NEET UG is the single national entrance exam for MBBS/BDS admission in India, conducted by the NTA. It is mandatory for all medical colleges (government, private, deemed, AIIMS, JIPMER).

MCC conducts AIQ + deemed counselling; each state conducts its own. Multiple rounds (Round 1, Round 2, Mop-up Round, Stray Vacancy Round). The Mop-up Round fills seats vacated after the regular rounds — by resignations, no-shows, or seats left unfilled — and is sometimes reopened to eligible candidates who had not registered earlier. The Stray Vacancy Round is typically the last round, usually run at the institute level for whatever seats remain; it is not always preceded by fresh merit-based sorting the way earlier rounds are, and some states restrict it to candidates already inside that year's counselling process.

General/UR, EWS, OBC-NCL, SC, ST. PwD (Persons with Disability) is a horizontal reservation that applies across categories. Closing ranks differ greatly by category and quota.

Your NEET score/rank, category, domicile state, and the previous years' closing ranks for each college × quota × category.

After NEET UG, MBBS seats are filled through two broad counselling streams:

• All India Quota (AIQ) — 15% of government-college seats. Filled nationally by the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) (under DGHS); open to candidates from any state.
• State Quota — 85% of government-college seats. Filled by each state's Directorate of Medical Education (DME) through its own counselling, mostly on a domicile basis (you usually qualify in the state you belong to or studied in).
• MCC also conducts 100% counselling for Deemed universities, Central universities (DU, AMU, BHU), ESIC, AFMS, and the AIIMS & JIPMER institutes — these are separate seat pools within MCC counselling, not state counselling.
• Private (non-deemed) colleges fill management/NRI seats via the relevant state authority, but NEET is mandatory for every seat.

Register for both MCC and your state counselling — they run in parallel, and 85% of government seats are only reachable through state counselling.

Before each round's seat allotment, a registered candidate fills a choice list — their preferred college + course combinations, ranked in order of preference. The list can be edited any number of times up to the portal's deadline. Locking the choice list confirms it as final for that round; once locked (or once the deadline passes, whichever comes first), no further edits are possible for that round's allotment.

After a round's seat allotment, a candidate who has been allotted a seat typically chooses one of three options: Freeze (accept this seat and exit further rounds — no upgrade attempts), Float (keep this seat as a fallback while remaining open to a better allotment in a later round, within the same counselling authority), or Slide (stay within the same counselling authority for the chance to move to a different, preferred choice from the same choice list, while keeping the current seat as a fallback). Upgradation is the general term for actually receiving a better seat than the one currently held, through a Float or Slide choice, in a subsequent round.

A Free Exit lets a candidate opt out of a specific counselling round without the seat-blocking penalties that normally apply to not reporting — MCC and most states allow this only in specific, published rounds, not all of them. Seat Resignation is different: it means giving up a seat the candidate has already reported to and confirmed. Resignation is usually subject to a deduction from the security deposit and may affect eligibility for further counselling rounds — the exact terms vary by state/authority and by year, so always check that counselling authority's current information bulletin rather than assuming a fixed rule.

Reporting means a candidate physically or virtually confirms their allotted seat at the institute (or a designated reporting centre) within the deadline set for that round, for document verification and admission confirmation — missing this deadline can forfeit the seat. Commonly required documents include the NEET admit card and rank/score card, class 10 and 12 mark sheets and certificates, a government photo ID, passport-size photographs, and — where applicable — category (EWS/OBC-NCL/SC/ST), PwD, and domicile certificates. Exact document lists can vary slightly by state/institute, so always cross-check against that round's official information bulletin.