How To Fail At Getting Into Delhi University Via The ECA Quota

So, at the time of writing this article, admissions to the elusive seats of Delhi University are taking place. Thousands of students line up like well, I can’t even draw an analogy for this because the main analogy for desperate people who are hulked out over something & are then flipped off by life, is DU students.

There is a method to the madness in the admissions season, with the helplines being flooded (not that they ever pick up) & with students arriving en masse to photocopy shops to get their forms printed.

Ah! Fun (*cries inside*)!

Now, I hear you say, “Why do you cry Tanmay?”, “What was so traumatic that you shed even a fraction of the priceless water content?”, etc.

WHY?

Well, I’m glad you asked. I, like many students across the country, applied for a seat in colleges across DU. I wanted to get into English. It was my dream to study in a place with such culture & heritage & people (minus the hooligans).

But alas! It was only a dream by the time admissions came to an end. No DU college, at least not the ones I wanted.

And the reason, my marks were not up to par. I couldn’t score 95+ on every subject just because I had not mugged up the syllabus & imprinted the text on my mind like a brand on a criminal. Anyway, I digress.

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So I went for the ECA quota (Extra Curricular Activities) trials. I had hoped that for a university which prides itself on the rich culture of extracurriculars, DU would have a safe space for people like me. I gave the debate trials.

But like every system in India, this system too was broken. The authorities had tried to fix it and had broken it even more.

Earlier, the ECA quota system was different. You would audition for each college’s respective society. If they liked you, they would take you. But due to numerous reports of under-the-table deals between parents & college authorities for admission under this quota, the system was changed.

And the solution was:

*drumroll*

CENTRALIZATION.

Just shift the corruption and make the process “transparent” by video recording the audition so that the students have this false reassurance of fair play. You know nobody is gonna question these ‘judges’ decision.

Now, in the centralized system, you had to give ONE audition. ONE. If you messed this up, you are done. Then you were given marks on the basis of your audition & certificates.

But since this was a ‘sarkaAri’ mechanism, ‘Golmaal Ho Gaya’.

We were called at 9 in the morning for the ECA quota trials & made to sit in a room. I waited till 7 in the evening, as my name falls in the bottom part of the order.

After that when our marks came in, we had to rush to all the colleges we wanted to apply for. I ran all across Delhi. From Hansraj to Ramjas to KMC to Venky to Motilal to DCAC & then back to Ramjas all in a span of 4 hours.

This was further made more irritating by the lack of direction from the University authorities. The colleges did not know what information to take for the ECA quota, how to take it, what documents to collect. Forms were not available at some places.

In the middle of the scorching Delhi heat, I & thousands of others toiled.

And then the bombshell hit, DU provides only a marginal decrease in the last available cutoff. Depending on how many ECA quota candidates applied for that particular course in that particular college, a separate ‘discounted’ cutoff for ECA quota was prepared, & those who cleared the cutoff were called.

And of course, everyone applied everywhere. Those with 95% & 97% who had already got into tier 1 colleges were selected again because of course, they were at the top of the cutoff.

There seems to be no reason for these people seeking better admissions but I did hear one of the reasons. There is a person right now, studying Political Science in LSR who was admitted in Miranda & Venky wanted to switch just because LSR was closer to her home.

Just imagine, one girl holding at least 2 seats. A seat that could have been allotted to someone else early on.

This, along with the sheer ridiculousness of the merit list system, in which everyone was allowed to apply for every available seat (Earlier, this was not the case. Only those who had not been admitted anywhere could apply this way).

But now, it was a free for all. Seats were being emptied & filled, being emptied again. And we, who were not admitted because of lack of amazing marks, were left out to those with these marks & seats in colleges.

So, that was my experience of the DU admission process, maybe someday it can be fair & transparent & not cruel. But that day is far as the day unicorns fall out of the sky, Trump becomes a liberal & Amit Shah bear hugs a Dalit.

Image Credits: Google Images

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