It has taken a while for the authorities who conducted this year’s Common Law Admission Test (CLAT 2018) to make public the allotment lists of each National Law University.

Perhaps owing to the confusion that ensued after the shambolic conduct of CLAT 2018, the authorities only made the third and final allotment lists available on the CLAT website.

Now that the dust has settled, it is time to analyse what the gender ratio at each NLU will look like, should no more changes occur before the admission process closes on July 6. This article will also look at the rank cut-off for each NLU and the preference trends of this year’s candidates.

Gender Ratio

A total of 2141 students secured seats at the 19 NLUs this year. As per the third allotment list, 1213 boys and 928 girls have made it to the CLAT NLUs. 43.34% of the seats have been secured by girls, which is slightly more than the 42-odd per cent in CLAT 2017.

Going by the highest rank of each University, the girls seem to have done a little better than the boys, securing the top ranks in 10 of the 19 NLUs. However, only 36 girls featured in the top 100 ranks.

Here is the breakup for each NLU:

At four NLUs – NUALS Kochi, NLUJA Gauhati, DSNLU Visakhapatnam and TNNLS Trichy – girls secured more seats than boys. At the other end of the spectrum, only 51 girls made it to GNLU, Gandhinagar, less than half of the number of boys who secured admission. The gender ratios at RMLNLU, Lucknow and MNLU, Mumbai are similarly skewed in favour of boys.

Rank Cut-offs

The following table reveals the highest and lowest General Category rank for each NLU:

Preference Trends

A student’s preference of college may not necessarily be as per the perceived ranking of the best NLUs in the country. A number of factors, including proximity to home, and misleading surveys could sway a candidate’s decision.

This is reflected in the fact that a number of students have chosen to relinquish seats in some of the more established NLUs. As many as 13 students in the top 66 ranks gave up seats at what is regarded as the best law school in the country, NLSIU Bangalore. They have instead opted to join NALSAR Hyderabad, NLIU Bhopal and NUJS Kolkata.

A number of students who were eligible to get into the aforementioned three colleges have also opted for other NLUs. There is also the inclination to join NLU Delhi, which has its own entrance test.

MNLU Mumbai continues to feature high up in CLAT candidates’ preference lists, despite being in its nascent stages. As was the case in previous editions, GNLU and even NUALS was preferred to HNLU Raipur.

Last year, a student ranked 110 chose to join CNLU Patna; there has been no such trend this time around. Overall, there have been no such surprises with respect to other mid-tier NLUs as well.