Cut-offs soar, admissions drop - The Hindu

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The sky-high cut-offs announced by the Delhi University ensured a dismal turn out of students on the first day of admissions.

The number of admissions to the Computer Science course at the IP College, where the cut-off touched 100 per cent, remained very low on the first day. Moti Lal Nehru College, where the cut-off for B.Com (Hons.) is the highest at 95-99.5 per cent, admitted just 40 students.

Like every other year, most colleges in the North Campus placed the cut-off at 90 to 95 per cent for most courses, with even off-campus colleges like Ram Lal Anand, Moti Lal Nehru College, Deshbandhu College fixing high cut-offs. Students and parents looked hassled on Thursday with many of them returning without a seat in the college of their choice.

Adding to their dilemma was the new criteria of calculating the best of four percentage that was introduced this year.

“The cut-offs are already so high. On top of that this additional criteria of losing 2.5 per cent marks for taking admission in a subject they have not studied in Class XII is too much. How are students going to get through like this?” asked a parent who had come with her daughter to Miranda House College.

Many are now waiting for the second cut-off list to be announced. In North Campus, most students gathered to seek admission in B.A. Programme, the cut-off for which is comparatively lower than that of the Honours courses. However, students faced problems here as well because those looking to take up a subject they have not studied in Class XII stand to lose up to 5 per cent marks.

“I have scored 90 per cent and I want English (Hons.). But since the cut-off is too high, I have decided to go for B.A. Programme. There too I will lose up to five per cent marks if I choose Economics, which was not a subject I had in Class XII. I have no option but to choose subjects that I can get without losing marks,” said Utkarsh, an aspirant at Hansraj College where the cut-off for admission to B.A. Programme is 90-96 per cent.

Another course that saw many takers despite the high cut-offs was B.Com (Hons.). However, the number of admissions remained low.

“Though we have not got the number of admissions from colleges, the figure was low. We are expecting more admissions in the following days,” said a university official.

At Moti Lal Nehru College, the unusually high cut-offs weren’t enough of a deterrent for prospective students as the college received over 200 applications. However, some heated confrontations were witnessed with parents and students getting frustrated due to alleged faulty administrative handling. At Sri Venkateswara and Moti Lal Nehru college, English, Economics and B.Com. (Hons.) grabbed attention. The cut-off for B.Com. (Hons.) at Moti Lal Nehru college was 99.5 per cent, while at A.R.S.D College it stood at 98 per cent — more than that at SRCC.

At Sri Venkateswara College, English and B.Com (Hons.) were among the popular courses.