On Saturday, the last date for submission of filled-in applications, the state selection committee in-charge of MBBS/BDS admissions, said it had received 50,558 applications, of which 31,323 were admissions to 2,594 seats in 23 state-run medical colleges.

 

The remaining 19,235 applications were for admissions in the 783 government quota seats in 10 self-financing colleges affiliated to the state university.

 

"This is more than twice the applications we received last year. But this year, in a first, we are doing counselling for management quota seats as well," said selection committee secretary Dr G Selvarajan. The state had sold over 43,206 application forms from its medical college and others were downloaded.

 

The committee is expected to release the rank list on July 14 and begin counselling on July 17. Over 80,000 students wrote NEET 2017 conducted by the CBSE in May. Though results were declared on June 23, CBSE is yet to share data such as pass percentage, category wise and language-wise qualifiers with the state government. "We have deputed additional staff to verify every application manually," he said.

 

The last day saw more than 1,000 students rushing in to drop their filled in applications at the Directorate of Medical Education, Kilpauk. Students faced difficulties in getting their applications attested by a gazetted officer and sourcing postcards as stipulated in the prospectus.

 

A huge crowd was seen at the venue from 10am to 2pm, but a 30-minute extension of time to submit applications worked to the advantage of many students.

 

The state government will reserve 85% of government quota seats for state board students in MBBS, BDS admissions. Of the 4,350 seats in 22 government medical colleges, state-managed Raja Muthiah Medical College of Annamalai University and 10 self-financing institutions, 973 will be surrendered to the all-India quota. Of the remaining 3,377 seats, 2,867, including 2,094 in government colleges, will be reserved for state board students. In dental admissions, state board students will have 1,011 seats.

For the first time this year, the selection committee will also fill up management quota seats based on NEET scores. Admission to 1,650 seats in 10 deemed universities along with all-India quota seats will be done by the director general of health services.