Delayed CET counselling puts engineering aspirants in a fix

Students unsure whether to take ComedK seats or wait for KEA list

Ram Gopi, an engineering aspirant who landed an electronics and communications engineering seat at PESIT (South campus) during the second day of ComedK counseling on Wednesday, is in a dilemma.

“I got a rank of 4,163 in my ComedK entrance test, while in CET I got a rank of 5,800. I want to obviously wait for a seat under the CET. But as the CET counseling has not yet started I had no choice but to opt for a seat under the ComedK. I will wait and watch as it is a question of paying thousands of rupees for a CET seat against paying a lakhs under the ComedK,” he said.  With the process of CET counseling having been delayed due to the negotiations with regard to dental and medical seats, a number of engineering aspirants are in a similar dilemma as Gopi.

According to the original schedule of the CET, the allotment of seats should have taken place on June 26 and students reported to colleges on Thursday. However, according to the revised CET schedule, the option entry round started on June 27 and real seat allotment results will be published by the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) only on July 1. Students who surrender their ComedK seats will have to pay a processing fee of Rs 5,000.

Seats in high demand

 By the second day of the ComedK counseling, seats for branches such as computer science, electronics, and communication, information science and mechanical engineering were in high demand in top colleges. In fact, most of the seats were filled. The counseling for students with ranks between 3,001 to 6,000 took place on Wednesday.

Hrishab Singh, a computer science engineering aspirant from West Bengal got a ComedK rank of 5,337 but decided to not even appear for the counseling as seats of his preferred branch in the top colleges were already filled. “Although my preference is computer science, I would have taken a mechanical engineering seat in any top college. However, now I will be on my way to a college back home,” he said.

A spokesperson for M S Ramaiah Institute of Technology said that the highest demand was for computer science, electronics and communication engineering and that seats in these branches were already filled. “Seats are still available in branches such as chemical engineering and civil engineering,” he said. A S Srikanth, chief executive, ComedK, said: "Usually by rank 5,000, seats in sought after branches in top colleges get over."

As opposed to the first day of counseling when there were a lot of delays, the second day of counseling went on without a hitch according to students. By around 3 pm, counseling for rank 5,000 onwards had already started.