DU likely to announce its first cutoff list on Saturday, some colleges may keep cutoffs at 100%

The long-awaited, first cutoffs for admissions to undergraduate courses in Delhi University (DU) colleges, expected to be released on Saturday, may remain high,

The long-awaited, first cutoffs for admissions to undergraduate courses in Delhi University (DU) colleges, expected to be released on Saturday, may remain high, with some likely to even touch 100%, according to colleges and university officials.

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The admission process under the first merit list, likely to be released by colleges by Saturday evening, will be conducted between Monday and Wednesday. The second cutoff will be announced on October 19.

Officials at almost all colleges said the cutoffs for popular courses are unlikely to go down this time, and may, in fact, increase by 0.5 to 1 percentage points. Last year, the highest cutoff across all courses was 99%, for BA (Hons) Political Science, at Hindu College.

Some colleges are likely to keep cut-offs at 100% as well. “Cut-offs are set to rise exponentially this time as more number of students have scored high marks this year. We have decided to keep the cutoffs for at least three courses at 100%,” said an official from a south campus college, requesting anonymity.

DU dean of admissions Shobha Bagai said colleges have been asked to submit their first cutoffs by Saturday noon. “The announcement of cutoffs depends on data sent to us by colleges. We have asked them to submit the cutoffs to us by noon Saturday. But we can’t commit on any date,” she said.

Last week, Bagai had said the admissions committee was making all efforts to announce the cutoffs on October 10.

The university has received the highest number of applications this year as the registration process had continued for over three months in view of the Covid-19 pandemic. As many as 353, 918 candidates have applied for the approximately 70,000 undergraduate seats. That is a jump of around 100,000 from last year when the university had received 258,388 applications.

Principals of several DU colleges said cutoffs are unlikely to come down and it might even increase by .5 to 1 percentage points in the first list.

St Stephen’s College had released its first cut-off list on Tuesday, with the highest being 99.25% for BA (Hons) Economics. The cutoffs announced by the college for most courses were higher than the year before.

Rama Sharma, principal of Hansraj College, said, “We are still analysing the data from the applications provided by the university. We are not expecting any decrease in the cutoffs this year. For some subjects, it might go up by 0.5 to 1 percentage points and for others, it may remain the same as last year,” she said.

The highest cutoff announced by the college last year was 98.5%, for BA (Hons) Economics.

Manoj Sinha, principal of Aryabhatta College, said the cutoffs might increase by around two percentage points in the first list.

Expanding on the reasons, he said cutoffs are primarily decided on the basis of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE)’s Class 12 results as a majority of applicants is from the CBSE stream. According to data shared by DU, of the 353, 918 applications received, at least 285,128 are from CBSE schools.

“The number of students scoring 90% and 95% (in the CBSE stream) has also increased this year. That will reflect in the cutoffs as well,” he said. Compared to last year, the number of students scoring 95% and above has increased by 118.6 percentage points, and those scoring 90% and above by 67.48 percentage points.

Vipin Aggarwal, principal of Aurobindo College, said, “Cutoffs are expected to be on the higher side than last year as more applicants will seek admission and the number of students scoring high marks has increased this year.”

The highest cutoff for BA (Hons) English last year was 97.75%, as announced by Lady Shri Ram (LSR) and Hindu College. Shri Ram College for Commerce (SRCC) had the highest cutoff for BA (Hons) in Economics at 98.75%.

For BCom (Hons), the highest cutoff was announced by SRCC and Kirori Mal College at 98.5%. The highest cutoff for BA (Hons) Psychology was 98.75%, announced by LSR.

According to Delhi University rules, colleges are supposed to give admission to all applicants who meet the announced cutoff criteria and there is no ‘first come, first served’ policy. Many a time, colleges have to increase seats to accommodate the eligible students. “That is one of the main reasons why colleges fix such high cutoffs,” said a member of the DU admissions committee, who wished not to be named.

In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, the university had also introduced changes in the admission process -- it had allowed candidates to apply for all courses this year. This was done to make the process easier for students as results of many state boards and the CBSE were pending at the time the registration process began,” said Suman Kumar, a member of the admissions branch, on condition of anonymity.

Several teachers and principals said that too would contribute to colleges setting higher cutoffs. Manoj Khanna, principal of Ramjas College, said, “This year, the colleges will have to go by approximation since there is no data available on the number of applications for each course. That might lead to an increase in the cutoffs for all courses.”