NEET UG 2023: Competition for medical seats in Maharashtra likely to get tougher as 1.3 lakh qualify exam

“There will be a tough competition to grab the medical seats as the number of students who have qualified NEET is significantly higher this year,” said Brijesh Sutaria, a parent.

Sudha Shenoy, another parent, said, “This year, there is not much gap in scores of ranks. For example, Maharashtra has All India Ranks of 7 and 27 but there is little difference in their percentile score. This is seen in almost all ranks. Due to this, many students have gotten lower ranks because even if their scores are good, many students are falling in the bracket of good scorers. For example, if a candidate secured the 1000th rank last year with X score, their rank may be 1,200 this year with the same score. This is definitely going to lead to high cut-offs in colleges.”

However, the high number of NEET qualifiers is unlikely going to make any significant changes on the number of medical seats that will be made available this year. Last year, Maharashtra had a total of 10,345 seats for MBBS and dentistry combined, including government as well as private colleges.

NEET UG 2023 Toppers | AIR 1 | AIR 3 | AIR 4| AIR 5 | AIR 8 | AIR 7 | AIR 10 | AIR 11 | Overall result | Twins from Kashmir | Tie-breaker | Analysis

“The government had announced the construction of medical colleges at 14 locations. The National Medical Commission (NMC) has already carried out inspections for colleges in Ratnagiri and Parbhani, and the applications are in process,” said Sutaria.

Meanwhile, the NMC has issued a revised notification about change in lower-age criteria. In the graduate medical education regulations 2023 gazette declared earlier, the lower age criterion was that  candidates should have completed the age of 17 years as on or before  January 31 of the year that the candidate appears for the NEET- UG examination.

However, after many candidates flagged the error in date, the date to be taken into consideration for the lower-age mark has been changed to December 31, with an amendment.