8,000 register in an hour as DU admissions begin
NEW DELHI: Over 8,000 students registered for admissions on Monday evening, within an hour of the Delhi University (DU) launching its online portal inviting applications for around 70,000 seats in various undergraduate courses across its different colleges.
The portal was launched around 8pm Monday, and, according to the data shared by the university, 8,087 candidates registered within an hour of its launch; the portal also saw a traffic of around 74,000 during that hour, an indication of just how highly sought after seats in Delhi University are.
The last date to submit forms is August 31, and the first cutoff is expected in the second week of September. Last year, the first cutoff came out on October 10.
Several aspirants were disappointed with the late launch of the portal. Divya Mondal, 18, who plans to apply for a degree in psychology, said, “We knew that the admission process would start today (Monday), but we didn’t know when. My friends and I have been trying since morning, but the link wasn’t working. When we visited college portals, they were asking us for a DU registration link which wasn’t made available till late evening.”
Owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, the admission process is completely digital this year as well. Last year, since the admission portal was open for around three months, the university received over 353,000 applications for the 70,000 seats— the highest the varsity has received till date.
Except for 15 undergraduate courses to which students are admitted based on entrance test results, admissions to all other undergraduate courses in over 63 DU colleges are conducted through a merit-based process— on the basis of cutoff marks. Colleges are supposed to give admission to all applicants who meet the announced cut-off criteria.
With around 80% of DU applicants graduating from Cbse-affiliated schools, the cutoffs this year are likely to remain on the higher side. Around 220,000 students scored 90% and above marks in
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CBSE Class 12 this year, with around 70,000 of them scoring around 95% or more.
Last year, DU saw 100% cutoffs in certain courses after a gap of five years. Lady Shri Ram (LSR) College announced 100% cutoff for admissions to three courses – political science, psychology, and economics
To make things easier for applicants, the university has decided to retain last year’s eligibility criteria for various courses. The fee for
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l merit-based and entrance-based admissions, registration, and cancellation will also remain the same. The university has also set up virtual help desks and installed interactive chatbots on the website to assist students and address their queries in real-time.
DU will not conduct sports and extracurricular activities (ECA) trials this year due to the prevailing pandemic situation. Admissions to the 5% of supernumerary seats reserved under sports and
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ECA categories collectively in each course will be conducted on the basis of certificates, as it was done last year as well. However, the university has introduced a small relaxation this time.
“Only for this year, the applicants will be allowed to upload certificates of the preceding four years — from May 1, 2017 to April 30, 2021. Students have to choose the best three years’ certificates and upload them,” said Rajeev Gupta, chairperson, admissions.