NEW DELHI: The steadily rising Delhi University cutoffs for undergraduate courses reached absurd levels in the first list announced on Wednesday, where the eligibility bar set for certain categories of student went beyond 100%.For instance, a candidate without Economics in class XII would need to have scored 100.75% in the best-of-four (BO4) subjects to secure a seat in Economics at Shri Ram College of Commerce or Hans Raj. Similarly, at Lady Shri Ram College, an aspirant needs to have an aggregate score of 100.5% to get into the Psychology (H) course.While a cursory glance at the first cutoff does not show any 100% cutoffs, the hidden additional criteria means that an Economics aspirant in SRCC, Hindu, Hans Raj, Kirori Mal, Ramjas, LSR and Miranda House would need 100% and above marks in BO4 if the student did not study the subject in class XII.Such absurdity is not restricted to Economics. Stream change students applying for BCom (H) in LSR and Ramjas, Political Science in Hindu, Kirori Mal and LSR and History in Hindu too would need 100% and above marks, thanks to 2.5 percentage points penalty.That’s not all. Cutoffs reached 100% for BSc (H) Computer Science at the College of Vocational Studies (95-100%) and at I P College (97-100%), the perfect score being demanded of science students who did not have computer science at the plus-two level.While high cutoffs are no longer a surprise, DU colleges have taken the ‘play it safe’ policy to a completely new high. First, with no idea for which college the applicants are intending to come for admission, and now from this year the additional criteria of penalty clauses, colleges too have their arguments to support this trend.LSR has set the Psychology (H) cutoff at 98% – high considering a limited number of schools offer the subject at the senior secondary level. However, aspirants who haven’t studied the subject in school would need 100.5% in BO4 to get in.Justifying the cutoffs, Kanika K Ahuja, LSR’s media coordinator and psychology teacher, said 39 applicants who had Psychology in school and secured 98% or above had applied for the course. The number was far greater than seats on offer for the course.“Some of them may go to Economics or History or some other subject. But we won’t know until they do,” said Ahuja.“Anyone who hasn’t studied Economics will not get admission on the basis of first cutoff, but we had no choice. Everything is unknown to us – where they want to study and what? At the same time numbers are very high. Only in the second and third list will we have a better idea,” said Hans Raj principal V K Kawatra, adding that setting the cutoffs was “very very difficult” with the new policy on additional eligibility criteria.Last year, on a single percentage point, over a 100 aspirants turned up for admission in colleges like Miranda House, Gargi College and College of Vocational Studies. “We are going to play a patient game this year. There is nothing worse than an overcrowded classroom. There is no clarity in data so there is definitely going to a cautious first list,” said Pratibha Jolly, principal of Miranda House.