Medical college fees and closing merit in 2026

A fee schedule and a merit list are different documents with different jobs. The fee schedule tells you what the college will charge. The merit list tells you where the last admitted candidate finished in a given year and quota. Families often read one and assume the other. That is how a shortlist turns into a surprise.

How to read a fee schedule

Start with the title. It should name the programme (MBBS or BDS), the session and the year of study. A number without those labels is not a price you can compare.

Then find the lines. Annual tuition. University fee, if separate. Hostel. Mess. Transport. Examination charges. One-time admission charges. Refundable deposits. The annual increase rule. The payment dates and the late fee.

Check whether the figure is per year or per semester. Check whether it is for the current session or the next. Check whether it applies to open merit, self-finance or an overseas seat. A college can charge different rates for different quotas, and the difference can be large.

Our university directory records annual tuition where a figure is available. Some records are marked as estimates. An estimate is not a college-published number. Use it to start a conversation, not to close a budget.

The lines that sit outside tuition

A tuition line usually excludes the hostel and the mess. It may exclude the university fee, the examination fee, the degree fee and the identity card. It may exclude books, a lab coat, a dissection kit, a stethoscope and clinical shoes.

Add the cost of getting to the college. A daily commute has a fuel or transport line. A hostel has a room line, a mess line and a deposit. A family that moves cities has rent and utilities. These are not college fees, but they are part of the cost of attendance.

Add a contingency. A ten percent buffer for the first year is a reasonable planning device. It is not a fee. It is a way to avoid making a decision on a total that is missing a line.

How to read a closing-merit row

A closing-merit row has four parts: the year, the programme, the quota and the aggregate. The aggregate is usually a weighted combination of Matric, FSc and MDCAT. The exact weights are set by the admitting university and published in its prospectus.

The row means: in that year, under that quota, the last candidate admitted had this aggregate. It does not mean the college will admit that number next year. The pool changes. The paper changes. The number of applicants changes. A closing row is a record, not a cutoff.

A college may publish more than one list. A later list can close lower because some selected candidates decline or fail to pay. Do not assume a later list is always easier. The pool and the number of remaining seats can change.

Why the quota label changes the number

Open merit, self-finance and overseas seats are separate pools. They can have different closing aggregates and different fees. A row labelled self-finance tells you nothing about the open-merit line. A row labelled open merit tells you nothing about the fee for a self-finance seat.

When you compare two colleges, compare the same quota. A private college's self-finance closing row is not comparable to a public college's open-merit row. The labels are part of the number.

Our directory keeps the quota label on every merit point. Read it before you read the percentage.

Three records from our directory

The table below shows three records, not a ranking. Each row is an example of how to read a fee and a merit history.

The King Edward row comes from a public college with a long merit history. The LMDC row comes from a private college whose fee is marked as an estimate. The AKU row has a published tuition figure but no closing-merit list, because the university runs its own admission test and does not publish one. The directory last verified these rows in September 2026.

At the time of this review, the newest merit rows in the directory are for 2025. The 2026 test was held on Sunday, 20 September 2026, and the 2026 merit cycle may not be complete in the directory yet. Check the current prospectus before you treat any row as the 2026 result.

What the 2026 cycle can and cannot tell you

The 2026 cycle can tell you the test date, the format and the subject split. It can tell you which papers were recovered and how complete they are. It can tell you the fee a college published for a given session, if the directory has that record.

It cannot tell you the 2027 closing merit. It cannot tell you that a college will repeat last year's fee. It cannot tell you that a quota will stay the same size. PMDC has not announced a 2027 date, and July 2027 is a planning assumption, not an official date.

Use the 2026 cycle to build a shortlist and a budget. Do not use it to promise an outcome.

Building a shortlist without a ranking

A shortlist is not a ranking. It is a set of colleges you can afford, reach and live with. Build it in three bands.

In the first band, put colleges where your aggregate is above the latest recorded row for the same quota. In the second, put colleges where it is close. In the third, put colleges where it is below but the college is still one you would accept. The bands are a planning device, not a prediction.

For each college, write the five-year tuition, the annual increase rule, the hostel rule and the distance from home. Then check recognition and the clinical sites. A college that is affordable but unrecognised is not a bargain.

Use the calculator for your aggregate and the directory for the recorded rows. Read the financial ROI guide if you are comparing a public and a private offer.

Questions to ask the admission office

Ask for the fee schedule for the current session, not a brochure from last year. Ask which lines are included in the headline number. Ask for the annual increase rule and the last three notifications. Ask whether the hostel is available for all years.

Ask what happens to the fee if a student repeats a year. Ask what is refundable and when. Ask whether the quoted fee is for open merit, self-finance or overseas. Ask for the rule in writing.

A college that answers these questions clearly is easier to plan with. A college that answers with a verbal estimate is asking you to carry the risk. Write down the answer and the date you received it.

A fee schedule is a snapshot. A college can revise it before the next session. Ask for the version that applies to your year of study, and keep a copy.