FYJC third merit list: Cut-offs for Arts rise in Mumbai colleges

Most popular colleges in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) saw a 1-2% rise in cut-offs for arts in the third merit list for first-year junior college (FYJC) admissions released on Thursday afternoon. Of the 73,414 students who had applied in the third round, 50,636 were allotted a seat. They can take admissions by August 5.

At St Xavier’s college, Dhobi Talao, which had only 1 seat left in the stream after two admission rounds, the cut-off went up to 94% in the third list, from 93.4% in the second list. Mithibai, Ruparel and VG Vaze college also saw an increase in the cut-offs for the stream.

Vidyadhar Joshi, vice-principal, VG Vaze college, Mulund, said the trend can possibly be attributed to the fact that students can change their college options after every round.

“The increase in cut-offs for arts might be a result of high scorers changing their college preferences after the second round. There might be students who would have changed their stream preferences after the second round. For instance, if a science or commerce aspirant with a high score decides to take arts, it can push up the cut-offs.”

The commerce cut-off at the college also increased by 1.4%, from the second list. “This is a sign that arts and commerce are being preferred by more high scorers over science,” he added.

Rajpal Hande, principal, Mithibai college, said, “While it is difficult to state the reasons for this trend, one can definitely say that students are becoming more aware about career options in the arts stream. In our college, subjects such as psychology and political science are seeing a huge demand, as students who want to prepare for competitive exams start preparing from junior college itself.”

Cut-offs for the commerce stream saw only a marginal dip in colleges like NM, HR and KC. At RA Podar college in Matunga, there was no merit list, as all seats were filled in the first two admission rounds.

For the science stream, a dip of up to 2% was recorded in prominent colleges.