The excitement of scoring over 90 per cent in Class XII is short lived. A month after the board results are announced, cut-offs are announced for top colleges in Delhi University. Those flying high on percentages are brought back to the ground.
Every decimal point matters and may play a decisive factor into gaining admission into the dream course and college or having to make a compromise. With the number of students scoring above 95 per cent growing every year, the going gets tough when it comes to getting one of the 54,000 seats that the university offers.
“Earlier, the first cut-off used to be unrealistic as the college had to admit all those who scored above that mark and the subsequent list provided more hope. However, with CBSE results showing such high scores, there will not be a significant dip for courses like English and Political Science, which have many applicants. Better board results will mean high cut-offs as the number of seats remains the same,” says Arunima Mehta, an academic counsellor.
This year, the university received over 2.5 lakh applications, which is less than last year.
The fall can be attributed to the entire process going online for the first time, a move that prevented duplication. In the past, students would fill the online form as well as the paper form.
The most number of applications this year were for B.A. English (Hons.), which has received 1,15,786 applications — a rise from last year’s 90,000 applications.
In 2015, the highest cut-off for the course was 98.25 per cent and the lowest was 87 per cent after subsequent lists.
This year however, DU has announced that they will be releasing only five cut-off lists unlike last year when multiple lists were released.
Admission will not be on first-serve basis and the college will have to admit all those that have cleared the mark.
After the fifth list, for the seats that remain vacant, colleges will have to bring out a fresh merit list for their vacant seats and only students who registered online will be able to apply for the vacant seats.
Admission at this stage will be on first-come-first serve basis depending on number of vacant seats.
Calculations needed
Students will also keep in mind, the maths involved with cut-off lists.
The way to arrive at the qualification percentage is to take into account marks in one language plus three best subjects in the board exam.
Students will have to note that if they have not studied a particular subject in school, a penalty of 2.5 per cent for honours courses is imposed for each subject not studied or included in best four. For a stream change, the penalty is a maximum of five per cent.
The first cut-off will be released on June 30, second on July 5, third on July 11, fourth on July 15 and the fifth on July 20.
