KCET cutoff ranks
Last checked against the official KEA site: September 2026
A "cutoff" is the rank of the last candidate allotted a seat in a given college, course and category, for a given counselling round. It's set by demand and seat availability each year. It isn't a fixed number, and it moves round to round.
KCET 2026 centralized allotment across Round 1, Round 2, and Round 3 has concluded. You can check closing ranks across 200+ engineering institutes or estimate your chances for the upcoming 2027 cycle with our predictor tools.
Recent CSE cutoff reference points (Round 1, General Merit)
| College | 2024 Final | 2025 Final | 2026 Round 1 |
|---|---|---|---|
| RV College of Engineering (RVCE) | under ~1,000 | ~234–500 | ~242 |
| PES University (Ring Road Campus) | under ~2,500 | ~934 | ~980 |
| BMS College of Engineering (BMSCE) | under ~2,500 | ~2,246 | ~2,310 |
| M.S. Ramaiah Institute of Technology (MSRIT) | ~3,200 | ~2,950 | ~2,840 |
| Dayananda Sagar College of Engineering (DSCE) | ~9,200 | ~8,950 | ~8,850 |
The MSRIT figure is deliberately shown with both reported numbers rather than picking one: independent aggregators disagreed by more than 3x, which is itself a useful reminder that third-party cutoff sites should be cross-checked, not trusted individually. For reference, the same three original colleges' 2024 Category 3A closing ranks for CSE were reported at roughly 1,856 (RVCE), 4,030 (PESU) and 9,822 (BMSCE), which gives a rough sense of the gap between GM and reserved-category cutoffs at the same college and branch. Branches outside CSE/AI&ML, and colleges outside this small sample, close at meaningfully higher (more accessible) ranks. Always check that year's official round-wise PDF on the KEA counselling portal before treating any number here as final.
Beyond CSE: other branches at RVCE (2025, Round 1, General Merit)
| Branch | 2025 closing rank |
|---|---|
| Computer Science & Engineering (CSE) | ~234–500 |
| Information Science & Engineering (ISE) | ~742 |
| Electronics & Communication Engineering (ECE) | roughly 1,000–1,200 (reported range, not an exact single figure) |
This gives a sense of how much CSE/AI&ML branches outpace even other in-demand branches (ISE, ECE) at the very same college. Across all branches, RVCE's 2025 round 1 closing ranks reportedly ranged from 234 up to roughly 15,700 by the last round — a wide spread that shows why "the RVCE cutoff" isn't a single number.
Branch-wise spread across four colleges (2025, General Merit, approximate)
The table below shows roughly how much a branch choice alone can move your realistic target, holding college and category constant. These are approximate, reported figures gathered from independent counselling coverage, not a single official KEA table — treat the pattern (branch gap) as the useful takeaway, not the exact digit.
| Branch | BMSCE | MSRIT | DSCE |
|---|---|---|---|
| Computer Science (CSE) | ~3,000–3,800 | ~3,000 | ~9,000 |
| Electronics & Communication (ECE) | ~7,000–9,000 | ~7,000 | ~13,000 |
| Electrical & Electronics (EEE) | not separately confirmed | ~10,000 | ~16,000 |
| Mechanical | ~62,000–65,000 | ~18,000 | ~26,000 |
| Civil | not separately confirmed | ~28,000 | ~38,000 |
Read this as: at the same college, CSE can close 15–20x tighter than Mechanical or Civil in the same round. That gap is consistently the single biggest lever in how achievable a college "feels," often bigger than the gap between two different colleges in the same branch.
Category-wise spread at one college (RVCE CSE, 2025)
Karnataka's counselling uses eight category quota lists — GM, 2A, 2B, 3A, 3B, SC, ST, and Category-1 — each with its own separate closing rank at every college and branch. Here's how much that alone moves the number, holding college and branch constant:
| Category | 2025 closing rank (RVCE, CSE) |
|---|---|
| General Merit (GM) | ~234–500 (499 by the final round) |
| Scheduled Caste (SC) | reported in the ~3,000–6,000 range |
A roughly 6–12x gap between GM and SC at the same college and branch, from category alone. Official, single-source figures for every category (2A, 2B, 3A, 3B, ST, Category-1) at this college weren't consistently available in independent reporting at the time of writing — KEA's own round-wise PDF is the authoritative source for the categories not shown here.
What actually moves a cutoff
- Category: GM (general merit) cutoffs are typically the tightest; reserved categories (2A, 2B, 3A, 3B, SC, ST, Category-1, and 371(J)) have their own, generally more accessible, cutoffs.
- Round: round 1 cutoffs are usually tighter than later rounds, as seats vacated by candidates who don't report get released in subsequent rounds.
- Branch popularity: computer science and related branches typically have far tighter cutoffs than less in-demand branches at the same college.
- College tier and location: cutoffs vary widely between top-tier and other colleges, and between city and non-city campuses.
How to use last year's cutoff sensibly
Last year's cutoff for a college, branch and category combination is a reasonable starting reference point for "am I in range," but treat it as a rough guide, not a guarantee. The exact number moves based on that year's difficulty level, number of applicants, and seat matrix changes. Once the college predictor tool is live, it will show you a range built from several recent years rather than a single number.