80% score too isn’t good enough

Sanjay Doshi was ecstatic when his son, Nandit, 18, scored 88.06% in his Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) exam. However, Doshi’s happiness was short-lived as Nandit didn’t make it even to the second merit list of HR College, Churchgate, for the Bachelor of Accounting and Finance (BAF) course on Thursday.

The college put up its second admission merit list on the notice board on Thursday afternoon. The cut-off for the BAF course dropped from 93.4% in the first list to 93.17% in the second list. “After looking at the number of students who have scored more than 90% this year, it is highly unlikely that my son will even make it to the third merit list,” said Doshi. Finally, Nandit made it to Jai Hind College, where the BAF admission closed at 88% in the second list. “I hope his name appears on the third list.”

The cut-offs for most colleges in the first list were above 90% for the self-financing courses. Many students who have scored in the late eighties haven’t managed to secure a spot in premier colleges across the city.

At the Jai Hind college campus, Richa Gupte, 17, was also disappointed. After scoring 80% in her Class 12 exam in the arts stream, Gupte did not find her name on the second merit list for the Bachelor of Management Studies (BMS) course at Jai Hind College. “I have no hopes of making it to the BMS course at any of the top-notch city colleges,” said Gupte, who also failed to crack the BMS entrance exam at St Xavier’s College. “I will probably have to stick to my in-house BA seat at Ramnarain Ruia College in Matunga,” she added.

Annlin Martins, 18, who cleared her Class 12 from KC College with 62 %, did not make it to the minority list for the Bachelor of Mass Media course at St Xavier’s College.

“I was confident that I would easily make it to the second merit list,” said Martins, who is hopeful of securing a seat through the management quota at her own college.