Portrait of an admission seeker

Preeti Khandelwal, 17, has travelled almost the entire length and breadth of Delhi, since the Delhi University admission process started.
Despite the scorching temperature and humidity, that would deter most from coming out of their cosy home or office cabins, Preeti boarded a city-bus and hopped along from one college to the other in various parts of the city.
Says Preeti, "Before, my travelling was restricted between my residence in Karol Bagh and my school at Mandir Marg. In this past few days, I’ve seen parts of the city, which I never had during my entire stay here, particularly the North Campus area."
And, this is not an isolated story. After all, Preeti is among the thousands - if not lakhs - of students seeking admission in the DU, this year.
But what is the need for applying to so many colleges? Preeti, who has secured 78 per cent marks in her class XII commerce examination, explains, "I cannot be sure of admission into a course and college of my choice with these marks. So, I want to keep my options open."
While her first choice is doing B A Economics (Hons) from St Stephen’s, Preeti has applied for about seven courses in over a dozen colleges. Besides she plans to appear for the Journalisn and English (Hons) entrance tests conducted by some of the colleges.
Adds Preeti, "Besides Economics and B Com, I have applied for subjects like History, Philosophy, Political Science and Sociology in the reputed colleges as the cut-offs for these subjects are comparatively low and gives me a better chance of getting admitted. And though, I’ve always studied in a co-educational set-up and prefer to do the same in the college, I’ve still applied in a number of women’s colleges including Miranda House, Lady Sri Ram College, Jesus and Mary and Janki Devi Memorial College."
Preeti admitted that the first few days of travelling with friends to different colleges were fun but she got telltale signs of fatigue on the fifth day.
"I was simply exhausted on that morning. I had a headache and I was not feeling well. I couldn’t pull myself up from my bed. The thought that I might have to walk through crowds in the North Campus and stand in long queues before my turn for submitting the application form comes made the situation worse. So I asked my cousin Karan, who’s also applying for admission this year to submit my forms," remarks Preeti.
Having completed the initial leg-work, Preeti is anxiously waiting for the first cut-off list to be announced on June 26.
"I hope my hard work and all that travelling to various colleges pays off in the form of admission in a reasonably good college for a reasonably good course," comments Preeti, echoing the feelings of all the other thousands of admission-seekers.