In an indication that cut-offs for junior college seats could go up this year, St Xavier’s College, Fort, closed its first merit list in the arts stream for minority students on Monday at 85.17%, nearly 2% higher than last year. Usually, seats reserved by colleges for minority groups do not have very high cut-offs.
The admissions for minority and in-house seats began in colleges on Monday. Around 1.72 lakh students from the Mumbai region, including Thane, have applied for admission to the first-year of junior college (FYJC) so far.
Having a Christian religious minority status, the institute has 50% quota for students of that community. Xavier Ozwald Menezes had the highest score of 95.83% among the applicants, showed the first list uploaded on its website. Admissions to science closed at 83% — Jennifer Justin has the highest score of 94.6%.
Although the other institutes have not yet released their lists, principals said Xavier’s is the trendsetter. They attributed higher cut-offs to more number of students scoring in 90s across boards this year.
“Hundreds of students across ICSE, CBSE and SSC boards joined the 90s club this time,” said Marie Fernandes, principal of St Andrew’s College, Bandra. “This will push the cut-offs in every stream. For the last two years, even high-scorers are opting for arts and not restricting to science.”
SIES College, Sion, and St Andrew’s College, Bandra, will announce their minority merit lists on June 14. “Monday was the last day to apply and our first list will be declared on Tuesday,” said Harsha Mehta, principal, SIES.
The deputy directorate of education, Mumbai region, the regulatory body for admissions, has scheduled June 21 as the last day for admissions. Colleges have to complete admissions and surrender the remaining seats so that they can be added to the general category. So, colleges are announcing their lists on different days, unlike last year. Some such as Khalsa College, Matunga, Mithibai College, NM College and AVP (Gokalibai) Junior College at Vile Parle will put up lists from June 16 onwards.
KPB Hinduja College, Charni Road, will declare the cut-offs on June 21. “We want to keep our admissions open for as long as possible to get maximum applications,” said TA Shivare, director of the college.
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