Thousands queue on Day 2 of admissions at Delhi University but confusion reigns on South Campus
The Delhi University campus was a packed house on Wednesday as thousands of aspiring students formed long queues on the second day of admissions.
As always, colleges like Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC), Hindu, Hansraj, Miranda House, Lady Sri Ram and Sri Venkateshwara witnessed large crowds.
Kamala Nehru College and Gargi in the South Campus were also among the preferred list of colleges as students came from all over the country to seek admissions under the first cut-off list.While a smooth admission procedure was witnessed in North Campus colleges with most colleges putting out information and admission guidelines on the notice boards, confusion and chaos seemed to prevail at certain colleges in the South Campus where important information was not put on display for the convenience of students.
Courses return
After a year-long wait, B.A. (Programme) and B.Com (Programme) courses, which were wiped out under the Four-Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUP), returned to the much delight of aspiring students.
This year, Indraprastha College for Women, however, raised its cut-off for Programme courses by six per cent from that in 2012.
“The Programme courses are no less than Honour courses,” a professor, who teaches students of B.Com , said.
Competition for Botany seemed to have toughened this year with almost all colleges raising the cut-off by six to 11 per cent as compared to the cutoffs in 2012.Hansraj College raised the lower limit of cut-off for Botany from 85 percent in 2012 to 92 per cent this year.
Physics, a popular subject in the Delhi University, also witnessed a slight increase in cut-off.
Miranda House raised the lower limit of the cut-off from 95 per cent to 96.34 per cent.
Away from science and commerce, even humanities courses witnessed a large pile of applications. History (Honours) alone received more than 50,000 applications.
Political Science (Honours) seemed to be a favourite at Atma Ram Sanatan Dharma College.
However, there seemed to be a lot of confusion hovering over students applying to humanities courses, as a large number of them were unsure about what subjects to include in the ‘best of four’ aggregate.
The CBSE and the ISC, among other boards, have introduced a wide range of subjects for students of Class XI and XII to opt for. Not all of these subjects, however, are accepted by the Delhi University.
Arushi Dua, who wished to get admission in Sri Venkateswara College, said: “College authorities refused to give me admission stating that, according to the 2012 guidelines, subjects like mass media, fine arts, general inequality are not included [in DU’s accepted list of subjects].”
“The CBSE and the Delhi University have no coordination. They are wasting the time of both students and parents,” Arushi’s mother said.
Meanwhile, students of the general category seemed unhappy with the limited number of seats available for them.
Mandira Mathur, who scored 94.75 per cent in XII and wants to get admission to B.Com (Honours), said: “We put in a lot of hard work throughout the year to get admission in the best college. However, the reserved category students, even those from privileged families, with less percentage than me are going to study in my dream college. The government should come up with some plan for students of general category too.”
According to sources, SRCC may not come out with a second cut-off list this year, while several other colleges in the North Campus may only drop the next cutoff by a negligible percentage.
The second day of admissions at Delhi University proved disappointing for some aspiring students, especially those who had come from state boards, who seemed to be badly informed about the admission procedure.
Some students were rejected by Hansraj College because their mark-sheets, issued by the Uttar Pradesh or the Haryana Boards, were not verified.
At least three such cases were reported at Hansraj.
Interesting, all the three students were applying for Computer Science (Honours).
These students could face further problems as the state Boards only keep records available online for a year, and these three had dropped a year after school.
They have now been asked to go back to their respective states to get the mark-sheets verified – and by the time they return, they may miss out admissions under the first cut-off.
Vivek Raman, a senior at Hansraj College deployed at the admission help desk, said: “The college is not even accepting their original certificates for document verification due to which they are not able to get admissions even though they qualify the cut-off”.
Officials, however, defend their stand and said that any student who wishes to get admission to the university must have all the required documents.
“The mark-sheet must not be downloaded and should be original. If it is downloaded, then it must be verified by the Board or the school. If it is not verified, it will not be accepted by the college of the university,” said Gulshan Sawhney, deputy dean of students’ welfare, Delhi University.
