CHENNAI: Health Minister Ma Subramanian released the rank list for MBBS, BDS, and paramedical admissions 2024-25 on Monday. Counselling for the courses will begin on August 21. With more students securing high scores this year, experts said the cut-off is likely to go up for all categories.
The general category merit list shows 90 students have scored above 700 this year, while the number stood at 39 last year. Similarly, last year, only 379 students scored 650 and above, but the figure has increased to 1,356 this year. This jump in numbers can also be seen in the merit list for the 7.5% quota (for government school students). The top score under 7.5% quota, which was 569 last year, has shot up to 669 this year.
According to officials from the selection committee, of the 28,819 applicants for government quota seats, 7,791 were freshers and 21,028 were NEET repeaters. Notably, all top 10 candidates on the merit list for the 7.5% quota are NEET repeaters, and four of them attended the Centre of Academic Excellence, Saidapet, a state-run NEET coaching centre.
Last year, the NEET cut-off mark for MBBS seats in government medical colleges for the open category (OC) was 602 and the general rank was 1,442; for the BC category, the cut-off was 551 and general rank was 3,539, and for the SC category, it was 448 and 9,431.
General category counselling from Aug 21
For the SC (Arunthathiyar) category, the cut-off was 382 and general rank was 12,836, and for the ST category, 355 and 14,234.
Speaking to reporters after releasing the rank list, Subramanian said that the counselling for special quota students, sportspersons, wards of ex-servicemen, persons with disability, and those availing the 7.5% reservation will be conducted offline at the Government Multi Super Speciality Hospital in Omandurar Estate on August 22.
Counselling for general category students will take place online from August 21. This year, Tamil Nadu has got an additional 150 MBBS seats, the health minister said. The state has applied for an increase in the number of MBBS seats in a few more medical colleges and is likely to get approval in the next academic year, he said.
Of the 6,630 MBBS and 1,683 BDS seats available in government colleges, 496 MBBS and 126 BDS seats are reserved for government school students under the 7.5% quota. About 3,733 applications were filed for seats under the quota and 3,683 (1,041 boys, 2,642 girls) applications were found eligible. Overall, the state received 29,429 applications for government quota seats, of which 28,819 (10,704 boys, 18,114 girls) were accepted.
Transwoman from Erode makes it to rank list
Chennai: The health minister on Monday said that this year a lone transwoman has also made it to the rank list. Officials said she hails from Erode, completed class 12 in 2021 and cleared NEET