The admission process for MBBS/BDS under the All India Quota has begun and all the neighbouring States have uploaded their respective merit lists. But students of Tamil Nadu continue to be clueless about their ranks.
Students with better ranks are hoping that they would get a college of their choice. Mukesh Kanna, with a score of 655, says he is not worried as he is ranked 203 in the All India Quota (AIQ) and would get Coimbatore Medical College, his first choice.
Counselling
His friend M. Eswar, with a score of 586, is also confident that he would be admitted under counselling in the same college.
But not all students are that confident. Marina Sharmila N., a parent, is relying on the 24 options that the AIQ offers her daughter, who has got 74 percentile.
“My first choice is of course Madras Medical College and since it is supposed to be merit-based I am hoping for the best. It would help if the State government could release the merit list in advance so that we can be clear about our position,” she says. Another parent of a student who studied under ICSE said, “There is a need for some quick thinking on the part of administrators. Other States have published the rank list for their students.
“So, the students from those States will be able to assess where exactly they stand in their State. Armed with this knowledge they will now be able to participate in the first round of 15% AIQ counselling,” she says.
The last date for students to lock the choice of colleges is July 12.
A candidate allotted a college in the first round of counselling for AIQ will become ineligible to participate in the second round of counselling if he opts out of joining the college allotted, parents say.
“If only the State government can advance the date by a few days to 10th or 11th July at the latest, our Tamil Nadu students can make an informed choice. So they will be in a position to participate in the second round of AIQ counselling where many seats are likely to open up because the first round of State counselling will follow the AIQ first round,” the parent says.
Last date
The last date for submitting application forms in the State is July 8 and the State government has already announced that it would release the merit list only on July 14.
Director of Medical Education A. Edwin Joe says a couple of parents had approached the Directorate of Medical Education appealing for early release of merit list.
When students have already made their choices in their State they would lose out on better colleges simply because they locked their choices and thus would lose an opportunity to be admitted to a better college.
Cases in courts
Dr. Joe, however, maintains that the merit list would be released only as per schedule.
“There are so many cases in the court that we are facing now. We follow the direction given to us by the State government,” he says.
