55k admitted in DU so far; 3rd cut-off window closes

Data from the DU admissions branch showed that 167,981 candidates applied to the varsity under the third cutoff list, 55,482 candidates paid their admission fee, and 10,098 candidates received approval from principals of various colleges till Thursday 6.12pm

At least 55,000 students paid their admission fee by Thursday evening under the third cutoff list to secure admissions to around 60 Delhi University (DU) colleges. The number is expected to increase as students can apply for admission till midnight on Thursday and pay the fee till Saturday, university officials said.

Delhi University aspirants at a DUSU helpdesk, at North Campus. The university is expected to release a special cutoff list on October 25, subject to the availability of seats, for candidates who were unable to take admission under the first three cutoff lists. (Amal KS/HT Photo)

Data from the DU admissions branch showed that 167,981 candidates applied to the varsity under the third cutoff list, 55,482 candidates paid their admission fee, and 10,098 candidates received approval from principals of various colleges till Thursday 6.12pm.

Although there are around 70,000 sanctioned undergraduate seats in Delhi, many colleges end up admitting more students than the available seats due to DU’s admission policy, which mandates that colleges must admit all students who meet the announced cutoffs. There is no first-come, first-served policy.

The university is expected to release a special cutoff list on October 25, subject to the availability of seats, for candidates who were unable to take admission under the first three cutoff lists. Under the special cutoff list, candidates who met the criteria of any of the three cutoff lists, but could not take admission due to some reason, can approach colleges for admission, provided the colleges still have open seats.

Candidates eligible for admission under the special cutoff list can take admission between October 26 and 27 and pay their fee by October 29. DU’s fourth cutoff list will be declared on October 30.

Of the 11 courses (political science, physics, BA programme, BCom, BCom (Honours), economics and computer science) in eight collegesthat saw 100% cutoff under the first list this year, seven courses were available under the third cutoff list. While Hindu College, Hansraj College and Jesus and Mary College closed admissions to political science, computer science, and psychology respectively under the second list, Ramjas College closed admissions to political science under the third list.

The college is likely to keep admissions open to the physics and BA programmes -- the other two courses also had a 100% cutoff. However, college officials said this would depend on the admissions under the special cutoff list.

Of the remaining courses, Shri Ram College of Commerce is likely to close admissions to the two courses it offers-- it reduced its 100% cutoff in BCom (Honours) and Economics to 99% and 99.5% under the third list. “The unreserved category in Economics and BCom is already filled. There are some reserved category seats in both the courses and they are likely to remain open under the fourth list. There may be a marginal drop in the number of seats so that there is no over-admission,” said an official from the college, requesting anonymity.

DU’s Deen Dayal Upadhyay College and Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies – which originally set a 100% cutoff in Computer Science – reduced it to 97% and 97.25% under the third list in the unreserved category. While DDU is yet to fill its seats in the unreserved category and is likely to see a drop in the cutoff percentage under the fourth cutoff list, SSCBS has filled its unreserved category seats in the computer science course.

DDU principal Hem Chand Jain said, “There are only have a handful of seats left across reserved and unreserved categories in most of our 15 undergraduate courses except for BCom, which is likely to see a substantial drop in cutoff percentageunder the next list. Computer science too will see a drop in cutoff percentage as we have filled 20 of the 24 unreserved seats.”

Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Khalsa College, which set a cutoff of 100% for its BCom course in the first list, reduced it to 97.25% under the third list. Principal Jaswinder Singh said that while the college had seen over-admissions to the BCom (Honours) course, it was likely to declare a fourth cutoff list for the BCom programme. “There will be a marginal drop in the cutoff for BCom and some Science courses in which there are a few unreserved seats left. However, there will only be a marginal drop in the cutoff, because even a difference of one mark would make many students eligible for the course,” said Singh.