The cut-offs for admission into undergraduate courses at different colleges of Delhi University (DU) continued to spiral upwards as the first list of cut-offs was announced on Wednesday and it remained above 97% for popular courses.

The highest cut- off was BCom (Honours) at Ramjas College at 99.25%, up from last year's 97.75%. But this year, 100% cut-offs were not declared by any college.

Over 250,000 students have applied for the 54,000 seats in 61 colleges this year. The cut-off for the BA programme jumped at both the on-campus as well as the off-campus colleges. For instance, at Hansraj College the cut-off increased from 90% to 96%.

At Kirori Mal College, the minimum percentage of marks required for admission jumped from 91% to 96.5%. At Bharati College, the cut-off for the subject increased to 82% from 80%.

In the science stream, the cut-offs remained either the same or decreased across colleges. At Hansraj College, the cut-off for the much-sought-after BSc (honours) Computer Science was slashed to 97.25% from 97.75%.

At Miranda House, the cut-offs remained almost the same as that of last year. In Physics, students with a best of three (physics, chemistry and mathematics score) of more than 96.66% will get admission in the first list.

Experts said that the students must not panic if they failed to get through the first list of cut-offs as five cut-off lists will be issued by DU this year. Students who are opting to change their streams will face a deduction of 1%-5%, depending on the college. This rule will apply only for the

BA programme and BCom programme.

The cut-offs for economics courses in most colleges remained above the 95% bracket. The highest cut-off was seen at Ramjas College, at 98.5%, followed by Shri Ram College for Commerce at 98.25%.