Now, college suggester site for engineering aspirants

Updated on: Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Close to 2 lakh engineering aspirants vie every year for the 1.10 lakh-odd seats at 309 engineering colleges across Maharashtra. These students have to go through a long-drawn admission process, starting with the common entrance test (MHT-CET) followed by the result and online submission of option form to get the coveted seat allotted through the centralised admission process (CAP).

Factors like the cut-off point, i.e. percentage score where admission to a given course at a given college closed during previous academic year; location and stature of the college; infrastructure; quality of faculty; fees; statutory reservation quotas, etc. often influence the pecking order of the 40-odd options, which a student has to furnish to secure seat allotment. Making a right assessment for filling up the option form can be a rather mindboggling experience for students, who are often left wondering about colleges where they might get the seat.

In an attempt to guide such students with the right choice for option forms and seek crucial admission related information, three BTech degree-holders from the prestigious College of Engineering, Pune (CoEP) have joined hands to develop what they describe as a 'college suggester engine': www.whatnext.org.in.

"The website asks for MHT-CET score, gender, category and the engineering college or branch preference from a student and suggests a list of top 15 engineering colleges where the student is likely to get admission, based on the previous year's cut-off data available with us," said Harshal Jain, one of the three developers of the website. Harshal's other two partners, Pradeep Chaudhari and Gaurish Chaudhari, said, "We have developed this search engine for all engineering colleges in Maharashtra, including the six autonomous engineering colleges. The site also gives various details of the suggested colleges like university, district, address, phone number, website, hostel intake details, etc."

According to Pradeep, the website does not require any registration or login details since many of the std XII pass students do not have their email accounts in regular use. Hence, a student or his/ her parents have easy access to the website. "The website has a very simple user interface, which takes into account the requirement of std XII students. Moreover, it is totally free and has been developed for social benefit," said Gaurish. A frequently asked questions (FAQ) section contains answers to common queries relating to engineering CAP, he added.

Harshal said, "The idea came to our mind from the fact that we ourselves were confused about the admission process four years back. My younger brother, who passed std XII, often keeps inquiring about the choice of engineering college. Also, our friends in college hostels keep talking curiously about the option form process for engineering CAP." While the MHT-CET 2011 results are due for declaration on June 14, Harshal and his partners have gone ahead to launch the website with a view to enable students go through the same and explore various possibilities vis-à-vis admission.

Now, college suggester site for engineering aspirants

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