The announcement of the undergraduate National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) results, after much delay, has brought relief to thousands of candidates in the State who had appeared for the exam. What lies ahead for them, however, is a tough fight to bag a medical or dental seat. The competition has increased as there are 6.11 lakh candidates who have qualified in the exam across the country this year, which is a 49.34% increase from 4.09 lakh candidates last year.
NEET is a gateway for all-India quota seats, State government-quota seats, State, management, and NRI quota seats in private medical and dental colleges besides the Central pool quota seats and deemed university seats.
Experts said there is no need for candidates to panic as last year many States were allowed to allot seats based on their own entrance exam scores. This year saw more candidates appear for NEET — 10.9 lakh candidates appeared for the exam as against 7.31 lakh candidates last year.
Those who wish to obtain State government-quota seats and government seats will have to register with the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) which will announce a State merit list. “After a meeting with private medical colleges next week, we also hope to add the non-government quota seats in private colleges to this pool and conduct common counselling for all seats except deemed university seats,” a source said.
Candidates who wish to apply for 15% all-India quota seats and seats in deemed universities will have to register with the Directorate-General of Health Services for the counselling process.
Seat matrix
However, if the seat matrix remains unchanged, the number of government and government-quota seats will be almost the same as last year.
As Karnataka has the highest number of medical seats, State students will have a larger pool of government and government-quota seats to choose from compared with the previous year.
