Students let out a huge sigh of relief as soon as they finish their class XII board exams. After months of hard work and preparation, the load is off their heads and they can breathe freely. But not for long. Soon, they begin worrying about getting admission into the college of their choice and hoping they get sufficient marks to do so. State board results come out first and students start applying. However, students from other boards are left twiddling their thumbs, waiting for their results. Anxiety mounts. What if the seats get filled up before they get the chance to apply? Does this put State board students at an advantage over other boards? Not really, say some of the leading colleges in Chennai.
Many approaches“We have made the provision were students from other boards can submit their applications till three days after their results come out. We don’t have a quota or seats set aside for non-State board students, but we never completely fill up the seats. We always keep seats for good students, no matter how late they apply,” says Dr. S. Albonse Raj, vice-principal of Loyola College.
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Other colleges have a different way of dealing with the admission process.
"We admit the students based on our own VIT Engineering Entrance Examination. This year, the computer-based test was conducted in 112 cities, including Dubai and Kuwait. Based on the results, we have counselling sessions for admissions," says Dr.G.Viswanathan, founder and chancellor, VIT.
In some colleges, CBSE students are actually given preference and specific courses are set aside for the students. MOP Vaishnav College for Women is one such educational institution.
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“Ours is a self financed college. Fifty per cent of the seats come under the management quota and fifty per cent are through merit. Looking at the number of Central and State board students who apply, 10-15 per cent students are from CBSE and the rest are from State and other boards. So we go by an average number and allot seats accordingly. This is done for courses where marks form the base.
We also have courses like visual communication and electronic media where school marks don't play a great role and creativity comes into play. We have our own entrance test and interview for such courses and shortlist students based on these. After this, the only condition is that the student should have scored above 75 per cent in the Central board exam,” says Dr. Lalitha Balakrishnan, Principal of MOP Vaishnav College for Women.
Math factor“We also have a B.Com. honours course which we have clubbed with the C.A. programme. We have found that the logical reasoning and math ability of CBSE students is superior to the State board students, and, therefore, we want to take more of CBSE students for the honours course.
We'll start the admission for this course only after the CBSE results are out. Also, some CBSE schools have a separate paper on marketing. So, for our marketing management programme, the seats are in abeyance to CBSE students, since they already have an inclination towards it and are focused,” she says.