Aspirants play pick & choose

NEW DELHI: Two days after Delhi University came out with its second cutoff list, candidates crowded colleges on Wednesday for withdrawal of admission and seeking transfers. There were protests, too.
All India Students' Association and Krantikari Yuva Sangathan demonstrated against DU's policy of docking 2.5 percentage points (10 marks) if the practical component in a paper exceeded 30%.As a result, the best-four averages of science students from several state boards declined.
Shivendra Singh withdrew from chemistry at Hansraj because he got admission in the same course at St Stephen's. He says, "There is quality education in India but for quantity education, we don't have enough colleges. Most do not provide proper education at the higher level".
Cutoffs are still high and at some colleges and the most popular subjects have seen few actual admissions. Neha Verma, economics teacher at Kirori Mal College says, "Most admissions are under the OBC category. The new clause of deducting 2.5 percentage points in case of change in stream and the compulsion of counting economics in the best-four subjects have kept the crowd from coming for the course at KMC."
Rajat Kumar wanted to shift from BCom(H) at Ramjas to Hansraj after the second list came out. But his transfer certificate, accepted by Ramjas, was rejected by Hansraj and he was asked to get a letter from his school, saying he had graduated from there. "How can the same certificate be accepted by one college and get rejected by the other when both fall under the same university?" he wonders.
The admission convener at Ramjas College, Charu Rogra, says, "We are being cautious. We will fill seats gradually as we don't want to admit more than capacity. As of now, science courses are a bit flooded because engineering and pre-medical test results are not declared yet. Once they are out, there will be withdrawals from science courses, too." Bihar resident Shubham Choudhary is going home. His results are out but National Institute of Open Schooling is yet to issue certificates. "They will come after a month. I'll enroll in a college at Bhagalpur (Bihar)," he says.