Don’t worry, slight drop expected in 2nd cutoff

COLLEGE PRINCIPALS SAID IT IS ONLY WHEN ADMISSIONS UNDER THE FIRST LIST ARE OVER THAT THEY CAN RELEASE A REALISTIC CUTOFF

NEW DELHI: Delhi University aspirants need not fret due to the high cutoffs in the first list as most colleges are likely to come out with a second list with a slight dip in the minimum marks required for admission.

College principals said they are extra cautious while announcing the first list and it is only when admissions under the first list are over that they are able to release a realistic cutoff.

The university announced its first list on Monday with 98.75% for BA Programme at Lady Shri Ram (LSR) College being the highest cutoff followed 98.50% for Journalism (Hons) at Delhi College of Arts and Commerce (DCAC) and Economics (Hons) at Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC).

“We release the first cut-off list with a lot of caution as we don’t know how many students will actually turn up for admission. Based on the admissions under the first list, we get a sense of how many of the seats are getting filled. The second cutoff is more realistic,” said an official from the admission committee of Sri Venkateswara College.

The college had released a second cutoff for most courses, including popular course like B.Com (Hons) at 97%, a drop of 0.50 percentage points from first list, last year.

Last year, the highest difference in cutoff was a drop of 15 percentage points, but these were for courses like Punjabi, Sanskrit and Urdu (Hons), which are not among the most popular course choices among applicants.

On an average, the cutoff last year had dropped by 1.77 percentage points in the second list for courses in which seats were still available.

Colleges such as Lady Sri Ram College for Women had announced a second cutoff for Political Science, but it was the same as the first.

“The first list is realistic in only a few colleges because anybody who gets admission in a popular college will not change it. But apart from a few colleges, the first cutoff is unrealistic,” said SK Garg, principal of Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College.

Garg said the problem is colleges cannot make out what should be the realistic first list as any registered student for a course is considered in every college it is offered. “Suppose I release a lower cut-off then many students will turn up and I cannot refuse admission. So all colleges observe the admission pattern in the first list and then announce a second list,” he said.

Last year, admissions to Economic (H) at SRCC had closed after the first list, and the BCom (H) cutoff percentage dropped by only 0.25 in the second list.