KOLKATA: Cut-off marks for undergraduate admissions merit lists would rise by 1.5% this year, given that hundreds of students had scored 95% and beyond in their Plus-II, principals said.
At some colleges, merit list cut-offs for certain subjects have already gone up to 98%-99%. These institutes said they were flooded with applications with 100% marks in the subjects and beyond 99% in the aggregate. So, principals said, students might have to face rejection by a whisker despite high scores.
In English, economics and commerce, the number of applications at some colleges have gone up to 7,000, making principals and admission committees sit up. They fear that a large number of candidates would either have to settle for not-preferred subjects or wait for subsequent lists. Though the hope for wait list might be slim in English, economics, commerce, physics, maths, statistics and sociology, colleges said, adding the absence of admission tests had made it worse.
“ I can see a clear growth of at least 1.5% in cut-offs owing to the high scores. For English and economics, where we just have 60 seats each, we have had more than 3,000 applicants. We have 600 seats in our sought-after commerce stream, for which 7,000 applications have come in,” said Fr Dominic Savio, principal at St Xavier’s College.
At St Xavier’s University in New Town, more than 3,000 applications have come in for commerce, which has 500 seats. “There is a huge demand for English and economics, too. Students with very high marks are pushing up the cut-off by 1.5%,” said vice-chancellor Fr Felix Raj.
At Jadavpur University, the eligibility cut-off for English is kept at 90% and 3,000 students have already applied. “The eligibility cut-off is also very high for economics. Comparative literature is the only subject that has been allowed to have a group discussion. There are arrangements for tie-breakers,” said Madhumita Chattopadhyay, dean of arts at JU.
Many colleges are waiting for all applications to come in before deciding on the merit list cut-off. “Going by the deluge of applications and the high number of students who have scored above 90%, the merit list cut-off might increase,” Asok Mukhopadhyay, principal at Seth Anandaram Jaipuria College. “The number of applications have gone up several times this year,” said Swami Ekachittananda, principal at Ramakrishna Mission Vidyamandira.
Presidency University authorities pointed out the absence of screening would impact the cut-off. “We could not conduct tests or online interviews to filter out candidates. Students have got so much marks, the cut-off is bound to be impacted. A decision will be taken after the portal is shut,” said an official.
Asutosh College has introduced the system of online reporting before admissions. “We hope to check the students’ credentials and weed out some non-serious candidates,” said an admission committee member.
