After individual degree colleges wrapped up their admissions by June 22, the remaining candidates who could not secure admissions in any college applied to the six admission centres opened by the university on June 22.

The varsity received over 9,000 applications in the streams of arts, science and commerce. However, as per the scheme, only 4,000 students could be placed in 240 divisions in different degree colleges.

The remaining 5,000 candidates have no choice but to apply to the Institute of Distance Education (IDE). Though Pro-vice chancellor Dr Naresh Chandra could not be contacted on Thursday evening, an official observer selected by the university's admission committee informed: ``Given the limited number of college seats, the university has done its best to accommodate the maximum number ofstudents. The rest will have to join the IDE.''

The seat crunch, added the observer, is because a large number of students have applied to a few prominent colleges, while seats in lesser-known colleges are going abegging.

The varsity threw open its gates to the students, who stood in two serpentine queues for over three hours, only at 6 pm. But nany students were disappointed as they failed to get a seat in any college. The university guards had tough time controlling the crowd.

``We are not pleased by this centralised admission scheme, as we did not receive proper information about vacancies in various colleges. We had to simply choose 10 colleges of our choice in the given admission form without knowing how many seats are available,'' said Yogesh Punjabi, who scored 42 per cent marks in the HSC examination. Yogesh has applied for commerce, although he was aware that his chances of admission at a reputed institute are bleak due to his low percentage.

On Friday, candidates will also know about theirplacements in the five other admission centres: Sydenham College (Churchgate); Kirti College (Dadar); Raheja College (Santacruz); Gokhale College (Borivli) and Jhunjhunwala college in Ghatkopar.