Thousands of students who have passed matriculation exams held by Jharkhand Academic Council are now gearing up for the next challenge, a seat in an intermediate college of their choice.
In Ranchi district alone, one seat at an inter college or Plus Two school has more than two claimants.
According to data collected from colleges, there are around 15,000 seats across Plus II schools and inter colleges in Ranchi district while nearly 30,496 students have cleared the JAC matriculation exam this year.
Intermediate, degree colleges and Plus Two schools have started selling admission forms from May 23.
Most of the inter colleges and Plus Two schools have kept 70 per cent cut-off for science, 60-70 per cent for commerce and 65 per cent for arts.
"Many students have secured less than 70 per cent marks in matriculation this year. They may find it difficult to get a seat in an inter college of their choice, as cut-off marks are high," said Ranchi DEO Raj Kumar Singh.
"We have 128 seats each in science, arts and commerce streams. But we have received 300 forms for each stream. We won't be able to accommodate so many students," said principal of Marwari Plus Two Boys' High School Braj Kishore Prasad.
Students who have not secured high marks will find it all the more difficult to secure a berth.
In Ranchi, there are 17 Plus Two high schools, including Balkrishna High School, Shiv Narayan Girls High School, SS Doranda Girls High School and Marwari Boys High School.
In each school, there are 128 seats in science, commerce and arts stream.
Additionally, there are 21 inter colleges in the city such as Ursuline Inter College, RTC Inter College, St John's Inter College, St Aloysius Inter College and St Anne's Inter College, offering 640 seats each in science, arts and commerce.
Some of the degree colleges offering intermediate courses are St Xavier's College, Ranchi Women's College, Marwari College and Gossner College.
Ranchi Women's College, one of the best-known institutions for girls in the district, is deluged by applications. "We have received over 1,000 applications for science stream, 1,400 in arts and 800 in commerce," said Meena Sahay, in charge of science department of Ranchi Women's College.
