Students on form-filling spree
In the absence of pre-admission forms, it seems aspirants of Delhi University are now looking to fill any forms, even if they are for admission under the extra curricular activities (ECA) or sports.
In the absence of pre-admission forms, it seems aspirants of Delhi University are now looking to fill any forms, even if they are for admission under the extra curricular activities (ECA) or sports. While many still haven’t understood that no pre-admission forms are to be filled this year, there are some who feel that admission will be done on a first-come, first-served basis.
“I will fill the ECA form as I need to tell the college I want to seek admission. Otherwise, how will they know if I’ll enroll myself once I clear the cut-off?” asks a confused Anurag Maheshwari.
Under university rules, colleges are allowed to reserve 5% of the total seats who have done well in sports or extra curricular activities in school. While students need to provide state-level or national-level certificates to get admission under sports category, the university has not set any rules for admission through the ECA category.
“Though the university has no guidelines on the requirement of certificates for admission under the ECA category, many colleges have started asking students for at least school-level certificates,” said Suchitra Gupta, dean of the university’s cultural centre.
The number of applicants under these categories often goes into thousands in a particular college. In more sought-after colleges, the competition in this category at times is fiercer than that in the normal cut off list. Colleges auditions are sometimes conducted by experts in fields like dance, theatre and music.
Many students apply for the quota each year not realising how fierce the competition in this field can get. “We get more than a thousand applications each year for ECA category but only a handful are selected,” said a teacher at Lady Shri Ram (LSR) College, who did not want to be named.
Marks are not of prime importance where the ECA quota is concerned. “If there is a choice between a student with lesser marks and better talent, and a student with more marks but less talent, we go with the former,” said Suchitra Gupta, a teacher at Hindu College. Hindu College admits close to 12 students under ECA quota every year and has already sold around 1,000 ECA forms this year.
Most colleges discourage students from applying under this quota if they think it’s an easy way to get into a college of their choice. Even in this category, most want a seat in a popular course like B.Com (honours) but the seats are limited. Teachers’ advice: don’t apply unless you are genuinely talented.