KEA's official Round 1 cut-off sheets show that Computer Science General Merit closing ranks at top Bangalore colleges got tighter between 2024 and 2026, not looser. RVCE closed at rank 290 in 2024 and 144 in 2026. MSRIT went from 1,254 to 976, and PES University's Ring Road campus from 1,247 to 628. BMSCE stayed around 2,000.
The table below gives the last General Merit (GM) rank allotted Computer Science and Engineering in the Round 1 allotment, on general (non-Kalyana-Karnataka) seats. It comes straight from KEA's published cut-off sheets. These are Round 1 figures only: Round 2 and Round 3 can close at different ranks, and category cut-offs (2A, 3B, SC, ST and so on) are different again.
| College (CSE, GM, Round 1) | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| RVCE, Bengaluru | 290 | 234 | 144 |
| PES University, Ring Road campus (B.Tech CSE) | 1,247 | 934 | 628 |
| MSRIT, Bengaluru | 1,254 | 1,100 | 976 |
| BMSCE, Basavanagudi | 2,166 | 2,246 | 1,920.5 |
| PES University, Electronic City campus (B.Tech CSE) | 3,963 | 3,588 | 3,057 |
Source: KEA engineering cut-off ranks, Round 1 — 2024 (30-08-2024), 2025 and 2026 (15-07-2026). Ranks are shown as KEA prints them (KEA's 2026 sheet lists BMSCE as 1920.5). Figures from 2020–2023 are not reproduced here because we could not check them against KEA's own sheets.
What the numbers say: At RVCE, MSRIT and both PES University campuses, the Round 1 CSE closing rank got smaller every year, so you needed a better rank to get in. BMSCE loosened slightly in 2025 and tightened again in 2026. PES University's Ring Road campus now closes ahead of MSRIT and BMSCE for CSE, a change from the usual RVCE–MSRIT–BMSCE order many families still assume.
Why cut-offs move: 1) Seat matrix — the number of government-quota CSE seats a college offers through KEA can change from year to year. 2) Branch demand — CSE and its AI/data-science variants remain the most sought-after courses, which pulls closing ranks down. 3) Candidate pool — more high-rankers taking the government-quota route pushes ranks tighter. 4) Round-to-round movement — candidates who exit, take Choice 4 or upgrade free up seats, so later rounds can close at higher ranks than Round 1.
Don't plan with a projected "loosening". Take the latest year's closing rank across all rounds as a guide, list a few colleges on either side of your rank, and keep a parallel COMEDK application as a backup.
For 2027: KEA typically publishes mock, Round 1, Round 2 and Round 3 cut-off sheets during counselling on its UGCET page. Check the 2026 Round 2 and Round 3 sheets as well before deciding how far down your list should go.