Be aware of a set of costs that never appears on a college's fee page. They sit as clauses near the end of the state counselling body's prospectus and, in many states, not even there, warns Ashok Hegde, founder, neet2seat.
If you are an MBBS aspirant or the parent of one, you must now be deep in research, comparing colleges, costs and cutoffs.
You are probably working on a spreadsheet that tells you what your rank can get and what it will cost.
But what your calculations may not be telling you is the hidden costs that bite NEET families later.
In this article, I will tell you what those are, and what you can do about each.
When it comes to budget, most families lean toward a government seat. If their rank does not qualify for one in the home state, they will be looking at the All-India Quota for an out-of-state one. Government college fees are, after all, a fraction of what private colleges charge.
That's good budgeting instinct.
But be aware of a set of costs that never appears on a college's fee page. They sit as clauses near the end of the state counselling body's prospectus and, in many states, not even there. I am talking about the rural service bond. In some states, it runs into tens of lakhs. In one state, a full crore.
The bonds that tie, and penalise
I have been going through the counselling bulletins, government orders and bond proformas that govern MBBS admissions across the states and three penalties keep turning up.
Most families know that 'there's some bond' but aren't aware of the exact mechanics and what it involves.
1. The service bond
Many states ask newly graduated doctors to work for the government for a fixed period after the course, usually in a rural posting. Don't serve and you pay. This is the service bond and the amounts are not small.
Uttarakhand has the steepest bond price.
Its government colleges let you pay a subsidised Rs 50,000 a year for the MBBS instead of the full Rs 4 lakh. The price of that discount is five years serving in the hill districts or Rs 1 crore penalty. Serve a single year and you still owe 80 per cent of it or Rs 80 lakh.
Families who land a seat through the AIQ (All India Quota) are the ones who are most often caught unawares. They assume state bonds don't apply to them. They do.
Uttarakhand's bond clearly says it applies to 'the students of central quota' in as many words.
Odisha and Rajasthan cover all-India seats just as plainly -- 'All-India seat' does not mean 'no bond'.
Assam sets its service bond at Rs 30 lakh for MBBS, against five years including at least a year rural.
Odisha asks two years and puts the penalty at Rs 25 lakh.
Chhattisgarh, Rs 25 lakh for the general category.
Karnataka's compulsory-service law carries Rs 15 lakh for skipping the rural year.
Gujarat, Rs 15 lakh plus a Rs 5 lakh bank guarantee against one year of rural duty.
Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Goa sit closer to the Rs 10 lakh mark, each with its own term and fine print.
Tamil Nadu is the reverse case -- a modest Rs 5 lakh penalty but five years of service standing behind it.
The good news is many states have no service bond at all. These include Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Bihar and Himachal Pradesh.
In a state that does carry a bond, choosing to serve rather than pay the penalty means a rural posting far from home. A student from Punjab or Delhi spending a year in a village clinic in Tamil Nadu or Odisha is treating patients across a language barrier, not just giving up the year or a few years.
One piece of relief: Several of these bonds lapse if the government fails to offer you a posting within about six months of your finishing. Odisha, UP and Gujarat's proformas all say some version of this.
2. The discontinuation penalty
You go through the counselling process and after gruelling rounds you get a seat. But halfway through the course you realise MBBS isn't for you or you want to retake NEET and try for a better college. The discontinuation penalty makes this an expensive proposition.
Bihar asks no service bond, but charges Rs 30 lakh to leave a seat mid-course.
Telangana charges Rs 20 lakh and a three-year debarment from counselling for leaving after admission.
Madhya Pradesh can go up to Rs 30 lakh at a government college, or the full remaining course fee at a private one.
Kerala, Rs 10 lakh for MBBS.
Haryana, Rs 10 lakh plus a debarment.
Assam's surrender penalty is modest at Rs 3 lakh.
West Bengal's even more so at Rs 1 lakh.
The reasoning is simple. The seat you leave stays empty for the rest of the year and the penalty partly makes up for the loss.
3. The dropping-out-of-counselling penalty
The third one hits the careful family that likes to keep options open. Accept or hold a seat, then fail to join or withdraw too late, and the system treats it as seat-blocking.
In the central counselling for deemed universities, that means forfeiting a security deposit of Rs 2 lakh.
Delhi University holds a Rs 3 lakh anti-dropout bond over its MBBS admits.
Uttar Pradesh added debarment for seat-leavers.
The logic can't be faulted; a blocked seat is a seat denied to the next candidate on the list.
How to avoid service bonds?
Simple. Opt for a private or deemed college. The downside is you end up paying a higher fee.
There is also another cost.
The stipend during internship, the year the student works in the hospital, is routinely thinner at private and deemed colleges.
The National Medical Commission's own disclosures show some deemed colleges paying interns a fraction of what the neighbouring government college pays and dozens paying next to nothing. The bond you dodge, you often pay for in another currency.
A subsidised medical education in exchange for a couple of years of public service is a fair deal and, for many families, the government seat is still the right call. But decide with the whole price tag in front of you, not just the tuition fee.
Before you lock a choice list, get answers to these questions for every college on it.
Is there a service bond, for how many years, and what is the penalty for not serving?
Does it apply to your category, quota, state or all-India?
What is the penalty for leaving mid-course?
What happens if you accept the seat and then don't join?
At what point do the penalties kick in? Read the exit rules carefully.
Confirm these points from the official documentation -- bond proforma or prospectus.
These are public documents. Read it before you sign it.
State-by-state: bonds and exit penalties at a glance
MBBS, general category. All figures from state prospectuses, government orders and bond proformas.
Ashok Hegde runs neet2seat.com, which tracks NEET-UG cut-offs, fees and counselling rules across 23 states and the All India Quota.
