Students think long term

Manish Goregaokar has applied for both the general and vocational streams for science in his online application to junior colleges. He hasn’t yet made it to his first preference college, KC College at Churchgate, for the bifocal course, but is hopeful about clearing the second list.

Manish Goregaokar has applied for both the general and vocational streams for science in his online application to junior colleges.

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He hasn’t yet made it to his first preference college, KC College at Churchgate, for the bifocal course, but is hopeful about clearing the second list.

“While I have applied for general, I would prefer the bifocal option,” said Goregaokar.

“Most students do so if they are preparing for the IIT-JEE as vocational options such as computer science and electronics give you a preview of what you may study in an engineering college.”

This year 31,131 students in total applied online for the 7,859 seats available for the vocational streams in science and commerce. These courses are the most popular, with the number of applicants being four-fold of the number of seats.

Students applying online have to give at least one general course option but can also choose a vocational option in addition, if they wish.

Students who choose the vocational streams opt to do a subject worth 200 marks such as electronics, computer science, electrical maintenance, motorcycle repair instead of studying two separate 100-mark subjects, which include a language.

The 61 students who were rejected in the first round of admissions on the basis of incorrect certificates will be eligible for the next round if they make the necessary corrections.

“For example if a student’s caste certificate was found to be incorrect then in the next round the student will be able compete as a general candidate,” said an education department official.