In top Delhi University colleges, cut-offs find few takers

Similarly in Hansraj College, there have been five and eight admissions in English and Economics respectively whereas the seats for the courses are 49 and 50 respectively.

The demand for Hindi also remained low as Hansraj and Ramjas both saw only two admissions in the course despite offering 50 and 62 seats respectively. Statistics too remained unpopular as only one student took admission in Hindu and two in Ramjas.

The colleges attribute the low turnout to high cut-offs and new admission guidelines.

They say there were many more admissions last year around the same time. “There are a total of 123 seats for Economics of which roughly half have been filled up. Till last year, we had a packed house on the first day itself. Most students who opted for Economics were usually from the science stream. This time, there is a 2.5 per cent disadvantage in changing streams, so fewer people are turning up,” Rakesh Ranjan, member of the grievance committee of SRCC, said.

In Hansraj College, courses like BA (Programme), which attract a huge number of students, have seen only 10 admissions although there are 34 seats.

The cut-off for BA (P) in Hansraj is 90-96 per cent. “There are definitely fewer students this time and I think that’s because of the high cut-offs. Probably, the second list will see a higher turnout,” Professor Animesh Naskar, convenor of admissions (arts & commerce), said.

In Daulat Ram College too, there hasn’t been much demand for BCom (Hons) and BCom (P), as well as the science subjects. “We were definitely expecting more students for these courses but there hasn’t been such a great response. I think colleges inflated the science cut-offs thinking that because of the AIPMT fiasco, many would take admissions and then withdraw later,” Pooja Jain, convenor of admissions at the college, said.

Of the 1,077 seats at the college, 425 seats have been filled up until now.

On the contrary, Political Science, Zoology and Botany in Ramjas have seen over-admissions with 101 being admitted to 62 seats, 50 being admitted to 46 seats and 47 being admitted to 46 seats respectively. The college authorities say this number is bound to reduce eventually. Miranda House too has seen excessive applications in History, Geography and Political Science.

Although low in popularity in some colleges, BCom (H) is in demand in Gargi College, Sri Venkateswara College, Motilal Nehru College and Hindu College. In Hindu, 46 students have taken admission in BCom so far. Similarly, History is in demand in Hansraj with 25 admissions in 24 seats; Sociology is in demand in Hindu with 51 students taking admission.

June 27 is the last day for admissions on the basis of the first cut-off list. The second list will come out on June 30.

(With inputs from Gayatri Girish. Rini and Gayatri are interns)