Med aspirants anxious over long wait for counselling

 Med aspirants anxious over long wait for counselling

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Ragu.Raman@timesgroup.com

04.01.2022

Chennai:

With the MBBS and BDS counselling delayed by more than two months, medical aspirants are anxious that their wait to enter medical colleges may get even longer with the spurt of Covid-19 cases. Some candidates with high scores in NEET 2021 have already joined other courses while other toppers are worried about the possibility of having to study along with their juniors due to the extraordinary delay in medical admissions this year due to pending court cases and the pandemic.

Around 42,000 students have registered online for MBBS, BDS 2021-22 counselling while 33,000 students have sent their applications so far for the medical admissions. The last date for registering online is January 7. Ranjitha from Mylapore who scored above 600 marks in NEET 2021, has joined Anna University as a back-up plan. "Now, we are about to complete the first semester and reach the stage of assessment. It adds an extra-pressure to decide whether to continue in engineering or to join MBBS. There are many students like me," she said.

Students also worried about rushing through the first-year syllabus of MBBS due to the delay in the counselling. Anirudh, who has secured more than 650 marks in NEET 2021, said there was no information about the counselling though it had been four months since the NEET exam was held. "If the counselling starts now, we can plan accordingly," he said.

Dharani, a topper among government school students in NEET 2021, has already lost several months. "My brother is in Class XII. It seems both of us will start going to college at the same time," she said.

PV Ramachandran, course coordinator for medical programmes, FIITJEE, Chennai, said students who had done very well in NEET were now under stress due to delay in medical counselling. "Due to uncertainty, many parents are pressuring students to join other courses as a back-up," he said.

The National Medical Commission has postponed the counselling for all-India quota till the case regarding following EWS quota for All India  quota (AIQ) seats is decided by the Supreme Court. "We normally start counselling after the first round of counselling for AIQ seats is completed. This will give toppers an opportunity to choose seats from AIQ. So, it will give more seats to Tamil Nadu students," an official said.