Arts no longer for ‘poor’ students

Nitika and Jyoti who took admission in MCM DAV College in Sector 36 today,cleared their Class XII exams with 94 and 91 per cent marks respectively. Both with Arts background opted for BA in Psychology. Similarly,Kirti opted for and easily secured a seat in BA (Functional English),despite clearing her Class XII with 91 per cent in the Non Medical stream.Arshpreet Kaur with 90 per cent marks in Commerce,chose BA (Functional English),though she knew she would have easily secured a B Com admission with her score in the same college. “BA is no longer considered to be a course that is opted by students with low or average scores. It is encouraging to see that the general mindset of students and more importantly their parents is changing towards this course,” said Principal MCM DAV College Puneet Bedi. Even other colleges in the city show the same phenemenon. At DAV College in Sector 10,the students with the highest percentage scores in their Class XII have been admitted to BA Economics and Maths.

“There is a joke on BA students among their community that they manage to learn only two alphabets and that too,in reverse order. If the lowest cut off for BA goes till 50 or 55 per cent this certainly does not reflect that the course is for average students. Even cut off for B Sc (Medical) is as low as 53 per cent in some of the city colleges,and so it should not be surprising if students even above 95 per cent opt for this course,” said Dean Admissions at DAV College,Sector 10 Dr K C Jain.

The trend seems to have rubbed off on Government colleges as well. For instance,in the Post Graduate Government College for Girls,Sector 11 a student with 89 per cent marks in Arts stream took admission in BA (Functional English). Apart from Psychology and Functional English the other popular Arts subjects include Economics and Sociology. Various college authorities share different views behind this trend where students with high scores are now opting for BA courses. While some say students are aiming for the Administrative Services and thus choose these subjects,others are of the opinion that some students after completing their Class XII in a particular stream,realise their interests lie in other subjects.