The University of Delhi (DU) released its first undergraduate seat allocation list for 2025 on July 19 at 5 pm, marking the beginning of the admissions process under CUET-UG.

The list revealed 93,166 seat allocations for 71,624 available seats across 79 programmes in 69 affiliated colleges — a clear indication of intense competition for admission to the country’s premier public university, The New Indian Express reports.

As expected, the most competitive programmes witnessed extremely high cutoffs. Hindu College recorded the highest cutoff with 950.58 marks for BA (Hons) Political Science, followed closely by 936.18 marks for its BA in History and Political Science programme.

St Stephen’s College, known for its selective admission process, witnessed strong demand for its BA (Hons) English program. Lady Shri Ram College for Women also remained among the top choices, with its BA (Hons) Psychology course setting a high cutoff at 926.53 marks.

While traditional favourites like BCom (Hons) and Political Science (Hons) retained their dominance, the 2025 admission cycle saw a significant shift in academic preferences: BSc (Hons) Zoology emerged as the third most sought-after undergraduate course, as per The New Indian Express.

This is the first time Zoology has entered DU's top three preferred programmes, indicating a rising interest among students in life sciences, research, and environmentally aligned disciplines.

Experts attribute this trend to increased awareness about global health, biodiversity, and climate change — areas where Zoology plays a critical role. The popularity also suggests a growing appetite for STEM-related careers beyond engineering and medicine.