Evening Colleges: A Good Option To Look For
Now while looking for admissions, students can also opt for evening colleges. With lower cutoffs and almost the same infrastructure as the morning colleges, nearly 10 evening colleges have gained popularity in past several years. As classes are conducted in such colleges after 2pm, 
it provides flexibility for those willing to earn while they learn. These evening colleges are cashing in upon several university toppers through prizes, thereby polishing their image and attract bright students.
As per Deepak Malhotra, Principal of Dayal Singh College (evening), ‘The first evening college - Camp College - in the city was started for the refugees from Pakistan who worked during the day. That college was dismantled in 1959 to form Dayal Singh (evening), Zakir Husain (evening), DAV College (evening) and Deshbandhu (evening).'
Mr. Malhotra also said that Dayal Singh College is enjoys a good reputation as a college in art and cultural activities and even the results prove that there is no difference between morning and evening colleges in academics or infrastructure. In the previous year, one of the students topped in the university in English and brought maximum number of prizes in various inter-college competitions.
Deepak Malhotra also said that it is a myth that evening colleges are only for poor scorers and a false perception held by the elite. He said that the college gets students from all popular schools and different courses like travel and tourism are offered by the colleges. He also said that there are more seats than the morning college.
According to Dinesh Varshney, a faculty at Moti Lal Nehru (evening) College, ‘It is true that some evening colleges might not have good infrastructure or academic record, the faculty is as good as those of morning colleges. He also said that previously, evening colleges did not attract students till the second or the third cutoff list. Teachers used to sit idle during the admission season. However, now the scenario has changed and a large number of seats are filled after the first cutoff list itself, and that too in humanities courses besides BCom and BCom (honours).
Mr. Varshney also said that the cutoffs in evening colleges are usually lower by 5-10% in most courses and this acts as an added advantage. This is due to the fact that there are various outstation students who put up on their own and join evening colleges so as to work in the mornings. These students work in shifts in call centers, coffee shops and others.
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Source: Prachi Srivastava (Shiksha Team)
Date: 3rd June, 2011
