Lakhs of NEET aspirants spend months and years studying for a single entrance exam. Still, the ultimate control during the critical choice-filling process is handed over due to prestige, proximity, and social status. Are these factors overruling students' actual career goals, mental readiness, and rank reality? Who actually fills the NEET choice-filling form? Is it students or parents? Here is our in-depth analysis that exposes the tug-of-war happening inside Indian homes during NEET counselling.
Specifically during NEET counselling, Indian parents get more anxious than students and take over the choice-filling process. Filling out choices is influenced by factors like prestige, proximity, and social status. The consequences are often ignored.
Conflict: Distance vs Quality while choosing college preferences
This is commonly observed in most families, specifically for female MBBS and BDS aspirants. Parents often encourage children to choose colleges close to home or in safe cities. This usually happens in various towns and villages across the country. Speaking to EdexLive, a parent from Vijayawada expressed that 'I want my daughter to join a college located within the city or nearby locations, rather than sending her to distant locations. She can easily commute to college every day '.
Due to these scenarios, MBBS aspirants are restricted from choosing colleges as per their convenience or interest. Geographical convenience could be one of the factors that might impact the NEET choice-filling process. Even though there are various college options in counselling, these factors limit the opportunities.
Unrealistic Cutoffs vs Prestige Trap
Choice filling is often strategic, and one must understand the algorithm clearly to enhance the admission chances. In certain cases, parents might treat the preferences list like a wishlist. They encourage children to list top-tier colleges as their top 5-10 preferences (which is understandable), but it is important to analyse whether their children actually get admission. Analysing previous years' cutoffs is very important rather than getting disappointed if no seat is allotted in Round 1. Do not choose colleges based on popularity level, but choose relevant colleges that match your rank (based on previous years' cutoff).
Misinterpreting Course vs College Preferences
'MBBS at any cost' mindset actually creates pressure on students. Parents sometimes force students to get MBBS admission only and ignore allied health science courses that offer career avenues on par with MBBS. Therefore, if an MBBS seat is not possible in government colleges, instead of pushing for costly management quota seats, looking for allied health courses could be one of the best options. We see certain students who take a year or two drop and keep trying for MBBS admission. This actually leads to academic burnout and financial distress.
Apart from MBBS, BDS, BAMS/ BUMS, and Veterinary courses offer decent career prospects.
Paid Counsellor & Third-Party Agent Influence
Certain parents and students may hand over the NEET UG counselling login credentials to the third-party admission agents. These agents usually place those colleges at a higher preference that pay decent commission. This completely bypasses what is best for the student. Therefore, relying on third-party agents or handing over credentials at an Internet cafe must be avoided. Even if you take help at an internet cafe, change the login password immediately.
To conclude, parents and students must sit together, analyse past closing rank data, and list out the colleges based on OPD over infrastructure. Parents can let students decide where they will study MBBS, because they have to spend close to 5 years.5 years at the campus. So, let them decide!