The undergraduate (UG) admission process at Delhi University (DU) this year has witnessed a reshuffle in college preferences opted by candidates — with Dyal Singh College breaking into the list of the six most preferred colleges, and traditional frontrunners, including Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC), St Stephen’s College and Miranda House not making it to the top five, The Indian Express has learnt.
However, university officials cautioned against drawing definitive conclusions at this stage, saying the admission process is still underway. They also attributed the emerging trend partly to differences in seat capacity across colleges.
“For instance, Dyal Singh College has about 800 more seats than St Stephen’s College. That is probably one of the reasons we are seeing some of the traditional colleges moving out of the top preferred list this year,” a senior university official told The Indian Express.
“Although it is too early to conclusively analyse why this change is happening, we believe seat availability could be an important factor,” the official said.
Preferences submitted by candidates until 5.30 pm on Sunday evening suggest that the hierarchy of DU’s most sought-after colleges continues to evolve under the Common Seat Allocation System (CSAS), since the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) was introduced in 2022, with this year’s student preferences differing markedly from those seen in the previous year’s admission cycle.
This year, the most preferred colleges also include Kirori Mal College and Hansraj College, followed by Hindu College, Sri Venkateswara College, Ramjas College and Dyal Singh College.
The changing preferences become evident when viewed across the CUET era. In the first year of CUET admissions in 2022, Ramjas College, Kirori Mal College, Sri Venkateswara College, Delhi College of Arts and Commerce, Hansraj College and SRCC featured among the most preferred colleges.
Story continues below this ad
In 2023, Kirori Mal emerged as the most preferred college, followed by Hindu and Hansraj. In 2025, again, the order was different, as SRCC topped the chart and Hindu College, Hansraj College, St Stephen’s College and Miranda House followed.
This year, however, Kirori Mal is back at the top. Sri Venkateswara, Ramjas and Dyal Singh are on the top spots, replacing SRCC, St Stephen’s and Miranda House.
The trend also reflects the changing dynamics of admissions under CSAS. Unlike the earlier cut-off based system, candidates now submit a comprehensive order of programme and college preferences after their CUET scores are declared. This allows them to factor in not only the reputation of colleges, but also seat availability, previous admission trends and the likelihood of securing admission. Even as students appear to be reassessing their choice of colleges, their preferred programmes have remained remarkably consistent.
Commerce courses continue to dominate admissions five years into the CUET era. University data shows B.Com (Honours) and B.Com remain the two most sought-after programmes this year, followed by BA (Honours) English, BA (Honours) Political Science, the BA Programme combination of History and Political Science, BA (Honours) History and B.Sc. (Honours) Zoology.
Story continues below this ad
The pattern broadly mirrors last year’s admissions. In 2025, B.Com (Honours) received 19.90 lakh programme preferences, followed by B.Com with 15.26 lakh and BA (Honours) English with 12.23 lakh. Among BA Programme combinations, History and Political Science attracted the highest number of preferences, followed by Economics and Political Science and English and Economics. In terms of first-choice selections, B.Com (Honours) remained the most preferred programme with 48,336 first preferences, followed by BA (Honours) Political Science and B.Sc. (Honours) Zoology.
As of Sunday evening, 2,73,751 candidates had signed up on the CSAS portal, of whom 2,18,284 completed their registrations. More than 2.06 lakh applicants had submitted their programme and college preferences.
Women continue to outnumber men in the admissions process. Of the candidates who completed registration, 1,20,509 are women and 97,775 men, continuing the trend seen last year when women constituted just over 53% of applicants.
Competition remains intense, with over two lakh vying for around 71,600 UG seats across 73 programmes offered by 69 colleges and academic departments. In addition, the university is offering nearly 150 combinations under the BA Programme.
The university was scheduled to release simulated ranks by 5 pm on Sunday, allowing applicants to assess their likely position before seat allocation. Candidates can revise their programme and college preferences until 4.59 pm on July 13.
Story continues below this ad
The first CSAS allocation list will be announced on July 16, after which successful candidates will have to accept their allotted seats by July 18. Colleges will complete verification by July 20, while the last date for fee payment in the first round is July 21. The second allocation list is scheduled to be released on July 25.
