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LITTLE RELIEF Once again, students who scored below 95% may not be able to make it into an oncampus college
NEWDELHI: Delhi University’s first cut-off list announced on Monday makes it seem that once again students who have scored below 95% may not be able to make it into an on-campus college.
A DU official said this year, there wasn’t a clear trend in terms of increase or decrease in the cutoff percentages for different colleges, with most posting cutoffs similar to last year. The highest cutoff at Delhi University in the first list is 98.75% at Lady Shri Ram College for BA (Programme), which is a notch lower than last year’s highest 99.66% at SGTB Khalsa College for BSc Electronics.
“Even if the cutoffs increased or decreased, it is by 0.25 or 0.5 percentage points. But one thing is clear that there is a slight rising trend over the years and it looks like a student will not be able to make it to an on-campus college unless they have scored above 95%,” said the official.
Officials and college principals had earlier said that cutoffs were likely to increase marginally as this year 12,737 students scored 95% and above marks in Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) Class 12 results. This was 2,646 more from last year.
The CBSE result have a direct impact on the DU cutoffs as at least 80% of the applications received by the university is from CBSE students and the rest are from various state boards.
Science courses were expected to record a marginal dip in the cutoffs, as students usually end up taking admissions to technical courses like engineering as well.
However, the cutoffs released on Monday did not show any clear-cut trend. Most popular arts and commerce courses in sought-after colleges such as Economics (Hons), BCom (Hons), English (Hons) and BA (Programme) saw a marginal jump or remained same as last year’s first list. Science courses showed a more erratic pattern.
ARTS AND COMMERCE
The highest cutoff at Delhi University in the first list is 98.75% at Lady Shri Ram College for BA (Programme). Journalism (Hons) at Delhi College of Arts and Commerce (DCAC) and Economics (Hons) at Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) are a close second at 98.50%.
BA (Programme), one of the most popular course choices, has seen an increase of around five percentage points at Daulat Ram College. It is increased to 96% from 91% last year. The course is offered in 53 colleges and has received 1,05,818 applications.
At Hans Raj College, Economics (Hons) has increased to 98% from last year’s 97.25%; English (Hons) recorded a 0.25 percentage points increase and was at 97.25%; but BCom (Hons) was same as last year’s 97.50%.
“There has not been much change in our cutoffs as we decide the first list based on what our closing cutoff was in the previous year. If we closed at a certain cutoff last year, then chances are we will get similar applicants this year as well,” said Rama, Hans Raj College principal.
At Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC), the cutoff for BCom (Hons) was same as last year at 97.75%, but Economics (Hons) cutoff increased to 98.50% from last year’s 97.75%. Last year the highest cutoff for BCom (Hons) was 98% at SGTB Khalsa and Shivaji College.
“Last year we did not have many takers in the first list, so we had issue many lists. However, this year the university has said there will be only five lists so we were extra cautious in deciding our cutoffs and have reduced it for most courses,” said Jaswinder Singh, SGTB Khalsa College principal.
Few colleges also recorded marginal dips for arts courses as well. At DCAC, the cutoff for Political Science dropped to 94% this year from the 95% last year. At Hans Raj College, BA (Programme), which recorded an increase at most other colleges, saw a dip of 0.75 percentage points from last year.
SCIENCE
The science courses, on the other hand, recorded a dip or remained same in most colleges. At Ramjas College, the cut-off for BSc Physical Sciences dropped by 6 percentage points to 91% this year.
At Daulat Ram Chemistry (Hons) and Physics (Hons) dropped to 95% from 97% last year. Mathematics (Hons) and Computer Science (Hons) at Indraprastha College for Women dropped by a percentage point this year, to 95.5% and 96% respectively. Some colleges also recorded a spike. Among science courses, the highest cutoff was for Physics at Hindu College and for Computer Science at SGTB Khalsa College. Applicants need 98% or higher for these courses.