While choosing Medicine as a career option it is important that one should plan early. Medical college admission is a complicated process and choosing the right college should be at the crux of the whole plan. Indian medical education system is supposed to be among the best in the world which is also evident from the success of Indian Qualified Doctors globally. In India, we have a number of Top Medical colleges but it may not be possible to get direct admission to these colleges. Since everything is based on the marks secured in NEET-UG and the corresponding ranks achieved the student's first aim should be to target the best medical college at his/her rank. 

Evaluating the right choices and weighing one's options carefully go in a long way to become a successful medical professional. Since everything is based on the marks secured in the NEET-UG exam the student should aim to optimize ones choice of possible colleges at the achieved rank. Choosing the right college with an ambient atmosphere and strong clinical practise should be at the core of ones plan while choosing a medical college.
As a first option one should try to get into a Top Govt. Medical College on priority but in case the achieved marks/rank do not support the cut-off for the Govt Medical Colleges there is no need to despair. Plenty of Top Medical Colleges in private & deemed college categories in India provide quality education which is sometimes at par with even some of the Govt. Medical colleges. Selection of a Top Private Medical College or Top Deemed Medical college is important as that should make an impacting difference on how your career success is graphed later on. 

While choosing a Private medical college one should be aware of the budget as the first criteria. As the Fee structures in the Private medical colleges vary from state to state one should keep tab of the colleges that come within ones budget and cut-off rank. A minimum of 10-15 Medical colleges should be earmarked whose cut-off ranks fall within ones achieved rank.  A personal visit to the shortlisted colleges is always helpful so as to do a real-time inspection of the college. During the college visit one should make sure that they check the patient flow in the OPD and feedback from a few sample patients is always helpful in making a final decision. An interview with the current students gives a clear picture of the college academic standards. In case if it is not possible to visit the colleges physically, one may also read about the relevant reviews from authentic sources in the Internet.

Based on the factors discussed above one should proceed to shortlist the Final Five Colleges for his studies. After determining ones budget affordability emphasis should be given to the Academic teaching as the first priority, clinical practice and medical equipment’s as a second priority, OPD patient inflow as a third priority, Patient spoke the language as a fourth priority, Ambience & College culture as Fifth priority and finally the Infrastructure.

Points should be assigned to each priority and based on the interviews /reviews one should assign points for each category stated above and arrive at the top five colleges within their cut-off ranks. Some students place location as a main priority which should be avoided as you may end giving up a good college in the process. Some of the best medical colleges are available at off Locations hence get ignored by most of the students.

Selecting a Top Medical college for either direct admission in management category or NRI-Category or through NEET-Merit counselling is very crucial and a decision in this regard shall be taken in consultation with a qualified NEET UG Guidance counsellor. 

Over the past decade, the medical profession has emerged as one of the In-Demand career options in India. Due to a huge need for qualified doctors owing to an ever-increasing doctor-patient ratio the demand seems to be never-ending. In pursuit of taking medicine as a career option, the students need to make their choices well in advance at the time of qualifying their SSLC exams itself. An aspiring student needs to take up a combination of Physics, Chemistry & Biology as main subjects in addition to any of either option of Mathematics or Computer Science along with English as their core subjects in 11th & 12th classes. The student needs to qualify each of the main subjects with a minimum of 50 %age marks in order to be eligible to appear for qualifying NEET-UG exams. The students may choose any of the registered Secondary boards in India to qualify their secondary school examinations however qualifying from CBSE board is considered to be helpful in cracking the NEET-UG exams. 

Once the students clear their higher secondary exams it is mandatory that they appear in the NEET-UG exams in order to be eligible for taking admission for a medical course. The medical courses for which qualifying NEET-UG is mandatory criteria are MBBS, BDS, BAMS, BUMS & BHMS course. Other allied medical courses and para-medical courses are exempt from NEET-UG eligibility criteria at the moment. A minimum of 50 %ile (percentile) score would be needed to consider one to be qualified under NEET-UG.  The qualifying marks of 50 %ile are calculated based on an average of overall positive marks secured by the appearing students. For general category students qualifying marks around & above 150 out of 720 may be considered safe for qualifying NEET-UG.

Once the NEET-UG results are announced and the qualified students are declared eligible to participate in the counselling process. The Centre & the States start announcing NEET Merit counselling process in tandem. The centre conducts NEET-UG counselling for the 15 % quota under AIQ. The students participating in this counselling can opt for colleges all over India and the allotment is based on the ranks secured by the participants. There are only two rounds of the AIQ based NEET –UG counselling and any vacancies that may arise after the second round are reverted back to the respective states. 

In addition to the AIQ counselling MCC also conducts parallel NEET-UG counselling simultaneously for all deemed universities in India at the centre level. The participating colleges are mostly deemed to be universities irrespective of the states of origin and mostly provide seats under management and NRI Category only. The Tuition Fee under Management category varies from college to college and each college’s cut-off is based on the individual college ranking and brand equity within the student community. The students competing for NRI Category seats need to have proper documents establishing their status as NRI’s. The format for NRI documents varies from a college to college but overall sponsorship rules remain the same.

Like Choosing the right Medical College to study MBBS it is equally important to choose the right educational counsellor to guide one through the NEET-UG Counselling. The education industry being one of the biggest in our country is also highly unstructured. There are more number of so-called education agents (touts) around than the total number of colleges its self. Unfortunately, these so-called agents who mainly tout and whose business is to make some quick buck not only misrepresent the colleges but also mislead and misinterpret the information to the students. Students easily fall prey to these fly by night (today there tomorrow nowhere) quacks as they provide unrealistic offers luring students to take a wrong decision. 

It is left to a student’s wisdom to choose the right Education Counsellor. While choosing a genuine NEET-UG Counsellor one should be careful to check the credentials of the counsellor properly, even before making a start it is good to check the internet for reviews about the counsellor or the company they represent. See that the counsellor does not operate independently without any definite coordinates. While speaking to the counsellor ask some relevant questions regarding the process so as to verify if they have authentic information about the subject. Make your choice only when you have spoken to at-least 2 – 3 different counsellors so that you get a better idea to choose the right Education Counsellor to advice you. Finally follow your gut feeling to evaluate the person’s ability to help you through. 

At Pentagon Education Services we have a team of dedicated Professional Educational Counsellors who majorly expertise in Medical Education in India and abroad. We provide Expert Guidance for MBBS through NEET-UG. With Twenty Years of operational services in the field of Medical Education, we have easily emerged as the Top Most Medical Educational Counsellors in the Country. Our success can be measured by the increase in the number of satisfied clients we support yearly. Most of our students reach out to us through reference by previously served students and this we consider a strong feather in our cap. One main reason for our success has been our competency with impeccable commitment. While choosing us as your success partners for NEET-UG Guidance you can be rest assured of transparent processing of your applications.