Hundreds of boys apply to MCC as UG courses open for them

Mount Carmel College (MCC) transitions to co-ed, receiving overwhelming response from boys, aiming for greater diversity on campus.

Mount Carmel College (Autonomous) (MCC) has received hundreds of applications from boys after the college announced earlier this year that their undergraduate courses would be open even for them from this academic year. Until now, MCC was an all-girls college for around 70 years.

The college management said that the decision to go co-ed was made to go with the future plans for the institution and to ensure greater diversity on campus. The admission process is now going on for first year degree courses. While this is the first-time undergraduate courses are going co-ed, a couple of post graduate courses at MCC have been co-ed since 2016.

“The response (from boys) has been excellent ever since II PUC results were announced. We have also been processing applications online. However, we have limited the number of boys we are taking. In each class, boys would make up 15-20% of the strength,” said Regina. L. Sugandhi, Registrar Admissions, MCC.

She said that while currently the ratio of girls to boys for applications is 4:1, in the coming years, the college has plans to accommodate more boys. “We have also kept slightly higher cut-offs for boys. But even then, we had to send certain students back as the seats are filled up,” she added.

While many boys were keen to get admissions at MCC because of its reputation, some of them reported that they changed their minds after realising that there would only be a few boys on campus.

Ashwatha Narayan. M, a Salem, Tamil Nadu resident, had applied for a BA in Political Science and Sociology at MCC along with other colleges. “My mother and relatives said that MCC is a reputed college, so I applied there. After cracking the admission process, when I went through the website, I got to know that the institution is turning co-ed for the first time and the male-female ratio is uneven and that is why I dropped my plan to join there,” he said.

While the admissions for BCA, BBA and other commerce courses are almost completed for both boys and girls, the college is expecting to see more applicants for science stream once CET results are out. Ms. Sugandhi added that the response for admissions overall had been good this year and the decision to adapt coeducation had not deterred girls from applying for undegraduate courses.