In the given context, forced and settle are the appropriate set of words. The high cutoff marks this year have forced college admission seekers to either settle for lesser known colleges or change their subject preferences.

Option A: "Cajoled" is too gentle for the harsh impact of cutoff marks, and "ask" doesn’t fit logically or grammatically with "for lesser-known colleges." 

Option B: "Pressured" is decent but "sit" is unclear and awkward, lacking a natural connection to choosing colleges. 

Option D: "Strained" describes a state, not an action like "forced," and "compromise" feels less idiomatic than "settle" in this context.

The answer is option C.