Dip in St Stephen’s cutoff may not affect DU list

The first cutoff at St Stephen’s College this year saw a dip in almost all courses but principals feel this may not be the case in other colleges. Many college principals said the cutoff can go 1-2% higher than last year.

Principals said as the number of students scoring 90% and above in Class 12 board results was the highest in the last two years, it would lead to colleges setting higher cutoffs. This year, nearly 90,000 students scored more than 90% marks -- it was 60,000 plus in 2015, an increase from 59,591 in 2014.

“The cutoffs are expected to see a marginal rise of 0.5 to 1% across streams. The number of students applying to the university has increased this year. The Class 12 board results this year were also better than last year,” said Gyantosh Jha, principal, Atma Ram Sanatan Dharma College.

Read more: DU admissions: St Stephen’s declares admission cut-offs

Principals said colleges will be cautious while releasing the first cutoff to avoid over admissions. “Cutoffs will obviously increase as no college will take the risk of keeping lower cutoffs than last year as it can lead to over admissions,” said Vijay K Sharma, principal, Ram Lal Anand College.

After a college releases its cutoff, it cannot turn away any eligible student seeking admission within the stipulated period. Admissions in DU colleges are not based on the first-come-first-serve basis.

Dr Rama Sharma, acting principal, Hans Raj College said, “While the cutoff could be the same for a few subjects but overall it is expected to go up by 1-2% in most of the subjects.”

Bhim Rao Ambedkar College principal GK Arora said that since the number of seats remains same in the university, the cutoffs will stay on the higher side. “Had new courses started and the seats increased there would have been an impact on the cutoffs. Since that has not happened, the cutoffs are going to increase,” he said.

But some principals said it was too early to comment about the cutoff, but it could even come down marginally. “Seeing the cutoffs of St Stephen’s, we can expect it to be slightly lower. But students needs to be assured there is no need to panic. After the first few cutoff lists, we admit students with 70-80% marks as seats remain vacant,” said Manoj Sinha, principal, Aryabhatta College.