CHENNAI: As expected, the first day of medical counselling saw CBSE students bagging most of the seats in top medical colleges in the state. Besides CBSE students, those who had skipped a year to prepare for the NEET bagged most of the seats in the coveted Madras Medical College. State Board students who passed out this year could manage much lesser seats, compared to previous years. But most toppers had already participated in the all-India counselling and hence became ineligible to take part in the state counselling.
The candidate who selected the first seat was ranked 27 in the state. The toppers up to rank 26 had already got admissions in the all India counselling. Health secretary J Radhakrishnan handed over medical seat allotment order to the first top 10 students and all of the top 10 had selected the Madras Medical College.
On Friday, of the 1,209 candidates called for the counselling, 1,077 attended. Of these, 35 candidates opted out by not selecting any of the available seats and eight were wait listed.
Meanwhile, a few students who had taken all India quota seats had come to the counselling and argued with the officials. The officials later clarified to them that they cannot participate in state counselling as per the Supreme Court order. According to the officials, out of top 10 candidates who took seats at MMC, eight were CBSE students, and two are from state board. Out of 10, two had skipped a year.