Frequently Asked Questions MHT-CET (Maharashtra Common Entrance Test)
What is this site?
This is an unofficial reference for MHT-CET engineering (CAP) cutoffs in Maharashtra. All data is parsed from the consolidated CAP round cutoff PDFs published by the State Common Entrance Test Cell, Maharashtra on the mahacet.org counselling portals. We are not affiliated with the CET Cell; verify final figures with the official PDFs before acting.
How do MHT-CET cutoffs work: percentile or rank?
Since 2019 MHT-CET is scored as a percentile, and the official cutoff lists show both the closing percentile and the closing rank of the last admitted candidate. A HIGHER percentile is better (99.5 beats 95), while a LOWER rank is better. We display both where the CET Cell published them.
Why do 2017 and 2018 cutoffs look like small numbers instead of percentiles?
In 2017 and 2018 the exam was scored in raw marks out of 200, so the cutoff values for those years are marks, not percentiles. The percentile system started in 2019. Never compare a 2018 cutoff of, say, 130 with a 2022 percentile of 98; they are different scales.
How do I decode a category code like GOPENS or LOBCH?
Read it in three parts. The first letter: G means General seats, L means Ladies (women-only) seats. The middle is the category: OPEN, OBC, SC, ST, VJ (Vimukta Jati), NT1/NT2/NT3 (Nomadic Tribes), SEBC, or EWS. The last letter is the seat pool: H means Home University, O means Other-than-Home-University, S means State level. So GOPENS is General-Open-State, and LOBCH is Ladies-OBC-Home University.
What are the other codes: TFWS, EWS, DEF, PWD, MI, ORPHAN, AI?
TFWS is Tuition Fee Waiver Scheme seats; EWS is Economically Weaker Section; codes starting with DEF are Defence-ward seats and PWD are Persons with Disability seats (each combined with a category, like DEFOPENS or PWDOBCH); MI is Minority-institution seats; ORPHAN is the orphan quota. AI marks the All India seat pool filled through JEE Main in participating institutes; those cutoffs are on the JEE Main scale, not the MHT-CET scale.
What is Home University (H) vs Other-than-Home (O) vs State (S)?
Maharashtra tags each candidate with a Home University area based on where they passed HSC. Within a college, some seats are reserved for its Home University region (H), some for candidates from outside it (O), and some are open at State level (S). The same category can close at quite different percentiles across H, O and S, so make sure you read the column matching your own status.
What are the CAP rounds, and how do cutoffs move across them?
The CET Cell runs centralised admission process (CAP) rounds, typically CAP Round I, II and III; in 2025 there was also a CAP Round IV. Cutoff percentiles generally ease in later rounds as candidates leave for IITs/NITs or other states, but for COEP, VJTI and top CSE/IT branches the movement is often marginal. The year-level figure we show is from the final CAP round; per-round data is also available.
Which years does this site cover?
We cover CAP cutoffs for 2017 through 2025, spanning roughly 170 to 370 colleges depending on the year. For 2020 and 2021 only two CAP rounds were held (COVID-era compressed schedules); most other years have three, and 2025 has four. Remember the 2017-2018 marks-scale caveat when comparing across years.
Are there known gaps or quirks in the data?
A few. Some rows carry a rank but no percentile (a small share each year, where the source PDF omitted it). The 2019 files are thinner (about 169 colleges) than neighbouring years. Also, college codes are the CET Cell codes for that particular year, and autonomous universities were renumbered in 2024 (for example COEP moved from 6006 to 16006), so match colleges across years by name, not code.
What happened to SEBC? It appears in some years and not others.
The SEBC (Maratha reservation) category appears in the 2019 cutoffs, disappears during the years the reservation was stayed or struck down, and reappears from 2024 after the new SEBC Act. If you are an SEBC candidate, only 2019, 2024 and 2025 have directly comparable SEBC columns; in between, comparable candidates mostly appear under EWS or OPEN.
Can I use last year's percentile cutoff to plan this year?
Percentile cutoffs are more stable year-to-year than raw ranks, because a percentile is relative to that year's candidates. Still, seat matrix changes, new branches (AI/DS grew rapidly), and fee changes move cutoffs, so look at 2-3 year trends and keep a spread of options above and below your percentile.
A category column is blank for my target college. What does it mean?
It means no candidate was admitted in that exact category-seat-pool combination in that round, usually because the seat did not exist there or was converted to another category during the round. You may still qualify through GOPEN (or LOPEN for women candidates), since everyone competes for open seats on merit.
Are IIT Bombay, BITS or direct/institute-level seats covered?
No. We cover only seats allotted through the Maharashtra CAP rounds as published by the CET Cell. IITs/NITs (JoSAA), BITSAT, and institute-level or management quota seats filled outside CAP are not in this data. The AI category rows are the JEE-Main-based All India seats within CAP institutes only.
How should I verify a cutoff before filling my option form?
Open the official consolidated cutoff PDF for that year and CAP round on the CET Cell counselling site (fe<year>.mahacet.org) and check the exact college-branch-category cell. The CET Cell occasionally issues corrigenda, and parsing very large PDFs can introduce rare errors on our side. This site is unofficial; the CET Cell documents are final.
Still unsure? Try the College Finder — enter your rank and see every option you are eligible for.