The Great DU ‘Rush Hour’

Priya Goswami The Delhi University rush hour is here with a bang! And it promises to be a big event for scores of students as the chances of getting admitted to a course and college of their choice gets thinner every year! We are talking about the admission time when the hustle bustle of DU crowd takes full form as the university opens its gates for undergraduate admissions.

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Established in 1922, the alma mater has the reputation of being the premier university of the country and is known for its high standards in teaching and research. Starting out with a modest beginning with just three colleges, two faculties (Arts and Science) and about 750 students, DU’s first few members included the St. Stephens College(1881), Hindu College(1899) and Ramjas College(1917). Today, the University of Delhi is one of the topmost universities in India with over eighty colleges under its umbrella. It garners students from all across the country, literally serving as the ‘cultural potboiler’. With the Vice-President of India as the Chancellor of the University of Delhi, it has a history of producing the very cream of the country from different walks of life. So if there is anything common bewteen Manmohan Singh, Shahrukh Khan, Amartya Sen, Konkona Sen Sharma, Rahul Gandhi, Amtitabh Bachchan, Shiekh Hasina and Aung Sang Su Kyi, it has to be Delhi University! Offering courses at the Undergraduate and Post Graduate levels in almost any field under the sun- the conventional as well as the ‘attractive’ ones- and with the number of students exceeding 300000, it is amongst the largest universities in the world. Even then, the capacity never seems to be enough as the list of aspirants seems to be swelling every year, slimming down the chances of the not so good scorers. Over 1.25 lakh aspirants apply for the 43,000 undergraduate seats in eighty-two DU colleges every year. That marks the beginning of the linear logic followed by most of the colleges-the prestige of the college is directly proportional to the high marks on their cut off list. So to be slotted in a league, marks are every important. In fact some colleges have chosen to quote higher figures to get students to believe that they are in the big league and with this the ‘run best, get best’ situation is established. No wonder then, with the various examination boards giving away the results, the students have already geared up with expectations and tentative cut offs in mind. Few days from now the city would be thronged by students from all directions of the country, braving the Delhi heat to be ‘slotted’. As the last year’s cut offs stand, the best known collges of the university closed at the highest mark for courses which are their forte. For example, Sri Ram College of Commerce closed at 94.50% for B Com (Hons) and 95.25% for Economics (Hons). Lady Sri Ram College in the south campus on the other hand came out with the cut off only minutely below SRCC with 94.25% for the B Com course. Along with B Com (Hons) and Economics (Hons), Psychology (Hons) is also a high percentage scorer’s preserve. As last year’s cut offs indicate, 92.25 % was the demand for persual of the course at LSR, 92% for Gargi, 91.5% for Indraprastha College and 84% for Kamla Nehru collge. Peculiar to the course is the fact that it is available only in seven Delhi University Colleges and hence the competition is really tough. Courses like English (Hons) and Journalism (Hons) have the added advantage of having an entrance test in that the students with a basic percentage can take the tests depending on the requirements of the college. St. Stephen’s, arguably the ‘most wanted’, deviated from the ‘cut off system’ last year as they followed the procedure of counting ‘75% of class XII + 10% of class X + 15% of interview’ for the admission. Some of the courses are not so much of a crowd puller but for most of the prestigious colleges like St, Stephen’s, Lady Sri Ram, Hansraj the cut off percentage almost invariably closes at a very high mark. This remaining so, such is the popularity that the general response to the admission process is usually overwhelming and it will not be an understatement to say that this ‘cataclysmic popularity’ has more often than not taken a toll on students, building on the peer pressure phenomenon with increased parental expectations. The only possible way to combat this problem is perhaps through the simplification of the whole saga of the admission process, relieving the already hassled applicants, as they queue up in different colleges with the steep cut off playing in their minds. The University in its turn is leaving no stone unturned to ensure an easier and hassle free admission process. For example, following the last year`s pattern, the general category students need to fill in the Optical Mark Reader (OMR) forms but this year it will be a carbon-less copy unlike last year. “Last year, students had problems with the carbon less OMR as the impressions did not come clear on the carbon copy. This year we have done away with carbon less OMR sheets and asked the students to get the photocopies on their own accord.” Says SK Vij, Dean Student’s welfare. For the SC/ST applicants there are Intelligent Character Reader (ICR) forms and there will be separate counselling sessions for them after they are alotted seats. While they go for admission, the students belonging to the SC/ST category need to carry their original caste proofs and not of their parents. The forms are a recent addition so as to ensure that the students applying to different colleges and various courses use a single platform without having to go door to door at every college. As exceptions are always there, St Stephens & Jesus and Mary College do not accept the common form. These centralized forms will be available at seventeen centers (mostly different colleges of DU) from June 1-15 and the cost of the form is Rs 30. The first cut off list will be tentatively released on the 26th of June and the admission modalities will take place between the 27th and 29th of June, 10 am to 4 pm. For the net savvy, DU has updated its website with a Google map with both satellite and regular pictures. It is advisable if the students go in for a systematic short listing of the colleges of their interest and do the looking up and locating of the colleges through the Google map available on the net. (http://www.du.ac.in/ ) The admission processes may have been made simpler but with the higher marks on the cut off list every year, very little remains that the students can do in this cut -throat competition. Blame it on the examination paper readers (who are getting too liberal with on the marks front) or on the administration that refuses to step out of the ‘marks market’, the scenario will be that of tense anticipation as the freshmen step out to grab the best choice available.