‘Second merit list cut-off for bifocal won’t see big dip’

There’s bad news in store for the thousands of students, who are eagerly awaiting the second merit list of the bifocal category. With less number of seats up for grabs in top colleges and large number of applications, college principals feel there won’t be a big dip in the second merit list cut-off that will be out today.

“Since we have only few seats left, there will not be much of a difference in the cut-off between the first and second list. It might come down by only a few decimal points,” said Suhas Pednekar, principal, Ramnarain Ruia College.

Even though around 2,713 seats are vacant after junior college applicants, whose names appeared in the first list, finished submitting their forms and paying their fees in the assigned institutions, the top-rung colleges do not have more than 20 seats left. “Bifocals are the most sought after option in our college.

We receive a flood of applicants, each one better than the other. Though the first list closed at 94%, we do not expect much drop in the second list,” said Kirti Narain, principal, Jai Hind College.
With the best-five marks and the added advantage of the sports quota increasing the students’ percentages, the cut-off for bifocal courses has risen by almost 3% compared to last year.

Even those students, who have scored above 90%, have failed to get admission in the college of their choice and hence many are waiting for the betterment option. “I scored 91.1%, but only got admission in Valia College in Andheri. I wanted to keep my options open and so am waiting for a betterment option to Bhavan’s College in Andheri. I am keeping my fingers crossed,” said Narendran Bhaskar, a student from Hansraj School in Andheri.

Revathi Joshi, a student from IES Modern English School in Dadar, has all her hopes pinned on the second list. "I scored a 90% and wanted electronics, but my name did not appear for any of the bifocals list. The second merit list has kept me going till now," said Joshi.