Hours after the Delhi University announced its first seat allocation list for undergraduate courses on Wednesday, applicants had mixed reactions – some were happy with the seat they were allocated, while others said they expected to be given better colleges, or were unable to get a seat and were waiting for the second round of allotments.
Chaitanya Arora, 17, said he was ecstatic on being allotted his first preference -- Bachelors of Management Studies (BMS) at Shaheed Sukhdev College of
Hours after the Delhi University announced its first seat allocation list for undergraduate courses on Wednesday, applicants had mixed reactions – some were happy with the seat they were allocated, while others said they expected to be given better colleges, or were unable to get a seat and were waiting for the second round of allotments.
Chaitanya Arora, 17, said he was ecstatic on being allotted his first preference -- Bachelors of Management Studies (BMS) at Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies. He scored a simulated rank within the top 100, and the college has more than 200 seats, which meant a high likelihood of being offered a seat at the institution. “I am extremely happy. I knew I would get in after I saw my rank, but the wait was killing… I am just glad it’s over,” he said.
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Till last year, the university took students based on the marks they scored in the Class 12 board examination. But, in some years, the score cutoffs in certain sought-after courses skyrocketed to 100% -- at least eight colleges declared 100% cutoffs in 11 courses, including political science, computer science, and commerce, last year.
This year, DU is admitting students on the basis of the Common University Entrance Test (CUET). DU officials explained that once a seat has been allocated, the candidate has till 5pm on October 21 to accept the provisional seat, and till October 24 to pay the admission fees. Failing to do so would mean the seat is voided, and the candidate will not be considered for any subsequent allocation rounds.
Due to this, some students said they felt pressured into accepting whatever seat was offered to them. To be sure, if a candidate accepts a seat, they have the option to ‘freeze’ it to lock the course-college combination, and the student won’t be considered in further allocations. But a candidate can also select the ‘accept with upgrade’ option, they will be considered for an upgrade higher up on the preferences list
A 17-year-old student, who asked to remain anonymous, said he has been allotted a B.Com (H) seat at Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Khalsa College but said that he was expecting a better college. “I am a little disappointed with the allocation but I will rearrange my preferences now. I hope to get a better college in the second round,” he said.
An 18-year-old candidate who secured a Bachelors of Business Economics (BBE) seat at Laxmi Bai College said she was happy that she has been allotted a seat in the first allocation round but said BBE wasn’t her first preference. “My first preference was BMS but I didn’t get a good simulated rank in BMS, therefore, I changed my preference during the two-day change window. This was my sixth preference in the list of preferences. I will still apply for upgrade in the hope of getting my top preference,” she said.
Another student who did not wish to be named said she wasn’t allocated a seat in the first round on Wednesday and is hoping to get a seat in the second round. “I just want to get into DU. I don’t care about the college or course. But given that accepting a seat is the only option students have to be able to be a part of the process, I don’t know what’s going to happen,” she said.
Simrit Kaur, principal of Sri Ram College of Commerce, said, “We will start the process of verifying and screening applications on Thursday. Only after that we will get to know the number of students who have confirmed admission in SRCC in the first round.”
Anju Srivastava, principal of Hindu College, said, “It’s taking us some time to understand how the admission system is working this time. We are getting really great response across the courses.”
Students, however, are still unsure about the way forward, and have pointed to the uncertainty that comes with being the first batch under a new admissions policy .
A candidate who did not make the cut in the first round said that she would have preferred the old cut-off system rather than CUET. “With CUET, we have to study the same course thrice -- first for pre-boards, then for boards and the same material for CUET. We have been sitting at home for months and the process has been delayed a lot,” she said.
The 17-year-old who got into Khalsa College said, “Unfortunately, it’s the first time this process is taking place and we could only guess and decide our preferences.”
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