Day one of admissions at Delhi University on Tuesday saw television vans parked at the entrance of Shri Ram College of Commerce, touted as the best Commerce college in the country. There was a rush to capture triumphant students and their parents as they made their way into the college.
The admission counters had cameramen jostling for a shot of Delhi’s topper Sarthik Agarwal who had come for his admission. However, there were only a few decimal points separating him and the other students who were all excited to fill their forms.
“We got him here last year, and showed him the college. We said look if you want to get into a college like this, you need to get high marks, or settle for something in Punjab. He had okay marks till Class X and after seeing the college, he started working very hard,” said Vini Gangra, who had driven all the way from Chandigarh two times in the past two weeks to get admission for her son, who had got 98 per cent and had just finished the admission process at Shri Ram College of Commerce.
There were two other families all elated as their daughters had made the grade. “She had researched the college and refused to go anywhere else. We made arrangements and worked out the logistics of accommodation as well as guardianship and landed here a few days ago,” said Shanthi Ganeshan, whose daughter Atmika had scored 98.5 per cent.
“My daughter Asudha got 97.5 per cent and said she had been working towards the goal of doing Economics in SRCC,” said an elated and relieved Sudha S. from Kerala.
Another mother, Veena Sahani, too appeared relaxed while exiting SRCC. “My daughter went through a round of interviews in St. Stephen’s College and could not make it there. She is finally happy now after getting a seat here,” she said.
Most of the other colleges were dominated by students looking at cut-off lists and weighing their options. “I have been visiting colleges like Hans Raj, Ramjas and KMC, where I meet the cut-offs, but I really wanted admission either in St. Stephen's or SRCC,” said Kritika, from Shimla and was wandering around the Campus the whole morning.
There were some disappointments waiting in Hindu College, whose cut-offs, though higher than SRCC and the highest in the north campus, was being kept as a second choice by many.
“I missed the cut-offs in SRCC, I just finished my interview in St. Stephen’s College and now when I come here to Hindu College, they are saying that the admission counters are closed. They also asked us to come only at 10-30 a.m. I am frightened that I will end up standing in line and lose out on admissions altogether,” said Shika.
There were of course some clueless students, who were trooping in when the admission counters were closing at 1 p.m. They were of course, turned away and told to come back on Wednesday.
