Key Takeaways
- CAP Round 4 option filling for MHT-CET engineering admissions runs through September 1, 2026, with seat allotment expected around September 3 and acceptance running September 4-7.
- Roughly 23,000 seats are vacant heading into this round — a meaningfully larger, more varied pool than earlier rounds, since many candidates have already been allotted and confirmed seats.
- Filling too few choices is the single most common and costly mistake in this round — unlimited choices are allowed, and a short list directly reduces the chance of any allotment.
- This is typically the last centralized CAP round before institute-level vacancy rounds begin, which usually offer less favorable options and a more fragmented process.
- Choices should still be ordered by genuine preference, not just filled indiscriminately — order determines which seat gets allotted first among all the eligible options.
Why Round 4 Behaves Differently From Earlier Rounds
By CAP Round 4, the candidate pool has narrowed considerably — many students from earlier rounds have already accepted seats and exited the process — while the seat pool has actually grown, since students who moved on leave vacancies behind, alongside any newly added seats. This combination means cutoffs in Round 4 are often noticeably more accessible than in Round 1 or 2 for the same college and branch, which is exactly why filling a short, cautious list in this round leaves real opportunity on the table.
The Core Mistake: Filling Too Few Choices
Since CAP rounds allow unlimited choices at no additional cost, there's no genuine downside to filling a long list — every additional realistic choice is simply one more chance at a seat, evaluated only if higher-preference choices aren't allotted. Students who fill only 10-15 choices out of hesitation or a narrow sense of "acceptable" options are the ones most likely to end up with no allotment in this round, forced into the less predictable institute-level vacancy process afterward.
Got a question about this?
Talk to an IIT-JEE Program mentor directly — no form, just a quick WhatsApp chat.
A Practical Approach to This Round's List
| Choice Tier | How to Approach It in Round 4 |
|---|---|
| Genuine first-choice colleges/branches | List first, even if the cutoff looked out of reach in earlier rounds |
| Solid backup colleges/branches | List generously — Round 4's expanded vacancy pool changes the odds here |
| Acceptable but lower-preference options | Still worth including — a seat here beats no seat and a fall into vacancy rounds |
| Options genuinely unacceptable regardless of admission | Skip — no need to fill options that would never actually be accepted |
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Filling a short list out of a false sense that unlimited choices are "wasteful" — there is no cost to additional realistic choices, only upside.
- Assuming Round 4 cutoffs mirror Round 1 or 2 and skipping colleges that seemed out of reach earlier — the expanded vacancy pool often makes them newly accessible.
- Missing the option-filling deadline by underestimating how much research a long, well-ordered list actually takes.
- Not preparing required documents for seat acceptance in advance, causing avoidable delay once an allotment comes through in the September 4-7 window.
Expert Tips from BuzzyBrains Academy Faculty
Founder Dilip Sah (IIT Kanpur alumnus, JEE AIR 400, 25+ years of mentoring experience) works closely with Pune families through each CAP round, and flags Round 4 specifically as a round students under-prepare for:
- Students are consistently guided to fill significantly longer choice lists in Round 4 than in earlier rounds, given the meaningfully different vacancy pool.
- Round 4-specific cutoff patterns from previous years are reviewed with each family so choices are ordered realistically rather than based on outdated Round 1-2 expectations.
- Small batches (max 12 students) allow mentors to review each student's actual choice list before the deadline, catching an overly short list before it becomes a missed opportunity.
