Hyderabad: Eamcet sees a drop in number of applications

Hyderabad: MD team had earlier reported that EAMCET-2 has received a lukewarm response, considering the less number of candidates which have registered for the examination so far. EAMCET was cancelled and fresh applications were invited for the test to be conducted on July 9, there has been almost a 50% drop in the number of applications received for medical courses through EAMCET 2 in the state. It has received only 54,351 applications in comparison to more than one lakh medical aspirants applying in EAMCET-1 for MBBS and BDS admissions. The earlier exam was cancelled due to the pending decision on NEET. The last date for submitting applications for the exam has now been extended by a week. The last date was June 7, now stands extended by another week. The decision has been taken by the Telangana State Council for Higher Education (TSCHE) after it noted the drop in applications received so far.

Even though the deadline was extended to June 14 for submission of application, a recent media update confirms the closing registration figure at 56,171 students. The number is not likely to increase as the fee for late submission of application is a high amount of Rs 10,000.

B Karunakar Reddy, vice-chancellor of Kaloji Narayana Rao University of Health Sciences, tries to explain the possible reasons for the lukewarm response. “The average and below-average students who are quite sure that they won’t get a medical college seat might have opted out of the exam. Also, students from Andhra Pradesh, who wrote EAMCET-I, might have dropped out as their results are out. So, we might have lost about 5,000 candidates from AP. Also, those wanting to get a seat in the management quota would take NEET. We expected about 60,000 applications and got 56,000. I dont think the number is too low,” he said to

Express.

NV Ramana Rao, convener, EAMCET-2016 in addition implied that students who have not qualified earlier through Eamcet-1 are unlikely to apply again. There are only 3,500 seats, which makes the medical entrance test very competitive. Students who did not score high marks will also not like to take a second chance as they have taken the exam for the second time. Taking this in to view, the number of applications received is quite big.

Officials in their statement implied that the earlier confusion over Neet as a single medical entrance examination is not the reason for decline in number of applications. However, there are few parents who have a different opinion on the matter. They opine that it is difficult to believe that why would 40,000 students just take a decision to not reappear for the exam. Doubts over securing a seat is hardly any reason.