Mumbai: The First Year Junior College (FYJC=Class XI) admissions in Mumbai witnessed a significant increase in the number of allotted seats after the special round. Out of 93,202 students who participated in the first special round, 80,039 were successfully allotted seats, leaving 97,873 seats vacant.

The special round proved to be a boon for many aspiring students, as some of the most popular city colleges that had closed their admissions with higher cut-off scores in the third round offered seats at lowered cut-offs. The increased pool of seats for general merit after colleges surrendered quota seats post the third round of the centralised admission process contributed to this trend.

Institutions such as H R College, known for its commerce stream, saw a considerable drop in the cut-off score, reducing from 98.2% in the third merit list to 94% in the special round. Similarly, Ramnivas Ruia Junior College witnessed a drop in the Arts stream cut-off score, going from consistently around 92% in earlier lists to 71% in the special round.

An official from the Deputy Director of Education (DyDE) office explained, "Popular city colleges tend to close admissions at higher cut-offs in the third round, but after the third round of admission, they surrender vacant seats from minority, in-house, and management quota to centralised rounds. With an increase in the number of available seats, the cut-offs witness a marginal drop to fill those seats."

However, not all colleges followed this trend, as some continued to close at higher cut-offs, indicating fewer available seats. St. Xavier's College and R A Podar College were among those that maintained higher cut-offs in the special round.

The commerce stream attracted the highest number of allotments with 42,447 candidates, followed by the science stream with 30,189 students, and the arts stream with 6,685 students. In the special round, 53,530 students secured seats in their first-preferred colleges, while 10,895 and 5,616 students were granted admission to their second and third-preferred colleges, respectively.

The DyDE office assured students who were allotted seats in colleges that were not their first preference that they can either confirm admission or wait for another round for potentially better allotments. Another special round for seat allotment was confirmed for those without any current seats.

With the special round providing opportunities to students who had initially lost hope of securing seats in their preferred colleges, many like Mukta Kore from Thane expressed their joy at getting into their college of choice.

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