NEET PG Counselling: Which medical colleges, branches need the cut-off drop to fill MD, MS seats?

MCC NEET PG Counselling: The reduction in the cut-off scores of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test Post Graduation (NEET PG) before the third round of PG medical admissions – a recurring exercise since the last few years – has once again triggered a predictable debate.

While the health ministry, National Medical Commission (NMC) and others have justified the move as a necessary measure to fill large scale vacancies, especially in non-clinical and para-clinical medical branches, the opponents, some of whom have challenged the lowering of eligibility criterion in court, argue that it will dilute medical education standards and has been done primarily to the benefit of private medical colleges with higher fees.

The reality, though, is a little different from both claims. The widening of the admission door will help fill seats across broad specialisations, not just non-clinical ones. The state and central government-run institutes are also set to gain from the change in admission criteria alongside private institutes. And even though the admission threshold for the disadvantaged students has been brought lower – zero percentile or -40 marks in NEET PG – than that for the unreserved students – seventh percentile or 90 marks – the latter have more seats available under the revised arrangement, at least in the central MCC counselling.

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The MD/MS seat matrix for the third round of NEET PG counselling, released by the Directorate General of Health Service’s (DGHS) Medical Counselling Committee (MCC), which carries out the all-India quota admissions, shows that the number of ‘clear’ vacancies – unclaimed seats – is 10,101. That's almost a third of more than 31,000 seats available in the central counselling. There will be many more in the state quota seats – the states fill half the seats at government colleges and all the seats in private ones other than deemed universities – but their consolidated figure isn't available. Within the AIQ, are 18,092 ‘virtual’ vacancies – seats that are presently occupied but are potentially available in case the candidates holding them opt for a more-preferred choice in the final regular round of admission. Additionally, 292 new seats have also been recently approved and will be up for grabs in the central counselling.

An analysis of the clear vacancies in the NEET PG seat matrix shows that there are empty spots available across the specialisations, and not just non-clinical and para-clinical branches. In fact, MD Anaesthesiology has the highest number of unfilled seats – 689 – followed by MS General Surgery, MD/MS Obstetrics and Gynaecology, MD General Medicine and MD Paediatrics – all clinical disciplines. MD Pathology, a para-clinic stream and MD/MS Anatomy, a non-clinical branch, are among the ones with the most vacancies.

Source: NEET PG seat matrix for round 3 of counselling, own calculations

MCC NEET PG cut-off drop and private colleges

The claim about private medical colleges being the main beneficiaries of the change in NEET PG cut-off 2025 needs to be put into perspective.

The vacancies in the AIQ at least are spread across all types of medical colleges participating in the MCC counselling, including central universities, state government colleges, deemed-to-be universities and the DNB institutions accredited to the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS). Individual MD and MS courses at deemed universities – most of which are private and expensive — have a higher concentration of unoccupied seats than programmes in other types of medical colleges.That said, the deemed universities’ aggregate share of vacant seats is slightly lower than that of state colleges, which is the biggest cohort of institutes participating in all-India MCC NEET counselling.

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The list of institutes with most vacancies is dominated by private deemed universities, with only a few central and state government institutes with as many unfilled spots. The Sri Siddhartha Medical College (SSMC) under the Sri Siddhartha Academy of Higher Education (SSHAE), a deemed university at Karnataka’s Tumkur, which made the headlines for a steep hike in its fees last year, has the highest numbers of seats available in the third round – 100.

Similarly, with 10 vacant seats each, the general surgery and pathology programmes at SSMC and pathology at MM Institute of Medical Sciences at Ambala, Haryana, also a deemed university medical college, are among the courses with highest vacancies in self-financed merit seat quota.

On the other hand, the Osmania Medical College, Hyderabad; BJ Medical College (BJMC), Ahmedabad; Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College (JNMC) at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU); Sawai Man Singh Medical (SMS) College, Jaipur, Rajasthan; and Institute of Medical Sciences (IMS) at Banaras Hindu University (BHU) are among the handful of public colleges featuring at the top of the vacancy table. Among PG courses at government institutes, radiodiagnosis at Tata Memorial Centre (TMC), Mumbai, ophthalmology at BJMC and pharmacology at JNMC offer the most seats – seven, six and six, respectively – to open category students.

Source: Seat matrix for MCC NEET PG counselling 2025 round 3; own calculations

NBE NEET PG Counselling: Vacancy rates

However, there isn’t much difference in the overall vacancy rates of the two major types of medical colleges with NEET PG seats in AIQ – the state and central colleges taken together and the deemed universities. Of around 14,000 AIQ seats in state and central institutes available in the first and second rounds of MCC NEET PG counselling, 5,213 are yet to be filled, amounting to 37% vacancy. On the other hand, 2,397 out of around 7,000 deemed university seats are yet to find takers – a vacancy rate of around 34%.

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The Diplomate of National Board (DNB) courses, on the other hand, fare much better with 24% vacancy.

Source: NEET PG counselling 2025 seat matrices, own calculations

The seeming mismatch between the absolute and relative vacancies is likely a result of the few deemed universities contributing a disproportionately high number of seats to the central counselling. In the case of deemed universities, the 7,000 seats are concentrated in 49 institutions, all of whose seats are available in central admissions. By comparison, the 14,000 with state and central universities are distributed across 289 government medical colleges – as per the NMC website – that contribute half their MD, MS and PG diploma seats to MCC counselling.

One clear beneficiary of the health ministry relaxing the entrance filter is the general-category students as open category seats account for 59% of the vacancies – all the seats at deemed colleges and roughly half the spots at other institutes.

The cut-off criterion for open category has been brought down from 50th percentile to seventh percentile and for persons with disability, from 45th to fifth. For seats reserved for historically-marginalised communities – Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes (SC, ST, OBC) – it has been reduced to zero, from the earlier 40th percentile.

Update: Since this analysis was undertaken, the MCC has updated the seat matrix and the clear vacancy list. The difference between the first NEEG PG Counselling Round 3 list and this one is of just 11 seats out of roughly 10,000.