Just as Delhi University witnessed cut-offs rocketing for this year across colleges and courses, several principals insisted that this would not lead to a substantial drop in subsequent lists, despite keeping the entry barrier quite high. 

“This is a precaution that all colleges are taking. The list is made checking past years’ admission data and patterns and board exam results. Every year, the applicants increase, the results get higher each year, and we have to do it so that we don’t over-admit students. There will be a drop in subsequent lists but I’m not sure that it will be by a lot in our college,” Hansraj College principal Rama told Indian Express.

Hindu College principal Anju Srivastava said, “We are fairly confident that we will admit the right number of students with the cut-offs we have kept right now. In the second cut-off, therefore, I only see a marginal dip. We will be careful and decrease the cut-off by around one mark.”

Even after the release of the first cut-offs last year, many popular colleges like Ramjas, SRCC and Lady Shri Ram had several courses open for admission. Some even saw a small drop of -.25-0.5 percentage points in many courses. 

SGTB Khalsa College has left students stunned this year by increasing their cut-offs significantly, including 100% in B.Com and above 99% in Physics, Economics, History, Political Science and B.Com (Honours). 

“The first list is a test of sorts for us. The number of students who have scored above 95% is tremendously high and we don’t want to take the risk of over-admissions. Last year, with a cut-off of 96.5% in Political Science, we were expecting a small number of students and instead had to admit 136 students against 40 seats. Students apply to multiple courses and we don’t know what their preferences might be so it’s high across the board. The second and third list will be more appropriate as they will be made after we’ve been able to assess the situation,” said Jaswinder Singh, principal of the college.

Lady Shri Ram College, however, learnt from the experience of last year and decided not to set 100% cut-offs this year in any of their programmes. “Last year we had kept 100% cut off because we did not want any over admission. But keeping in mind last year’s experience, we thought 99.75% was enough this year. The next cut-off will depend on how many students actually seek admission. It’s too early to say right now,” said LSR Principal Suman Sharma.