The admission rush in engineering colleges will leave seats vacant in undergraduate science courses this year, fear the heads of prominent city colleges.

The general stream colleges will start the admission process next Monday, three days before the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) board begins counselling for engineering and medical courses.

Only the last phase of JEE counselling is usually left when the general stream admissions start. The question paper leak delayed the JEE and, hence, the counselling this year.

“Nearly half the students on the first lists for our B.Sc honours courses may take admission in engineering colleges,” said D. Kundu, the bursar of Scottish Church College.

Every year, a small percentage of students take admission in both engineering and general stream courses to keep options open. This year, more students could opt for dual admission with the JEE counselling continuing till July 14.

According to the principals, students who have ranked between 1,000 and 8,000 in JEE will take admission in B.Sc honours courses before they are counselled. But most of them will eventually shift to engineering and medical courses.

“Students with low ranks normally block the B.Sc honours seats. With the JEE counselling and college admissions taking place almost simultaneously, higher ranked students will also block the B.Sc seats,” said Dipak Chakraborty, the principal of Dum Dum Motijheel College.

Dibakar Goswami (name changed), who has secured a rank of about 7,000 in JEE, said he would take admission in physics honours in Presidency College, Jadavpur University or Maulana Azad College if the process is completed before his JEE counselling. But engineering is his first choice.

Because of this trend, second- and third-list students will fill up seats in courses on emerging subjects like computer science and molecular biology, as well as traditional science subjects.

Presidency College has deferred publication of the B.Sc honours selection list to counter the trend. “Our arts admissions will be completed within June 30. Considering the JEE counselling schedules, we will hold our science admissions on July 7, 8, and 9,” said principal Sanjib Ghosh.

The college has also distributed more science forms than before, which could be because more JEE examinees picked them up.