Maharashtra MBA admissions hit a four-year high — and still left 12,143 seats empty

Maharashtra's centralised admission process for MBA and MMS programmes closed the 2026-27 season with 44,788 admissions — 2,111 more than last year, and the highest in four years.

The four-year line

• 2026-27: 44,788
• 2025-26: 42,677
• 2024-25: 42,207
• 2023-24: 37,063

Round by round

• CAP round 1: 19,783
• CAP round 2: 11,225
• CAP round 3: 4,410
• CAP round 4: 2,820
• Institutional quota: 1,642
• E-CAP: 4,422, and E-CAP minority: 467
• Jammu & Kashmir and AICTE quota: 19

The shape of that list is the real lesson for next year's applicant: nearly 70% of all admissions happened in the first two rounds. Candidates who wait for later rounds hoping a better college opens up are competing for a thinner, worse-located set of seats.

The empty seats

Against 56,931 seats across 412 colleges, and 57,683 registrations during the 2 to 19 July window, 12,143 seats went unfilled — roughly 11,000 in the centralised process and 1,143 in management quota. Vacancy on that scale is not evenly spread; it collects in colleges far from the Mumbai and Pune corridors and in institutions with weak placement records. A seat existing is not the same as a seat being worth taking, and a vacant-round offer deserves the same scrutiny as a first-round one: placement data, faculty strength, and whether the college fills its seats in a normal year.

CareerBox News Desk — reporting on the round-wise admission figures for MBA and MMS programmes published by the Maharashtra State Common Entrance Test Cell. Official portal: cetcell.mahacet.org. Dates and eligibility change; confirm them on the official portal before you act.