Over the last decade, admissions to the University of Delhi have become increasingly tough. Even the brightest of candidates find it difficult because there are just too many people scoring near perfect marks.
Even as the minimum marks required to qualify for admission – the cutoffs – climbed the 90%-plus ladder and reached 100% four years ago, the spectacle is now turning farcical. Some cutoffs have risen – absurdly – even above 100% this year.
No, maths hasn't changed, nor has the system of marking. Nor has it somehow – inexplicably – become possible to score above the maximum possible marks in an examination.
So what gives?
Penalty clause
Colleges continue to place their bets on keeping the bar as high as possible in the hope that the best students will choose to enrol with them in the first round of admissions itself.
For example, this year, the College of Vocational Studies and Indraprastha College for Women announced 100% cut off for admission to the Bachelor’s course in computer science. But this is at least something within the realm of the real. What makes it worse is the penalty clause for those who wish to change their stream – for they have to deal with a disadvantage ranging from 2.5% to 3%.
It is this penalty clause for change of stream – say from Science to Commerce – that pushes the cut-offs to absurd and impossible levels. A penalty of 2.5% implies that those seeking admission to the B.Com honours from the Science stream would have to score 2.5% more marks than those from the commerce stream to secure a seat. Thus, if the cutoffs are above 97.5%, the students from Science would need to score above 100% marks – an impossibility – to even apply for admission.
Which is what has happened this year.
What it effectively means is that students cannot choose certain streams unless they studied them in Class XII, as it is – obviously – not possible to score more than the maximum possible marks in examinations.
The situation is a good enough indicator of the distress that the education system finds itself in where seat-cramped colleges have to resort to unrealistic benchmarks just to filter out students, leaving them to their own devices.
Rising cutoffs
For example, those wishing to study economics without having studied it in Class XII will need to have 100.75% marks in the best-of-four subjects to secure a seat in the BA Economics course in the prestigious Sri Ram College of Commerce or the Hansraj College.
The situation is the same with the Lady Shri Ram College, Ramjas, and Miranda House when it comes to the BA Economics course.
“The idea is to ensure that students who are coming from a different stream have enough calibre to catch up with those who have studied the discipline for at least two years more,” said a sociology professor from Delhi University, requesting anonymity. “However, what happens is that many who are passionate about the subject lose out because they don’t have that extra percentage of marks.”
In fact, this year the university has done away with its much-criticised system of stream wise cutoffs for the first time where marks requirement was different for different courses. However, the discrimination still exists in some courses if you haven’t cleared the relevant papers in school exams.
Thousands were disappointed when the latest cutoffs came out and there’s no guarantee that the next cutoff due on June 30 will provide any relief to those waiting for the bar just to get a little bit lower.
Even then, DU teachers recommend securing a seat in the course of your choice before you go hunting for your favourite college. “The cutoffs may not come down at all and you might end up doing a course irrelevant to your interests if you keep waiting for your favourite college to lower the bar,” she said. “One should simply reserve a seat in their preferred college as soon as the cutoff allows it and then do the rest of the career plotting.”
Stressing the need for reforms, she said, like many others, that the DU simply needs to add more seats as it received over 3,70,000 applications for its 54,000 seats this year making it extremely competitive to get in.
Even as the minimum marks required to qualify for admission – the cutoffs – climbed the 90%-plus ladder and reached 100% four years ago, the spectacle is now turning farcical. Some cutoffs have risen – absurdly – even above 100% this year.
No, maths hasn't changed, nor has the system of marking. Nor has it somehow – inexplicably – become possible to score above the maximum possible marks in an examination.
So what gives?
Penalty clause
Colleges continue to place their bets on keeping the bar as high as possible in the hope that the best students will choose to enrol with them in the first round of admissions itself.
For example, this year, the College of Vocational Studies and Indraprastha College for Women announced 100% cut off for admission to the Bachelor’s course in computer science. But this is at least something within the realm of the real. What makes it worse is the penalty clause for those who wish to change their stream – for they have to deal with a disadvantage ranging from 2.5% to 3%.
It is this penalty clause for change of stream – say from Science to Commerce – that pushes the cut-offs to absurd and impossible levels. A penalty of 2.5% implies that those seeking admission to the B.Com honours from the Science stream would have to score 2.5% more marks than those from the commerce stream to secure a seat. Thus, if the cutoffs are above 97.5%, the students from Science would need to score above 100% marks – an impossibility – to even apply for admission.
Which is what has happened this year.
What it effectively means is that students cannot choose certain streams unless they studied them in Class XII, as it is – obviously – not possible to score more than the maximum possible marks in examinations.
The situation is a good enough indicator of the distress that the education system finds itself in where seat-cramped colleges have to resort to unrealistic benchmarks just to filter out students, leaving them to their own devices.
Rising cutoffs
For example, those wishing to study economics without having studied it in Class XII will need to have 100.75% marks in the best-of-four subjects to secure a seat in the BA Economics course in the prestigious Sri Ram College of Commerce or the Hansraj College.
Hindu College's first cut-off specifying the disadvantage clause for those changing streams.
The situation is the same with the Lady Shri Ram College, Ramjas, and Miranda House when it comes to the BA Economics course.
“The idea is to ensure that students who are coming from a different stream have enough calibre to catch up with those who have studied the discipline for at least two years more,” said a sociology professor from Delhi University, requesting anonymity. “However, what happens is that many who are passionate about the subject lose out because they don’t have that extra percentage of marks.”
In fact, this year the university has done away with its much-criticised system of stream wise cutoffs for the first time where marks requirement was different for different courses. However, the discrimination still exists in some courses if you haven’t cleared the relevant papers in school exams.
Thousands were disappointed when the latest cutoffs came out and there’s no guarantee that the next cutoff due on June 30 will provide any relief to those waiting for the bar just to get a little bit lower.
Even then, DU teachers recommend securing a seat in the course of your choice before you go hunting for your favourite college. “The cutoffs may not come down at all and you might end up doing a course irrelevant to your interests if you keep waiting for your favourite college to lower the bar,” she said. “One should simply reserve a seat in their preferred college as soon as the cutoff allows it and then do the rest of the career plotting.”
Stressing the need for reforms, she said, like many others, that the DU simply needs to add more seats as it received over 3,70,000 applications for its 54,000 seats this year making it extremely competitive to get in.
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