How to fill CAP Round 1 - by Patrick Dsouza

As the CAP round in CET 2015 is same as that of last year, I am reproducing my article on CAP rounds that I had written with small relevant changes. Hope this helps.

What you fill in the option form will differ from individual to individual. What I will do out here is to put in some general rules of cap round form filling. If anyone has any further queries, then he/she can contact me personally and I will try and guide.

Usually fill in the option form based on the ranking of the college that you want and not on what you can get.

Example say I have option to fill in MET and Welingkar. I know I will not get Welingkar, but I think I have a good chance for MET. So I will put in MET first and then Welingkar. This type of reasoning is wrong. There is no advantage of putting in MET first as the seats are allotted based on rank first and then your choice. So if a person with rank 1230 has put MET as 12^th choice and you with rank 1231 has put MET as 1^st choice and there is only 1 seat then the person with rank 1230 will get it. Also if the cutoffs comes down and I could have got Welingkar and I have filled it after MET, I will get MET as in my choices I have put in MET above Welingkar.

On the above reasoning the argument that I will have a better chance of getting a college over and above a person ranked above me as I have put the colleges as my first choice is incorrect.

CAP Round 1: As the first round has only 1 college which is compulsory to be taken so person should put in all the options which he is willing to take admission in. For example if a person wants Sydenham desperately, but is willing to take Somaiya or Welingkar in further CAP rounds if he does not get Sydenham, he should fill all the options Sydenham, Somaiya, Welingkar and if required even beyond that in the order of his preference. So in the first round he is not allotted Sydenham, but allotted Somaiya he need not take the seat at Somaiya and wait for the next round for Sydenham (this he/she can take a call based on how far he/she is on the cutoff). It also ensures that the seat allotted to him at Somaiya, which he/she did not take remains vacant in case he/she decides to wait. This does not guarantee him that seat, but as the number of seats vacant is higher, there is a high chance he/she will get the seat. For other students who have got low marks, it is recommended to fill in as many colleges in the list as possible. He will get to know where he/she will get in the first round and then will have a fair idea what college he/she could target in subsequent rounds.

It is recommended that
Put Sydenham (or whatever you feel is the best college) as the first choice, even if you are sure you will not get the college. It will ensure you are not forced to take the college which you put in the first choice, in case if you decide not to take the college later on.
In open category unless a student gets the college of his choice, he should not take admission in the college he gets (unless he has put it as a first choice). Usually in the last CAP round the cutoff for open category goes down drastically and one may end up with better college than what one would have got in the initial cap rounds.
In case of OMS category, do not take admission in the first round unless you have got college of your choice. Usually for OMS too the cutoffs come down in subsequent rounds. But OMS students should not wait till the last round as there is no seats for OMS in the last round.
In case of reserved candidate students it is difficult to say if the cutoffs come down in subsequent rounds. For most colleges it comes down, but for some it actually comes up. So it is recommended to wait if you feel you can get a much better college in subsequent rounds. but if you feel it is difficult to get, better college as you have missed it by a big margin, then you can take up admission in the 1st round itself.

Understand that once you have taken admission through any CAP round you will not be eligible to appear for further CAP rounds. You can cancel admission at later stage but even if you cancel admission you will not be eligible for further CAP rounds.

I will advise on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th CAP rounds at a later date.