Applicants pin hopes on Stephen’s

The soaring cut-offs have left students disappointed. Applicants are now pinning their hopes on the St. Stephen’s College cut-off list, which will be declared on Thursday and is expected to have lower cut-offs.

The soaring cut-offs have left students disappointed. Applicants are now pinning their hopes on the St. Stephen’s College cut-off list, which will be declared on Thursday and is expected to have lower cut-offs.

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“I have scored in high 90s in science, including English, but the cut-offs have soared so unexpectedly high this year. I’m really rooting my hopes on the Stephen’s cut-off list,” said Ayesha Mathur, an applicant.

The interview process in St. Stephen’s College will begin on June 20 and will continue till July 4. Economics (honours) will be the first subject for which interviews will be conducted.

“It is not just the percentage secured by the candidate that we look at. We have always focused on an all-round performance,” said KM Mathew, tutor of admissions, St. Stephen’s College. The college authorities said that the list of final selected candidates for the courses will be put up a day after the interview round for the subject is completed. “For instance, the interviews for a particular course finish on June 22, the list of selected candidates will be declared on June 23,” he added.

The interview round is the final and binding round. Students must brush up not just the basics of the subject they had pursued in school, but also be prepared to be grilled on their general awareness.

“Quite a few applicants for Economics (honours) are science students. Hence we don’t judge them based on their past exposure to the subject but check their analytical and reasoning abilities since the subject requires a mathematical aptitude,” said Mathew.

The interviews for other humanities courses such as English (honours), History (honours) and Philosophy (honours) are quite different from those for the science courses, though general awareness and logical reasoning are important here too.

“If we interview a candidate for Chemistry (honours), we will test their understanding of the subject. The questions asked will be very basic, but the motive is to see how the student handles the question, even if the answer is wrong,” added Mathew.