The first general merit list for first year junior college (FYJC) admissions was released on Wednesday and despite the high scores awarded to class 10 students across boards this year, the cut-offs in most popular colleges dipped by 1-3% points this year.
The cut-off at Narsee Monjee College in Vile Parle, a popular destination for commerce aspirants ended at 93.6%, 0.4% lower than last year. Similarly, the cut-off at R A Podar College in Matunga, also popular for commerce aspirants, stood at 92.4%—0.4% point below last year. St Xavier’s College for years has attracted the top scorers for Arts, this year their first merit list cut-off ended at94.2%, one percent point lower than last year. The cut-off for the science course at Ramnarain Ruia College ended at 91% this year—1.6% point lower than last year.
“The top scoring student applying in my college this year is higher compared to last year, but surprisingly, the cut-off has dipped marginally. Last year students had scored very high marks due to no board exams, which resulted in high cut-off. This year the cut-offs are reflecting the results across school boards,” said Krutika Desai, principal of Mithibai College, Vile Parle.
Last year, due to rising Covid-19 cases, board exams had to be cancelled and students were promoted based on their performance in the previous two academic years. This year board exams were held in physical mode across school education boards after a break of one year. Of the total 2.47 lakh students who completed the form filling process this year, the office of the deputy director of education (DyDE) has allotted seats to 1.39 lakh students in the first round. Every year, FYJC aspirants are allowed to give names of ten colleges of their preference at the time of submitting their admission forms. As per information shared by DyDE, 61,735 of the 1.39 lakh students allotted seats in the first round have been allotted a seat in their first preference, followed by 21,690 and 14,476 students being placed in the college of second and third preference, respectively.
“Many high scorers end up cancelling admissions after the first round and confirming seats in other colleges, which leads to higher cut-offs in the second merit list compared to the first merit list. Last year, the second merit list had ended at a higher score compared to the first, and I’m expecting a similar trend to happen this year as well,” said Hemlata Bagla, principal of KC College, Churchgate.
Once again, the commerce stream has got maximum allotments in the first common admission round this year with 75,357 students, followed by the science stream with 48,456 allotments and 14,831 allotments in the arts stream. Over 1.27 lakh students from Maharashtra state board got placed in the first merit list, followed by 6,980 ICSE and 4,222 CBSE board students.
First merit list cut-offs— *all scores in % *(in bracket, cut-off of previous year -2021-22)
| Name of college | Arts | Commerce | Science |
| St Xavier’s | 94.2 (95.2) | 89.8 (NA) | 89.6 (92.8) |
| KC | 85.6 (88.2) | 90.8 (91.4) | 88.2 (90) |
| HR | NA | 93 (93.4) | NA |
| Mithibai | 87.6 (89.6) | 90.8 (91.6) | 89 (90) |
| NM | NA | 93.6 (94) | NA |
| R A Podar | NA | 92.4 (92.8) | NA |
| Jai Hind | 90.2 (91.6) | 91 (92) | 87.4 (89) |
| D G Ruparel | 85.4 (88) | 88.8 (90.4) | 90.2 (91.6) |
| Ruia | 91.4 (93) | NA | 92.4 (93.4) |
| Vaze-Kelkar | 85.8 (89) | 91.2 (91.8) | 91.8 (93.6) |
Stream-wise allotment in round 1
Arts—14,831
Science—48,456
Commerce—75,357
Board-wise allotment in round 1
- SSC—1,27,045
- CBSE—4,222
- ICSE—6,980
- IB—2
- IGCSE—594
- NIOS—104
- Other boards—704
