Counselling in medical colleges underway even as SC hears NEET-UG row

Prashant Sherke, whose 18-year-old son cleared the exam this year, said, “There are still some pending petitions in the Supreme Court, so we are hoping for some better news. Meanwhile, there is no option except sitting for the counselling.” His son scored 700 and was hoping to get a rank within the top 250, as it was last time, but was in for a rude shock when this year’s results revealed his rank to be 1800, dashing his hopes to get admission in top colleges.

An 18-year-old from Pune, who scored 500 and was expecting a decent rank which would get her admission to B J Medical College in Pune, said she would prefer if board examination marks were considered instead of these NEET scores but she would go ahead with the counselling anyway. “My rank is 5 lakh now, much lesser than what people had with the same score last year, but I will still go ahead and sit for the counselling and hope I get into any college,” she said.

“I wish Maharashtra would do what Tamil Nadu is doing– consider the board examination marks. Ideally, I would have wanted a re-examination but there is no guarantee that the same thing will not happen again. Moreover, by the time the re-examination will be conducted and the results will come out, half a year will already be gone. I don’t want to waste more time on this process and get into a college as soon as possible,” she added.

For 18-year-old Swaraj from Aurangabad, “this is a lose-lose situation”.  “I have no other option but to go where this is taking us,” he said. “The counselling is open so I will sit for it regardless. If I don’t sit for this counselling with the view that there will be a re-examination, I could be left with no other medical college options,” said Swaraj.