The large number of centums in a subject has bunched students at certain scores and is affecting their admission to coveted courses.
In engineering, if there are more applications like last year then the cut-off may not change drastically. But fewer applicants could push up cut-off for some of the top colleges, says consultant Jayaprakash Gandhi.
Until Sunday, over 71,000 candidates had registered online for the Tamil Nadu Engineering Admission 2017, Anna University’s single window counselling programme for engineering courses.
NEET adds to uncertainty
There is yet no clarity on whether and how National Eligibility-cum- Entrance Test (NEET) marks would be used for medical admission. Much depends on the combination of NEET and Plus Two marks which could also raise the cut off for agriculture and veterinary science courses, says Erode-based consultant Moorthy Selvakumaran.
For students of science stream too, centums could have an adverse affect, especially those who had not taken the NEET for medical admission. This year, 187 have scored centum in Physics against the five last year, but the number of centums in Chemistry and Biology have fallen significantly. The number of students who got centums in Mathematics is only marginally higher but more students (1,647) have got centum in Computer Science unlike last year (303).
“The move to dispense with ranks in Plus Two should make analysis of marks irrelevant,” says D. Nedunchezhian, founder of Technocrat India College Finder, as it had only commercialised school education. “With just 30% of Plus One portions being taught, centums in Plus Two are only half measures of quality of students,” he says.
Meanwhile, the scene at Arts and Science Colleges is also as competitive in professional courses.
Too many applicants
During registration on Saturday, a student of commerce in western region, with full marks in commerce group (800), was told by a premium college that chances of getting a seat in open category were remote as there were many applicants.
The student, who had applied for two programmes, was advised to try for a seat in self-financing courses. In Tiruchi region too, admission has been brisk since May 12, says K. Pandiyan, former president of Association of University Teachers.
AUT’s former general secretary C. Pichandy suggests stringent action against the college citing the May 11 GO by the Higher Education department. Clause 6 of the order states, “Admissions of aided courses are to be conducted before admissions for self-financing courses.”
But a professor in a city-based college explains their predicament, “We have to follow the roster system, which could exclude candidates from the forward community who may have scored centums. This has led to criticism.”
