How to Choose Good Medical College – Top 10 Factors

Irrespective of whether you are participating in All India Counselling conducted by Medical Counselling Committee or State Counselling conducted by respective State government authority for MBBS Admission, you need to have good understanding about the quality of medical colleges in India in order to give the correct preference order during choice filling or college selection during MBBS Admission Counselling.

1. How to Choose Good Medical College For Choice Filling

During choice filling, you need to give your college preference in the order in which you want the allotment to happen. In general, top medical colleges such as AIIMS, JIPMER are put at the top and high fees colleges as well as far away colleges like the ones in North eastern states are put at the bottom of your preference order.

There is no ranking given by medical counselling committee or state counselling authority for the medical colleges which participate in the counselling process. MBBSCouncil have come up with top 10 ranking factors for medical colleges, based on the Medical Council of India Assessment reports. Based on these rankings, you can come up with college choices during the online counselling.

2. Top 10 Factors To Rank Medical Colleges

Candidates who are choosing a medical college should consider following 10 factors which gives fair idea about the quality of medical education before they decide to fill college choices for the admission process. Below we have given the NIRF ranking, kindly scroll below.

1. 1. AIIMS New Delhi
   2. PGIMER Chandigarh
   3. Christian Medical College Vellore
   4. JIPMER Puducherry
   5. Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences
   6. Institute of Medical Sciences BHU
   7. NIMHANS Bangalore
   8. King George Medical University
   9. Amrita School of Medicine Kochi
   10. Kasturba Medical College Manipal
   11. Saveetha Medical College
   12. Dr DY Patil Medical College Pune
   13. AIIMS Rishikesh
   14. AIIMS Bhubaneswar
   15. Institute of Medical Sciences Bhubaneswar

1. 1. Madras Govt Medical College
   2. Sree Chitra Thirunal Institute of Medical Sciences
   3. SRM Medical College
   4. AIIMS Jodhpur
   5. Datta Meghe Medical College Nagpur
   6. Sri Ramachandra Medical College
   7. VMMC and Safdarjung Hospital
   8. Institute of PG Medical Education and Research Kolkata
   9. Kalinga Institute of Medical Sciences
   10. AIIMS Bhopal
   11. Maulana Azad Medical College
   12. AIIMS Patna
   13. Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences New Delhi
   14. Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College AMU
   15. St Johns Medical College
   16. AIIMS Raipur
   17. Lady Hardinge Medical College
   18. MM Institute of Medical Sciences Mullana
   19. Govt Medical College Chandigarh
   20. Kasturba Medical College Mangalore
   21. Dayanand Medical College
   22. JSS Medical College Mysore
   23. University College of Medical Sciences
   24. SMS Medical College
   25. Hamdard Institute of Medical Sciences
   26. Kolkata Medical College
   27. Mahatma Gandhi Medical College Pondicherry
   28. PSG Institute of Medical Sciences

1. Gujarat Cancer and Research Institute
2. BJ Medical College Ahmedabad
3. Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College Belagavi
4. Christian Medical College Ludhiana
5. Osmania Medical College
6. Chettinad Hospital and Research Institute
7. MS Ramaiah Medical College

Only top 50 colleges are listed in NIRF Ranking because not many medical colleges apply for NIRF evaluation. Last year, many medical colleges applied for evaluation out of the total 820+ medical colleges in India. Some of the premier state government medical colleges did not participate in the NIRF evaluation last year. So, it becomes difficult to know the quality and ranking of these remaining 450 Indian medical colleges.

4. Factors To Consider While Choosing Medical College

Even though, every student have their own preference in choosing medical college, there are some common factors which can help MBBS aspirants and parents do judge the quality of medical college. MBBSCouncil App contains College Ranking Facility which will help NEET aspirants to rank colleges based on various quality factors such as age of college, number PG courses conducted by the medical college, Average Patients Visiting Outpatients Per day, Total Teaching Beds, etc which will help them during choice filling to decide the order of preference.

4.1 Tuition Fees

The primary factor for college section is tuition fees charged by the medical colleges. Based on the types of medical college and chosen quota, tuition fees varies from Rs 13,000 per year to Rs 60 lakhs/year.

Government college tuition fees itself varies from state to state and in some states like Uttar Pradesh, tuition fees varies from college to college. So candidate should rank colleges based on the tuition fees and pick the best ones based on other parameters such as location, patient flow, PG courses, etc

You can find tuition fees for all medical colleges in India under the college details section of the MBBSCouncil App. You can also rank colleges using the college ranking facility available for tuition fees under various quotas such as govt college, state govt quota, and management quota.

4.2 Age of the Medical College

Many parents use age of medical college as one of their primary factor in ranking colleges situated in other states during All India Counselling. This also plays key role in determining the quality of private medical colleges. One needs to make sure that there is no debarment history when it comes to private medical colleges.

When it comes to deemed university medical colleges, you should check the year of establishment of the medical college rather than the deemed university. It is obvious that deemed university status would be given only after attaining educational excellence which takes minimum of 25 years.

It takes minimum of 5 years for medical colleges to be fully operational. This is the reason why Medical council of India gives permission to medical colleges for first few years and later convert their status to recognized after sufficient infrastructure and facility is setup.

4.3 Number of MBBS Seats

The total number of MBBS Seats in Medical College also can be used to determine the quality of medical college. National Medical Commission(NMC) has norms which specifies the infrastructure, faculties, facilities, resident doctors based on the number of seats.
To get approval for 150 MBBS Seats, it is mandatory to have 300 Beds and average patient flow of 300/day. Medical Colleges that have 250 MBBS seats can be considered as the best medical colleges which good infrastructure and facilities. These medical colleges would have more than 1200 beds and more than 2000 patients visit them everyday.

4.4 PG Courses

The number of PG courses in a medical college determines how many specialized departments are there in a medical college. More the number of departments, better for clinical practice. Doctors who study PG courses are called as junior interns during the post graduate course and senior residents after completing the course.

UG Students get guidance for clinical practice from junior as well as senior resident doctors. The number of super specialty courses and post graduate courses is one of the key ranking factor for choosing a particular medical college. If you are looking for PG course admission, then you need to check the number of DM/MCH super specialty courses conducted by the medical college.

4.5 Average Patient Flow

Medical Education mainly depends on the clinical practice. Clinical Practice starts during the Anatomy class of Ist Year MBBS, so it is even more important to pick colleges which have high patient flow. There are many private medical colleges in many states that have poor patient flow resulting in temporary debarment of medical colleges to conduct MBBS Course. During 2018, 83 medical colleges were debarred from upgradation or lost is recognition status. You need to check if the medical college has any debarment history in the past and avoid them during college selection or choice filling.

4.6 Total Hospital Beds

Another important factor which can be used to judge the quality of clinical practice of medical college hospital is the total number of In-patient beds in the hospital. More than 500 beds in the affiliated hospital is considered to be good medical college. You need to add beds in each department of the medical hospital to calculate the total beds.

4.7 Compulsory Rural Service

Central govt run Medical Colleges do not insist on compulsory rural service but many state governments asks medical UG students to sign bond for minimum of 1 year for compulsory rural service. The number of years varies from state to state.  If you want to skip compulsory service, then you need to pay penalty ranging between Rs 5 lakhs and Rs 40 lakhs. ESI Medical Colleges mandates 1 year compulsory rural service etc,.

4.8 Internal PG Quota

University college of Medical Sciences and Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University has 50% internal PG Quota for students who studied from the university in its affiliated colleges. JIPMER Puducherry, Aligarh Muslim University, Banaras Hindu University, Many Gujarat Universities, Armed Forces Medical College Pune also provides internal PG quota for its students. NEET PG cut off will be less through internal quota if PG to MBBS seat ratio is on the higher side.

4.9 Internship Stipend

Even though, it is not major factor while deciding college preference, many top scoring candidates say that internship stipend is biggest advantage of joining central government run medical colleges apart from the no bond for compulsory service.

After 4.5 years of study, you have to do 1 year internship training in the hospital. You will work in various departments and during that time, you will get stipend.

4.10 College Location

Medical Colleges situated in heart of the city attracts lot of patients which gives exposure to spectrum of diseases during the study as well as during the clinical clerkship. Students who study far away from their native should make sure that there is air connectivity if they choose smaller towns.

Another important thing to consider medical colleges in cities is availability of PG coaching centers. Even-though there are plenty of options available for online coaching if you are keen to go for offline coaching, it would be wise to choose colleges located in big cities.

5. Conclusion

MBBSCouncil App contains College Ranking Facility which will help NEET aspirants to rank colleges based on various quality factors such as age of college, number PG courses conducted by the medical college, Average Patients Visiting Outpatients Per day, Total Teaching Beds, etc which will help them during choice filling to decide the order of preference.