Less than 24 hours after the option entry site was thrown open to the Common Entrance Test (CET) rank holders by the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) on Tuesday night, as many as 33,386 students of the 71,777 candidates logged in by 7 p.m. on Wednesday. According to a KEA press release, these students had entered as many as 15.15 lakh options.
Streamlined
The announcement of the CET schedule and seat matrix on Tuesday evening, though delayed, appeared to have streamlined the plans of several students, mostly medical seat aspirants, as the admission process of several deemed universities have already been completed.
The counselling for medical and dental seats by the Consortium of Medical, Engineering and Dental Colleges of Karnataka (COMEDK) too was completed by late Wednesday evening. Many students have made it a point to ensure that they take at least a provisional seat under the COMEDK, while entering as many options as possible in the CET.
Students like Shruthi Prasad (name changed), whose CET rank is within 1,500 and is almost assured of getting a seat under the CET, was aiming for a seat in St. John’s Medical College. Though shortlisted for the interview procedure there (scheduled from July 11), she attended the COMEDK counselling and even took a provisional seat there. But as soon as the CET schedule was announced, she decided to give up on the St. John’s seat and concentrate on securing a seat under CET.
“The fee is almost six times less than the fee that I will pay if I take the COMEDK seat,” she reasoned, explaining her choice.
Though the “missing medical seats” which are yet to be added to the final seat matrix of the CET gave some jitters to the students, the fact that the first round of seat allotment under CET will happen on July 10, a day before the seat surrender schedule commences for COMEDK, seems to have given them some relief.
Toppers safe
Meanwhile, the toppers were affected the least by the delay in announcement of CET schedule. Raju G.T., father of Sheetal S.N., who was ranked fifth in the medical category in CET, said she did not even attend the COMEDK counselling.
“It was not even in our plan to go for the COMEDK counselling, as we knew that she will get a seat under the CET. It would have been better if the CET counselling was held first, but we did not have to worry much,” he said.
