DU undergrad admissions: New tie-breaker rule introduced, here’s how it will work

In response to challenges faced last year, DU has revised its tie-breaking rules — it will now take into account marks scored by students in Class X as one of the options.

Explaining why the varsity has considered the new rule this year and how it would be implemented, DU, Dean of Admissions, Haneet Gandhi, told The Indian Express, “Until last year, we were working with raw data and, in some cases, we had to allocate seats based on the alphabetical order of names.”

“This year, we wanted a more rational and merit-based approach. So we decided to use Class X marks. We will take the average of all subjects taken by a student in Class X and use that to break the tie.”

The move, Gandhi said,

ensures that “meritorious students would be considered without fail”.

Until last year, for cases where two or more applicants have the same CUET score for a given programme-college combination, the CSAS guidelines said tie-breaking rules would be applied in this order:

– Candidate with a higher percentage of aggregate marks in the best three subjects of Class XII will be given preference.

– In case the tie is not broken using the first rule, aggregate marks in the best four and five subjects of class XII would consequently be considered.

– If this doesn’t work, officials would consider the age. “Preference will be given to the candidate having an earlier date of birth (as mentioned in the Class X certificate)”.

– If the tie is still not broken, students would be taken in based on the alphabetical order of their names.

Now, the alphabetical order option has been replaced with the Class X score.

With CUET-UG 2025 results awaited, the first phase of the CSAS process — inviting applications — is currently underway. The second phase, in which applicants fill in their programme and college preferences, will begin once the results are declared.

DU is offering 71,624 seats across 79 undergraduate programmes in 69 colleges this year. Notably, its popular BA Programme now offers 186 subject combinations.

Another key update is the “direct auto-accept” mode introduced on the CSAS portal. It allows students to confirm upgraded seats immediately without delay. “After the update in the admission portal, now direct auto-accept mode has been implemented so that no applicant misses the allotment,” Vice-Chancellor Prof Yogesh Singh had said last week.

Admissions were launched on June 17, and classes are scheduled to begin on August 1.