Dirscripation:- NEW DELHI: An unprecedented rush of aspirants marked the first day of the admission season at St Stephen's College. While the sale of prospectuses and admission forms on Wednesday broke all records, the college's online platform for downloading and submission of application forms failed to take off due to a technical snag.
Over 3,000 forms were sold at the college admission counter on the opening day, surpassing the previous high of 2,200 forms - sold on the first day last year. College officials said this number would have been much higher had the online facility been operational.
"The college witnessed unusual rush on the first day. Over 3,000 forms were sold, which is highest in the history of the college. On the first day last year, we sold around 2,200 forms. Going by the trend we expect to cross last year's total of 25,000 forms,'' said the tutor for admissions, Stephen's, K M Mathew. St Stephen's will be admitting around 420 aspirants across 10 undergraduate courses for the 2011-12 academic session.
But those who preferred to download and submit the form online without procuring a hard copy of the prospectus failed to do so. "Our online facility suffered due to some technical snag. Our IT people are looking into it. We will restore it as soon as possible,'' said Mathew, without giving a specific date by which the online option would become functional.
Akansha Malik, an aspirant for BA (H) economics, said, "I thought the rush will be less on the first day as the sale and submission will continue till June 13. But I have been waiting in the queue for a very long time.''
Students are also apprehensive that this year the cutoff may increase after a marginal dip last year. "Going by the increasing number of students scoring 90% and above, I think the cutoff will significantly go up. Even state board students are scoring high marks these days, giving stiff competition to students of CBSE and CISCE,'' said Biraj Bora, another aspirant.
Stephen's has decided to do away with the reservation policy for Dalit Christian candidates from this year. This category was introduced in 2007, as one of the sub categories within the quota for minority Christian candidates. Till last year, the college used to reserve 10% seats for Christian students belonging to the SC/ST and physically handicapped (PH) categories. But Christian candidates from SC category (or Dalit Christians) can no longer apply for admission through this quota. This 10% reservation is now only for PH and ST Christians.
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