DU closes applications: KMC, Hindu, Hansraj the most preferred colleges

The university clocked a considerable jump in the number of applications this year, up from 217,653 last year

Delhi University on Wednesday evening wrapped up the second phase of its undergraduate admission process, with 245,239 students applying for a spot in the popular institution, said officials involved in the process.

Hindu College received 158,548 applications this year. (HT Archive)

The university clocked a considerable jump in the number of applications this year, up from 217,653 last year, a 12.7% increase officials attributed to more students appearing in the Common University Entrance Test (CUET). DU is using CUET scores to determine admissions this year, a process that was first adopted last year.

Kirori Mal College received the most applications this year, with 161,533 students opting for the institution in their forms. This was followed by Hindu College, with 158,548 applications, Hansraj College (157,162) and Ramjas (156,068).

To be sure, students were free to opt for as many colleges as they wanted to on DU’s Common Seat Allocation System (CSAS) portal. Hence, multiple colleges will have received applications from the same student.

Sri Venkateswara College, Dyal Singh College and Atma Ram Sanatan Dharma College were also among the most popular colleges.

DU will now work on ascertaining how many of the candidates make the cut for the university’s 71,000 seats. Last year, the university admitted just 65,000 students.

The administration will assign students simulated ranks — a tentative position that will determine which college a candidate gets admitted to, depending on their chosen preference. Candidates will be allocated slots in colleges based on their programme-specific merit score, category, and the availability of seats.

The CSAS portal will lock students’ programme preferences on July 27, said officials. The simulated ranks will be released on July 29 at 5pm. The window to alter preferences will then be open till 11.59pm on July 30.

The third phase of the admission process will begin on August 1 and deal with seat allotment and admissions based on candidates’ college-course preferences. Candidates can accept their seat by August 4.

DU officials have said that once a seat is allocated in a particular round, the candidate must ‘accept’ the allocated seat before the last date for the given allocation round, with inactivity or inaction to be taken as non-acceptance to the allocated seat.

This year, BCom was the most popular programme, followed by BCom (Hons), BA (Hons) English, and BA (Hons) political science.

Premier DU colleges like Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC), Lady Shri Ram College (LSR) and Miranda House were not among the top 10 most preferred colleges, showed DU data. However, officials said this is likely because of the fewer courses or subject combinations they offer, apart from the fact that LSR and Miranda are women’s colleges.

Anju Srivastava, principal, Hindu College said, “It’s good to know we have a high number of students applying... My immediate reaction is that this is probably because we offer a wide range of courses catering to students of Humanities, Commerce and Science streams.”

A vast majority of the applicants this year (80.93%) are from schools affiliated with the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), showed the data.

With 88,036 applicants, Delhi saw the maximum number of applications. This was followed by 55,685 applicants from Uttar Pradesh and 23,442 from Haryana.