Delhi University’s first cut-off list to be released today: All you need to know

The first cut-off list for admissions to over 70,000 undergraduate seats in around 65 Delhi University colleges is likely to be released on Saturday, university officials have said.

Last year, the first cut-off list was announced on June 28. This year, however, in the wake of the nationwide Covid-19 lockdown in March and the subsequent delay in board exams and their results, the admission process has been pushed to November. The academic session is slated to begin from November 18.

While university officials have asked colleges to send their respective college-wise cut-off by Saturday noon, colleges have also expressed difficulty in doing so since they received the registration data only on Friday. Dean (Admissions) Shobha Bagai, who had earlier said that the cut-offs would be announced on October 10, said, “The announcement of cut-offs depends on data sent to us by colleges. We have asked them to submit the cut-offs to us by noon Saturday. But we can’t commit on any date,” she said.

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Here are five things you need to know about the admission process this year:

1) ADMISSION TIMELINE

Since the admission process is completely online, eligible applicants can seek admissions under the first cut-off list from Monday to Wednesday. The second cut-off list will be announced on October 19. While every year, applicants had to visit colleges to take admission, due to the pandemic this year, the university had made the admission process completely online. Now, students can upload a copy of their mark sheets and certificates on the university website and they can be physically verified once the session reopens.

2) HIGH NUMBER OF APPLICANTS  

Despite the pandemic, admission to Delhi University colleges this year is unlikely to be easier than the previous years with the varsity receiving its highest-ever number of applications so far. University officials said they have received 353,153 applications for around 70,000 undergraduate seats. Colleges attributed this increase to several factors — including longer registration period, lack of clarity over entrance exams due to Covid-19, inability to apply to foreign universities because of the lockdown and the delay in the admission process that has allowed students from multiple state boards to apply as their results had been declared till August.

3) APPLICANTS FROM ACROSS STATES

The feasibility of an online admission process is also likely to attract more students from outside Delhi as they don’t have to consider the financial aspect of coming to Delhi to complete the admission formalities, college principals said. Around 60% of the students who study at DU are from outside Delhi.

4) CUT-OFFS MAY REMAIN HIGH

Several DU colleges on Friday said that the cut-offs are unlikely to come down from the last year and are, instead, likely to see a rise of 0.5 to 1 percentage point across courses. This could be attributed to an exponential increase in high scorers (90-100%) in the Class 12 Central Board of Secondary Examination this year. Some colleges are likely to keep cut-offs at 100% as well. “Cut-offs are set to rise exponentially this time as more number of students have scored high marks this year. We have decided to keep the cut-offs for at least three courses at 100%,” said an official from a South Campus college, requesting anonymity.

5) EXPLAINING HIGH CUT-OFFS

Since DU does not have a “first come, first served policy”, colleges have to grant admissions to every student who clears the cut-off. The central university receives applicants from across states, which means that colleges have to consider the marking and result system of all boards before setting the cut-offs. The first cut-off list remains on the higher side, so that colleges can try to control the “overadmission” that happens every year. Last year, despite keeping the highest cut-off across courses and colleges (99%), Hindu College had said that it had admitted more number of students than the available seats for its Political Science (Hons) course.

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