Only one student from the city made it to the top 10 ranks of MBBS aspirants, a list of which was released on Wednesday. S. Muthumanikandan a student of Nazareth Matriculation School, Avadi, bagged the eighth place.
Small towns ruled the list, and in a record of sorts, Sri Vidyamandir Matriculation School in Uthangarai, Krishnagiri district, bagged six of the ranks. Of the other three, two aspirants, including the topper, S. Abinesh, were from Green Park Matriculation School, Namakkal, and one was from Vidya Vikas Matriculation School, Tiruchengode.
The first seven ranks went to candidates with a score of 200 out of 200, while those ranked 8 to 10, had scored 199.75, said health minister K.C. Veeramani, who released the list.
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Mr. Veeramani said the 1,823 sanctioned seats would be filled first, before the newly-sanctioned seats are taken up. The lone government-run dental college has 85 seats under the State quota, and 15 seats reserved for the all-India quota.
This year, the Medical Council of India (MCI), has granted conditional approval for 100 seats each for Stanley Medical College and Tiruvannamalai Medical College. Madras Medical College has received sanction for 85 more seats. These seats will be given to the colleges only if they fulfil MCI’s criteria. The number of seats in private medical colleges that are surrendered to the government remains unchanged at 838.
Mr. Veeramani said counselling for medical seats will begin on June 18. On the first day of counselling, candidates applying under various categories including those with disabilities, or those belonging to the sports, freedom fighters and army personnel quota, will be included.
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Counselling for candidates in the general category will be held from June 19. The admission process is expected to be completed by September. Of the 29,569 application forms received, 10,629 applicants are first-generation college-goers. They will compete with 850 candidates, who have passed class XII through the CBSE stream and 1,503 candidates, who have appeared for counselling in previous years.
A total of 616 applications had to be rejected for various reasons and 168 forms were duplicates, officials said.
Health secretary J. Radhakrishnan and Mr. Veeramani reiterated that candidates who want to pursue medicine should visit the MCI website for updates about the status of the colleges they are applying to.