CUET ENTRANCE EXAM

By Palak Srivastava

Delhi University 2024 Admissions: 97,387 Seats Allotted in First Cut-off

In an important development, the first seat allotment round for Delhi University admissions in 2024 was completed two days ago. Over 97,387 seats have been allotted. The numbers do not include supernumerary or performance-based programs. It is also being considered an important step toward holding the academic session, beginning August 29, 2024.

Revised tie-breaking rules

This year, the Delhi University had to tweak its rules on tie-breaking because the NTA released raw scores and not normalized scores. The new set of rules has been proposed to ensure fairness and accuracy in ranking candidates, particularly when they secure the same merit score in the CUET.

1. Best of 3 Subjects: In case of a tie in the score as awarded by the CUET(UG) 2024 between two or more candidates, first the percentage of aggregate marks in the Best 3 subjects from Class XII, will be taken into consideration to determine the rank.

2. Best 4 Subjects: The aggregate marks in the Best 4 subjects from class XII would be calculated.

3. Best 5 Subjects: Thereafter, aggregate marks in the Best 5 subjects are considered to break the tie definitively.

4. Age Factor: If the tie still persists, then the candidate senior in age will be further preferred wherein date of birth will be the criteria.

5. Alphabetical Order: If all other criteria of breaking the tie fail, rank will be decided based on the alphabetical order of the names of the candidates.

Tie breaking will not be followed for performance-based programs according to the exceptions set by the above rules, for example, programs like B.A. (Hons) Music, B.Sc. [P.E, H.E&S], BFA, and certain supernumerary quotas like Sports, ECA, CW, and Ward. "This particular exception set by universities is made in fulfilling the objectives of overall fairness of the admission process as set by DU."

SPECIAL COMMON RANK AND ALLOCATION TRANSPARENT:

One of the most registered features in this year's admission process is that the rank system follows the Common Rank using the tie-breaking rules. Note that: having the same CUET score with the cutoff does not guarantee admission because it is reliant on the Common Rank.

To enhance transparency, Delhi University has integrated a new facility in the dashboard of a candidate. This feature permits the candidates to get hold of critical information, including Common Rank, Cut-off Rank, Program-Specific CUET score, Cutoff score for all Programs applied for by the candidate, and in which the candidate has appeared for the Entrance test. The net result of this new feature is that the candidates can get a sense of their seat allotment done in the best possible time.

High Demand and the Intense Competition

This year's admission has been one of demand with a difference and among the fiercest competitions. Delhi University received over 1.72 crore combined preferences of candidates under the Common Seat Allocation System (CSAS) for various Program + College combinations for undergraduate programs. Out of 2,45,287 candidates who applied for Phase-I, 1,85,543 completed Phase-II by submitting their preferences as against 1.31 lakh who finally completed the admission process last year which more clearly establishes the emerging trends.

Candidates with seats allocated under the first round now need to accept the offer so made through the candidate's CSAS(UG)-2024 dashboard. The deadline set for the acceptance of a seat is 4:59 PM on August 18, 2024. Candidates must seriously accept the Allocated Seat by them within this time frame, doing it beyond this time frame would automatically disqualify them from participating in the subsequent rounds.

By the end of the first round, 97,387 seats had been allocated, bringing candidates one step closer to beginning their academic journey at Delhi University. Surely, this goes a long way to show how the university is sincere in coming up with systematized ways of seat-filling and thus giving a platform that is much transparent and fair to the applicants.

By Palak Srivastava