It is an out and out race to secure medical and dental seats in the State after the declaration of results of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET).
Indicating a steep increase in competition for seats in the State, the Consortium of Medical, Engineering and Dental Colleges of Karnataka (COMEDK) received 14,512 applications until Saturday evening — in just three days since the portal for online applications was opened. The number of seats available are only 1,400 (700 dental, 700 medical) in 13 private medical and 23 private dental colleges in the State. While the demand for seats is nearly 10 times the number of seats available, it is also a sixfold increase compared to the demand seen last year, when there were around 6,000 applicants who had registered for counselling for around 1,400 seats.
COMEDK Chief Executive A.S. Srikanth admitted that the demand was much more than the consortium had anticipated.
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“Over 4.09 lakh candidates are eligible to participate in counselling as they have cleared NEET this year. Another reason is probably because we have 36 colleges under one banner and candidates do not have to register for colleges separately,” he said. The last date to apply for seats is August 28 and the consortium will publish a merit list after submitting the applications.
However, medical and dental seat aspirants from the State will be at a disadvantage this year as the field is open to all candidates who have cleared NEET from across the country. “Although candidates from outside the State have been participating in COMEDK counselling, it was still restricted to a certain number. But now as it is open to all who have written NEET, there is a surge in the number of applications, which will make it tougher to get seats,” Rajesh S., a medical seat aspirant, said.
Another candidate said the number of applications received by COMEDK was high because other deemed universities and colleges had still not notified their calendar of events.
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