As the admission process gathered steam, Delhi University aspirants and their parents defied the summer heat to stand in long queues hoping to get enrolled in the varsity.

Delhi University announced its first cut-off list for admissions to undergraduate courses late on Thursday night, with Hindu College having the highest cut-off of 99 per cent for Political Science (Honours).

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This year the maximum number of applications received by DU was for BA (Hons) English with 1, 42, 970 applicants and for BA (Hons) Political Science with 1, 30, 240 applicants.

Commenting on the high demand for these courses, Dr Bijayalaxmi Nanda, the principal of Miranda House, said: “There might be many reasons for an aspirant to choose English Honours. One can also be that unlike other courses, in English Honours there is no deduction of marks, whether you are from science, commerce or humanities.

“If a student wants to pursue a course like political science and he is not from the humanities background, then there is a deduction of 2.5 per cent minimum to get into the course.

“After the first list, the intake has been approximately around 50 per cent and seats for political science might get filled up in the first cut-off itself unless an applicant withdraws,” added Nanda.

With the high cut-offs, many students returned home disappointed, complaining about not getting the course of their choice and also about the tedious documentation process in the colleges.

Manish Arora, father of Aditi, was agitated about the exhausting process at Kirori Mal College. He said they had been kept waiting for hours since morning and there was no one to guide them.

“We are here since 8.30 and it’s already 11.45 am but my daughter has not been called for enrollment. They close the process around 1 pm so I do not expect the admission to be done today. We came here on the second day so that we can easily complete the process but even on Day 2 it’s extremely hectic,” said Arora.

Another parent, who did not wish to be named, complained about Lady Shri Ram having a totally different process of documentation from other colleges.
“I am myself an alumnus of this college and we never had this kind of process. We came here yesterday and we were given a token number and told that there are three steps we need to clear. Suddenly at 1.30 pm we were told to go back home with the token and that we will be given preference today,” said the harried parent.

She added, “We came back here at 9 in the morning and again we were harassed at the gate and were not allowed to enter. The authorities have been telling us to wait since morning. Children are going inside and are just being transferred from one room to another and coming back without getting enrolled. On questioning the department they say this is LSR College policy that we verify the students multiple times as compared to other colleges. They claim that the intake is comparatively more.”

An aspirant from Chandigarh, Puneet Sharma, hoped to get enrolled in the political science course but was disappointed with the high cut-off. “I wanted to pursue the course very desperately but seeing the 99 per cent cut off for political science I do not expect to get into the course with my 93 per cent. I am planning to opt for BA Programme (History+Pol Science) as of now,” Sharma said.

Another aspirant’s parent, Sameer Soni, who travelled all the way from Agra, complained about the administration asking for documents that are not even listed in the admission document list. “Why are we being asked for our Aadhaar Card and identity proof? If my ward is the one being admitted to the college then why are they asking for identity proof of the parents also? These were not even mentioned in the document list. My wife does not have her identity proof with her. We are trying to get it by post,” complained Soni.