Students take admission into BSc courses at Cotton College in Guwahati on Monday. Telegraph picture

Guwahati, July 12: Siddhartha Sarma, who secured 87 per cent aggregate marks in the higher secondary examination this year, was shocked and disheartened today when his name was not called out during the admissions to Cotton College. The reason — very high cut-off marks.

Siddhartha, who was aspiring to joins the arts stream with honours in political science, is not alone. Hundreds of students returned home with heavy hearts, as they could not secure admission in degree classes at the college because of the high cut-off marks.

Sources told The Telegraph that the cut-off marks for honours even in subjects like political science and history in the arts stream stood at 89 and 86.5 per cent respectively.

While the cut-off marks for BA economics honours was 88.75 per cent, it was 88 per cent for education, 88.25 for English, 88.5 for geography, 85.25 for philosophy, 87 for anthropology and 86 for Assamese.

“So students who could score 85 per cent aggregate marks in the higher secondary examinations failed to admit themselves in BA courses in Cotton College,” the source said.

On other hand, in the science stream, the cut-off marks for chemistry honours was 90 per cent, followed by 89.3 for physics, 81.3 for botany, 84.3 for zoology, 85 for geology and 81.3 for mathematics.

“Many science students want to pursue BSc with chemistry or physics honours. But Cotton College could not accommodate those students in these two subjects whose aggregate marks in the higher secondary examinations was 89 per cent,” a faculty at the college said.

Admission to BSc courses was held on July 9 and 10 while admission to BA courses concluded today.

The college authorities are, however, happy over the development, stressing that it had proved wrong the public perception that brilliant students no longer came to Cotton College.

Principal Nirada Devi attributed such cut-off marks to submission of a huge number of application forms by students who scored very high marks in the higher secondary examinations. The college received nearly 2,000 application forms each for BA and BSc courses.

The college has 375 BSc seats and 330 BA seats.

“Another reason for the development is identical high marks secured by a large number of students. Among the admission seekers, both in arts and science streams, there were a huge number of students who secured 86 to 90 per cent in their Class XII exams,” Nirada Devi said, adding that Cotton College was still the most sought after institution among brilliant students in the state.