DCET cutoff ranks
Last checked against the official KEA site: August 2026
A DCET "cutoff" is the rank of the last candidate allotted a lateral-entry seat in a given college, branch and category, for a given counselling round. Like KCET and PGCET, it isn't fixed — it moves round to round and year to year based on demand and seat availability.
The figures below are reported 2025 lateral-entry (BE) closing ranks for two well-known colleges, gathered from independent counselling coverage rather than a single official KEA PDF. DCET counselling coverage is thinner in independent reporting than KCET's, so this covers only a couple of colleges — treat it as a sample of the pattern, not a comprehensive dataset. Always confirm against KEA's own round-wise data on the official portal.
RVCE lateral entry (2025, General Merit)
| Branch | Closing rank |
|---|---|
| Computer Engineering | 21 |
| Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning | 42 |
| Overall range across all lateral-entry branches (Round 3, all categories combined) | 21–13,484 |
BMSCE lateral entry (2025, General Merit)
| Branch | Closing rank |
|---|---|
| Electronics & Communication Engineering | 63 |
| Electrical & Electronics Engineering | 366 |
| Overall range (General Merit, all lateral-entry branches) | 63–2,143 |
Notice these DCET lateral-entry ranks are dramatically tighter (lower) than the equivalent KCET first-year CSE cutoffs at the same colleges — a reflection of DCET's much smaller applicant pool per seat, not a sign these are somehow "easier" colleges to get into overall. Category-wise figures also exist (for example, RVCE's 2AG category ranged 28–751 and BMSCE's SCG category ranged 376–7,377) but aren't reproduced fully here since the source didn't cover every category for every branch.
What actually moves a DCET cutoff
- Category: GM cutoffs are typically the tightest; reserved categories have their own, generally more accessible, cutoffs.
- Round: round 1 cutoffs are usually tighter than later rounds, as vacated seats get released.
- Branch and college popularity: in-demand branches like Computer Science close at much lower (tighter) ranks than less sought branches at the same college.
- Seat scale: with 17,000+ lateral-entry seats spread across the state, most branches outside the most competitive few have meaningfully more headroom than KCET's first-year intake.
How to use last year's cutoff sensibly
Because DCET's own historical cutoff data is thinner online than KCET's, your most reliable reference point is the college's own counselling cell or KEA's official round-wise allotment PDF for the previous year, rather than third-party aggregator figures.