"There will be a tough competition to grab the medical seats as the number of students who have qualified NEET is significantly higher this year," a parent named Brijesh Sutaria said.
Although there hasn't been a material change in the number of medical seats available compared to last year, the competition for admission to medical colleges is going to be more intense this year due to the higher number of students who passed the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), the results of which were released late Tuesday night.
A total of 131,008 students from Maharashtra have passed the national entrance exam, a significant increase over the 79,974 students who passed it the previous year. Maharashtra is the state with the second-highest number of qualified students, after Uttar Pradesh, which has the most, with 139,961 pupils.
"There will be a tough competition to grab the medical seats as the number of students who have qualified NEET is significantly higher this year," a parent named Brijesh Sutaria said.
Another mom, Sudha Shenoy, stated, "This year, there isn't much of a disparity in the scores and ranks. Maharashtra, for instance, has All India Rankings of 7 and 27, yet there is minimal variation in their percentile score. Nearly all rankings exhibit this. Because many students fall into the category of good scorers, even those with good marks, many students have received lower ranks as a result. For instance, if a candidate received an X score and placed 1000th last year, they can place 1,200th this year with the same score. There will undoubtedly be high cutoffs at colleges as a result of this.
However, it is unlikely that a large number of NEET qualifiers would significantly alter the number of medical seats that will be made available this year. In Maharashtra, there were 10,345 seats available for MBBS and dental school combined in both government and private colleges last year.
"The government has declared plans to build medical institutions in 14 different cities. The applications are being processed, and the National Medical Commission (NMC) has already inspected colleges in Ratnagiri and Parbhani, according to Sutaria.
The NMC has since released an amended notification regarding the adjustment in lower-age requirements. The graduate medical education regulations for 2023, which were previously published in the Gazette, said that the lower age requirement was that applicant must have turned 17 years old by January 31 of the year they take the NEET-UG exam.
However, the date to be taken into account for the lower-age mark has been amended to December 31, after numerous candidates pointed out the date error.
