Candidates who qualified after the eligibility cutoff for NEET PG 2025 was reduced were offered seats worth nearly Rs 2,000 crore in 48 medical colleges deemed to be universities. This shows how important it is for these private universities to lower their admissions scores.The government has slashed the cut-off time ahead of the third round of consultation, saying it will help fill 18,000 seats that fell vacant after the first two rounds of consultation, especially in pre-clinical and para-clinical specialties. Data on centralized counseling results are available only for all-India quota seats and all postgraduate seats in private medical colleges deemed to be universities. The all-India quota consists of 50% of PG seats in about 300 public universities. The remaining 50% is filled through consultations conducted at the state level, but comprehensive data on this consultation are not available.TOI analyzed the seat allocation data for the third and stray rounds of centralized consultation, taking into account only the new allocations for the third round and all allocations for the stray rounds. Candidates are not allowed to change or upgrade their preference after the 3rd round of allotment and leaving the allotted seat will mean being barred from further participation in counseling and forfeiture of the security deposit (Rs 25,000 for all-India quota seats and Rs 2 lakh for deemed college seats). Joining a seat and then exiting may also result in penalties for leaving the seat.Analysis shows that the annual tuition fee for clinical seats filled by students with lower admission cutoffs in qualifying colleges in the third round is around Rs 550 crore. There are two categories of seats in these colleges – management seats and NRI seats. Since the PG course lasts for three years, if the seats remain vacant, the revenue loss will be around Rs 1,650 crore.Tuition is highest in clinical majors, especially so-called high-demand specialties such as radiology, dermatology, obstetrics and gynecology, and general medicine. Out of this, the annual fee may be as high as Rs 70 lakh to Rs 1 crore or more. In the sporadic vacancy round, the cost of filling clinical professional seats in these colleges is Rs 115 crore per annum, i.e. Rs 345 crore for the entire course.In the all-India quota, none of the candidates who qualified due to lowered thresholds, except those who cleared the disability quota, got admission in clinical specialties. In contrast, 970 candidates who qualified through the lowered threshold were awarded clinical specialties in the third and stray rounds considered university colleges.While the outrage over the cut-off cut has mainly focused on the cut-off for reserved categories being slashed to zero percentile, allocation data for both rounds shows that of the over 1,200 all-India seats where the cut-off was cut, about 38 per cent were from the general category, compared with 24 per cent for OBCs, 25 per cent for SCs and 14 per cent for STs. Of the 1,770 seats in deemed university colleges that have qualified through lowered thresholds, more than two-thirds (1,224) are from the general category, while only 4.2% (75) and 0.2% (4) are from the SC and ST categories respectively.This bias is even more severe in clinical seats at the most tuition-paying university colleges. Of the 973 clinical seats allotted in the last two rounds to those who qualified through lowered thresholds, 78 per cent (759) were secured by general category candidates, 19 per cent by OBCs, 2.7 per cent by SCs and 0.3 per cent by STs.In comparison, of the 160-odd clinical seats under the all-India quota, 42% fall under the general category, 40% under OBC, 17% under SC and 2% under ST. Apparently, more general category candidates benefited from the reduced cutoff compared to reserved category candidates. Proportion of candidates who entered by lowering the threshold (%)

Proportion of clinical seats entered by lowering the threshold (%)

*Each category includes candidates with disabilities in that category