court order on minority admissions. Most colleges saw an increase in cut-offs for all the streams with an average increase of 0.2% to 5%.

At Vaze Kelkar College in Mulund, cut-off for science increased by 5%. “We only had two seats for science and got students with high percentage applying for them. This resulted in increased cut-offs. Even for arts, where we had 44 seats, cut-off went up. Many students who were hoping to bag seats at reputable minority colleges might have decided to settle for other good colleges, as seats at minority institutes are yet to open,” said Vidyadhar Joshi, principal, VG Vaze Kelkar College, Mulund. 

 Nagpur bench of the Bombay high court had, in its interim order on July 12, asked the state to allow minority colleges to fill their minority, in-house and management quota seats till the end of the Common Admission Process (CAP) rounds.

After the order, vacant seats under the various quotas that were earlier surrendered and converted into general seats in the next round of admissions were given back to the colleges, thus changing the entire seat matrix. After a few parents and a Mumbai-based educational institute filed a plea, the bench later allowed minority colleges to surrender in-house quota seats — for students from schools attached to the colleges — which added 7,000 seats to the general category. More than 58,000 seats from the minority quota are yet to become part of CAP. 

Mithibai College, Vile Parle, which had no seats for the second merit list for the general category, released a third list after some seats were released from the in-house quota after the court order.

The education department is yet to announce the number of seats remaining in the minority quota would be filled in the end. “Due to uncertainty, most students are settling for whatever colleges they are being allotted” said the principal of a south Mumbai college. 

Students can secure admission in the third round by July 2.