Despite soaring cut-offs announced by Delhi University, admissions to over 49% of the merit-based undergraduate seats have already taken place in the first list itself.
As of Friday, 34,814 admissions had taken place against close to 70,000 undergraduate seats in the varsity.
Political science has emerged to be one of the most sought after courses with colleges over-admitting students. The cut-off for BA (Hons) Political Science at Miranda House and Ramjas College was 99% while at Hindu College it was 99.5%. All three colleges are likely to close admissions to the course in the first list itself. Principals of both North Campus and off-campus colleges said that similar to previous years, a large number of outstation students have taken admission this year.
Stay undeterred
Lady Shri Ram College principal Suman Sharma said, “We were thinking that the pandemic might have an effect on the number of students applying from outside Delhi. However that is not the case and the rush has been the usual.”
Stating that most of those who have taken admissions are outstation students, Anju Srivastava, Hindu College principal said, “There has definitely been a surge in applications from students outside of Delhi. Most of those who have taken admissions are outstation students. They must be having their own peer groups and seniors, and a streamlined process as we have not really received any query or mail regarding apprehensions, especially due to the pandemic. Despite high cut-offs, several of the courses closed after the first list.”
Ramjas College principal Manoj Khanna said, “There has been absolutely no change whatsoever from the previous years. The overall rush is the same with a substantial number of outstation students applying. Students from Karnataka, Bihar, Andhra Pradhesh and the North-East have taken admissions. The cut-off for political science was 99%. Despite that there have been 145 admissions against 78 seats. It is definitely one of the most popular courses. The other courses that saw a rush were Hindi and BA (Programme).”
Miranda House also saw students from Telangana and Kerala among other States taking admissions, said acting principal Bijayalaxmi Nanda.
Minor glitches
Aspirants from outside the city added that the online admission process has been mostly smooth barring a few glitches
Kamalkali Majumdar, an applicant from Kolkata said, “Not that there was a lack of information regarding the admissions but there were minor glitches. On the second day, a lot of us faced issues with the payment as the portal was not functioning properly. It was only later at night that the respective dashboards reflected that the payment was successful. Nodal officers were unreachable and emails unresponsive several times. We were mentally prepared for the process to take longer but it got done just in two days.”
“Overall, the process was smooth, however, I would have loved to experience the whole process first-hand and complete all the formalities along with other friends together,” said Ms. Majumdar, who has taken admission in a North Campus college.
Bibhasha Banerjee, another outstation student who has taken admission for the (BA) Sociology course in an off-campus college, said: “The online admission process had both advantages and disadvantages. The biggest advantage was that we did not have to travel all the way to the campuses during the pandemic. The online portal was a boon for those living outside Delhi. However, the disadvantage which the online process has is related to the ECA admissions as there will be no trials this year. This is unfair to all ECA aspirants as trials would help us showcase our talent properly.”
