Revised Counselling Procedure for NEET All India Quota

We wrote about the online medical counselling procedure for successful NEET candidates in July 2016. That article was written based on the online counselling procedure followed in the years 2014 & 2015. Subsequent to this, Medical Counseling committee (MCC) has revised the online counselling procedure for 2016. In this article, we are covering the revised procedure for your information and understanding.

Schedule for online counselling for NEET (All India Quota) MBBS/BDS seats – 2016

Medical Counselling Committee has released the counselling scheme and counselling schedule for admission to NEET (All India Quota) seats. You will find the same in the table below:

Main counseling registration, choice filling & indicative seat	22nd Aug to 25th Aug 2016	Registration will be open up to 05:00 PM on 25th Aug 2016. Facility for registration will be available before Round-1 only
Exercising of choices and locking (Round 1)	26th Aug 2016	Open up to 05:00 PM
Announcement of Round 1 result	28th Aug 2016
Reporting at the allotted medical/ dental college against Round 1.	29th Aug to 3rd Sep 2016	Should report before 05:00 PM on 3rd Sep 2016. State if you are willing to participate in Round 2. Joining at allotted Institution is necessary, if candidate allotted seat fails to join the allotted college/seat within stipulated time, the allotted seat will be cancelled and candidate shall not be eligible to take part in Round 2.
Exercising of choices and locking (Round 2)	9th Sep 2016 to 10th Sep 2016	Earlier choices submitted by the candidate will be treated null and void. Fresh choices submission for seat allotment in Round 2 is mandatory.
Announcement of Round 2 result	12th Sep 2016
Reporting at the allotted medical/ dental college against Round 2	13th Sep to 20th Sep 2016	Should report before 05:00 PM on 20th Sep 2016
Transfer of vacant seats to State Quota	20th Sep 2016	Transfer happens after 05:00 PM on 20th Sep 2016

Changes in Online Counselling Procedure for 2016

The procedure is more or less the same. But, the major difference is in the number of rounds of counselling. While it was three rounds of counselling in the previous years, it is reduced to just two rounds of counselling in 2016. We believe this change is disastrous for NEET candidates, particularly for students from states that do not use NEET scores for admission to state quota seats.

Why reducing to two rounds of counselling is not good?

Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) returned a total of 875 seats to the states after AIPMT 2015 Counselling Round 3, as they were unable to fill these All India Quota seats even after three rounds of counselling. In 2014, 858 seats were reverted back to the states at the end of three rounds. If the counselling is reduced to just two rounds, this number will go up and many meritorious NEET qualified students would be left disappointed.

To understand this better, let me give you the data of Round 3 in 2015:

• Number of seats allotted in third round (first time) - 999 (886 MBBS seats & 113 BDS seats)
• Number of seats upgraded in third round - 966 (889 MBBS seats & 77 BDS seats)

So, by removing Round 3, we are denying a medical seat for about 1000 candidates and another 1000 candidates are denied a chance to study in a better college.

Our request to Medical Counselling Committee

It is a pity that MCC took a short-cut by deleting one round of counselling to meet the Sep 30 deadline set by Supreme Court. The delay this year is mainly due to the Supreme Court, Central government, MCI and CBSE. But, why should they punish the students?

We sincerely request MCC to reconsider its decision and should revert back to at least three rounds of online counselling. Let us stop playing with the career and dreams of young children of our beloved country.