The Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) opened the choice-filling window for NEET UG 2026 Round 3 counselling on Wednesday, giving thousands of medical aspirants a fresh chance to secure seats in MBBS, BDS, and B.Sc Nursing programmes under the All India Quota.
Candidates who registered for this round can now log in to the official MCC portal, mcc.nic.in, and begin selecting and ranking their preferred colleges and courses. The window will remain open till 12 noon on September 28.
Key Highlights
- Choice filling opened today, September 23, and closes September 28
- Registration and payment run till September 27
- Seat allotment result expected on September 30
- Reporting to allotted institutes runs from October 1 to 9
- Round 2 allotted a total of 8,828 seats across MBBS, BDS, and B.Sc Nursing
- Candidates cannot resign once they join a Round 3 seat under AIQ, Deemed, or Central University counselling
Round 3 Counselling Schedule
| Activity | Date |
| Seat matrix verification | September 21 |
| Registration and payment | September 22–27 (till 3 PM; payment till 6 PM) |
| Choice filling | September 23–28 (till 12 Noon) |
| Choice locking | September 27–28 |
| Seat allotment processing | September 28–29 |
| Result declaration | September 30 |
| Reporting to allotted institute | October 1–9 |
| Institute verification of joined data | October 10 |
Where This Round Fits In
Round 2 results were declared on September 12. Seats that stayed vacant after that round – along with any newly added colleges or additional intake cleared by the National Medical Commission – now make up the Round 3 seat matrix. The NMC has separately added 13,186 MBBS seats across 836 colleges for the 2026–27 academic year, pushing the national MBBS seat count to 1,40,214.
What Candidates Should Know
- Once a candidate joins through Round 3, they cannot participate in any further round, including the stray vacancy round
- Candidates who accept a seat but fail to report within the deadline risk cancellation of their candidature
- Seats left vacant after Round 3 will move to the stray vacancy round, with registration expected from October 12 to 14 and results on October 17
