DU-Day dawns for hopefuls

“I decided to come in today because I want to get over with the admissions process as soon as possible,” said Ayush Gupta from Dwarka.

Not surprisingly,confusion prevailed among many students regarding whether they were required to fill the common OMR admission sheet for all colleges or visit and fill up separate forms for individual colleges.

Numerous student helpdesks were set up to provide information,including the instruction that only one form needed to be filled up for all colleges,barring St Stephen’s and Jesus and Mary,which have separate admission forms.

Of the total 27,610 forms sold,the highest number of forms — 4,300 — was sold at the Faculty of Arts at DU. South Campus saw a sale of 1,300 forms.

Forms for SC/ST students are available at two centres — Faculty of Arts and the office of the Dean of Students Welfare,South Campus. Thirteen students registered under the physically challenged quota. The School of Open Learning also began their admissions today. The rush is expected to continue over the next fortnight,the deadline for submission of forms.

Common Aptitude Test in English
This year,candidates for Delhi University’s BA English (Hons) have to sit for a Common Aptitude Test in English (CATE) for admissions in 12 colleges. The rest of the colleges will take in students on the basis of merit,like last year. The minimum qualification for CATE is 60 per cent (best of four subjects) and 60 per cent in English. Colleges accepting CATE scores are DCAC,Hindu,IP College for Women,Kamala Nehru,Maharaja Agrasen,Ram Lal Anand (Evening),Satyavati (Evening),Shivaji,Shyam Lal,Swami Shradhanand and Zakir Husain (Morning and Evening). Forms for the test can be obtained from the Faculty of Arts through a bank draft worth Rs 100 in favour of Registrar,University of Delhi till June 15; the test would be held on June 17. There would be four centres for the test,Faculty of Arts at North Campus and at South Campus,Maharaja Agrasen College and Zakir Husain College. CATE would include questions on literature-related knowledge,an essay and comprehension skills.

“There are no specific tips to clear this aptitude test. We want to test the ability of students to cope with a course like English Honours. We would be looking for writing skills,language competence and general awareness in literature,” said Tapan Basu,Associate Professor in English at Hindu College and member of the committee in charge of the CATE.

SC/ST admissions in chaos
Among the admission hiccups on the first day was SC/ST students being asked to submit copies of their original marksheets. Since many schools in the Northeast states have not received marksheets yet,students with temporary marksheets downloaded from the Internet were in a fix. Priyanka,an SC student from Rohini,said,“They are asking for copies of our original marksheets. I wish somebody could help me out.” While the Dean of Students Welfare’s office had instructed students to get their original Class X marksheets so their Class XII marksheets could be attested,this facility was available only for CBSE students.

DU Community Radio tunes into admissions
The Delhi University community radio has begun airing programmes on admission starting Monday. In the next few days it will have a daily hour-long programme,in which students can have a live phone-ins and put forward their queries to principals and experts from the university. The show will be aired between 10 am to 11 am. They have also composed jingles on ragging,security and safety in the campus in collaboration with the Delhi Police.