Wednesday's caste quota counselling brought little succour to scheduled caste (SC) candidates seeking admission into Delhi university colleges. This counselling session was for SC students who secured 70 percent and above and were not allotted colleges of choice in the first two lists of admissions.

With SC admissions being centralised, i.e, the university alloting them college seats, most SC students had to be contend with not getting admissions into colleges of their preference. Without a cut-off relaxation, SC students were stranded with the top colleges having filled their seats.

Sushil Kumar from Rajasthan, with a score of 71.2 percent said, “I want to do BSc with chemistry honours, but most of the colleges have not gone beyond 87 percent cut-off. And the ones that have are not good colleges and are far away in south campus.”

The university reasoned the shortage of seats may be a result of the volume of applications received this year. Deputy dean of students’ welfare Gulshan Sawhney said, “The turnout has been more than we expected this year.”

Jyotika from Varanasi scored 72.5 percent. “I was waiting for this counselling to allot me a good college. I want to study English honours, in a campus college because they usually have hostel accommodation. But the authority sitting here do not consider these things,” she said.

On Tuesday counselling for scheduled tribe (ST) students was conducted, where more than 700 students were allotted colleges for admissions.

Neha, a ST student, whose counselling was on Tuesday said, “I scored 78 percent and want to do BCom honours. However, I was told that all the students this year want to do BCom honours and Economics honours and tha not everyone can get to do that. I was then offered a BA Prog seat in one of the off-campus colleges. But I choose BCom in ARSD (Atma Ram Sanatan Dharma College).”

J M Khurana, dean, students’ welfare said, “We cannot help all students who want to do BCom honours and economics honours. Most of the students this year want to take up these courses. What can we do?”

There is a face-to-face counselling scheduled on Thursday for SC students who have scored between 65-70 percent, while on Friday, candidates with scores of 60-65 percent will receive counselling.