Pune students gear up for fierce competition as college cut-offs likely to rise

With last year’s cut-offs in top colleges of Pune touching 90 per cent in the first merit list, students fear a fierce competition this year.

The Higher School Certificate (HSC) results for Class 12 on Wednesday came with percentages mounting as high as 97.54%. With last year’s cut-offs in top colleges of Pune touching 90 per cent in the first merit list, students fear a fierce competition this year.

Students at the admission counter at SP College in Pune on Thursday.(Rahul Raut/HT)

Sakshi Joshi, a 18-year-old student of Fergusson Junior College, who scored 94.15 per cent in Arts this year in the HSC exams, is vying to make the cut in her college, which is known to have one of the highest cut-offs in the city. 

“Although, we all look for other options, in my case, I really want to stay in Fergusson College and do a BA in Psychology. But considering the increasing competition, as many students apply from outside Maharashtra as well, I really hope that I make the cut,” said Joshi.

In 2017, Fergusson College had a cut-off for first year Bachelors in Arts (BA) at 94 per cent, while the overall BSc cut-offs reached over 82 per cent. 

“Cut-offs mainly depend on the number of applications, and the overall results across boards. For the past two to three years, the cut-offs at our college has been high considering the number of applications and the competition. So, this year as well, we hope the bar to either stay the same or rise,” said Ravindrasinh G Pardeshi, principal, Fergusson College.

This year, a total of 790 students got above 90 per cent marks in the HSC examinations in Pune district alone, while the in total, 5,486 students across the state scored over 90 per cent.

Another sought after college for commerce students, the Brihan Maharashtra College of Commerce (BMCC), had a cut-off of 88.62 per cent (open category) last year for the first year Bachelor of Commerce (BCom) undergraduate course. For the other backward class (OBC) category, the percentage was at 83.08, while for SC students the cut-off was at 72.77 per cent.

Speaking about the upcoming admission season, CN Rawal, principal of the college, said, “Our admission process has already begun with over 2,000 applications already registered. In addition to BCom courses, many of the students compete to get a seat for our specialised BBA courses like bachelor of Business Administration in International Business (BBAIB) and Bachelor of Business Administration in Computer Application (BBACA). And, so we have an entrance test for the same. Last year, in addition to the ranking and marks in the entrance test and the Class 12 percentage, the overall cut-off touched a minimum of 85 per cent.”

Symbiosis College of Arts and Commerce, however , managed to keep the cut-offs above 80 per cent. They had a cut-off percentage of 81 per cent for the BA courses and 83 per cent for BCom courses. 

According to Madhuri Kulkarni, principal of MAEER’s Arts, Commerce and Science College, Kothrud, the 2017 cut-off for BCom stood at 72 per cent and BSc at 61% in the last list.