The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Medicine losing its sheen?

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Friday, Jun 30, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Medicine losing its sheen?

V. Jayanth

A student looking up the MBBS results list in Chennai. — Photo: K. Pichumani

CHENNAI: It may still be prestigious to secure admission to a medical college in the State, with less than 2,000 seats on offer, compared to nearly 80,000 in engineering colleges.

Counselling for medical admission gets over first before the single window system for engineering admission begins. But the craze for medical admissions may be on the wane, academics and analysts say.

"There were fewer students taking the TNPCEE for the medical stream this year. The number of applications came down from about 12,000 last year to just about 8,000. I know of several students, sure of securing a medical seat, consciously opting for engineering," says Salem-based analyst Jayaprakash Gandhi.

A Backward Class student from Erode, Deepak, confirms the trend. He has a cut-off of 293.31 for medicine and 290.01 for engineering. "My father is a doctor and I have discussed it with him. We have done our own homework and analysis. A mere MBBS will not do and it is not going to be easy to get a postgraduate seat. I will need at least 12 to 15 years to stabilise and start earning something decent. So I have decided to go for Computer Science or Electronics and Communication Engineering. A four-year programme may be enough to start off on a very high salary."

The massive campus placement programmes and the high salaries offered by IT and ITES companies have contributed to this loss of sheen in medicine. As students say, they can at best earn about Rs. 5,000 per month for the first few years and then try for a postgraduate seat. It is a long haul.

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