Most aspirants ditch South, head for North

Aspirants are in a last-minute scramble to make bids for seats in Delhi University.

Aspirants are in a last-minute scramble to make bids for seats in Delhi University.

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On Saturday, the North Campus was abuzz with thousands of hopefuls making a beeline to grab optical-mark recognition (OMR) forms before their sale closes on Monday.

Yet, for the aspirants it was not just only the forms that mattered: they were also interested in making it to a North Campus college.

“I have scored 95% in the Class 12 boards and am hopeful of making it to one of the North Campus colleges, because the opportunities here are unparalleled. Some of my seniors have told me that life here is different from the college life in South Campus,” said Manisha Mehta, an aspirant from Mayur Vihar.

To get a whiff of what North Campus had in store, students queued up before the counter there selling forms, instead of nearby South Campus centres.

Statistics reaffirmed this trend. Only 4,800 forms have been sold on South Campus so far. The Arts Faculty, on the other hand, has sold close to 25,000 forms. The total number of forms sold has crossed the one lakh mark.

St Stephen’s College, which began its online registrations from May 21, has received a whooping 17,000 applications for 400 seats. College officials said the number was expected to rise.

At the same time, the most number of applications — 4,000 — has come in for BA (Hons) in economics, which has just 50 seats.

“There are several reasons why students prefer North Campus. It is accessible because of a Metro station — a facility that no South Campus college, other than Lady Sri Ram, enjoys. North Campus houses all the departments and heritage buildings and this is exactly the reason why South Campus and more so the off-campus colleges have witnessed a dwindling preference from students,” said a senior DU official.

Aspirants will get a last chance to apply to any of DU’s colleges on Monday. While the sale and submission of forms closes in colleges at 1pm. In post offices, the process will close at 4pm, but it will continue online till 5pm.