The clock is ticking. If you're one of the lakhs of NEET UG qualifiers still sitting on an unfinished MCC registration, today is the day it either gets done or you risk sitting out Round 1 entirely. The Medical Counselling Committee closes Round 1 registration at 3 PM sharp, and while the fee payment window stretches a little further till 6 PM, that gap isn't something to gamble on. Every year, a chunk of eligible candidates lose their Round 1 shot not because they weren't eligible, but because they treated the deadline as flexible when it wasn't.

Today's Deadline, In One Line

MCC NEET UG Counselling 2026 Round 1 registration began on August 5, and today, August 12, is the final day. Registration closes at 3 PM, but candidates who have already started the process, or completed registration but not yet paid, get an extended window till 6 PM to clear the fee. Miss either cutoff and there's no guarantee of a second chance for this round , MCC has repeatedly stated that registration, payment, choice filling and reporting deadlines will not be extended.

  • Registration window closes: Today, 3:00 PM
  • Fee payment window closes: Today, 6:00 PM
  • Choice filling and locking: Continues till August 13, 11 AM
  • Seat allotment processing: August 13 to 16
  • Round 1 result declaration: August 17
  • Reporting to allotted institutes: August 18 to 22

What Candidates Must Do Right Now

If you haven't registered yet, stop reading the fine print and get on the MCC portal immediately. The process itself doesn't take long, but server load tends to spike hard in the final hour before any MCC deadline, and a slow page load at 2:55 PM has cost candidates their shot in past cycles. Here's the sequence to follow without wasting time.

  1. Log in to the official MCC counselling portal using your NEET 2026 roll number and application details
  2. Complete the online registration form with accurate personal and category information
  3. Pay the counselling registration fee and refundable security deposit as applicable to your category
  4. Save and download the payment confirmation receipt immediately after payment
  5. Move to choice filling as soon as registration is confirmed don't wait till the last day of that window either
  6. Keep your NEET scorecard, admit card, and category certificates handy for the choice filling and later verification stages

Already Registered? Here's What Comes Next

For candidates who've already registered and paid, the pressure shifts to choice filling. That window stays open till 11 AM on August 13, which sounds generous but tends to disappear fast once you start actually ranking colleges against seat availability, cutoffs, and category quotas. MCC has already released the Round 1 seat matrix, so this is the moment to sit down with it properly rather than filling choices on autopilot. Cross-check every college and course code against your category and home-state eligibility before adding it to your list, since a wrongly picked choice can still get allotted and lock you into an admission you didn't actually want. Once choices are locked, they cannot be edited, so treat the locking step as final and irreversible.

What Happens If You Miss Today's Deadline

Missing the 3 PM registration cutoff or the 6 PM payment window generally means missing Round 1 altogether for AIQ seats under MCC. Candidates who miss Round 1 aren't locked out of the counselling process for good — MCC typically allows fresh registration in Round 2 for those who didn't register earlier — but skipping Round 1 means giving up a full round of seat allotment chances, and Round 1 usually carries the widest spread of seats before subsequent rounds narrow the field. If your registration is stuck due to a technical error rather than a missed deadline, document the issue with screenshots and be ready to raise it through the MCC helpdesk rather than assuming it will resolve itself. Candidates relying on state quota counselling separately should also confirm their respective state authority's parallel deadlines, since those timelines don't always match MCC's schedule exactly.

Quick Recap: The Full Round 1 Timeline

To keep the bigger picture in view, Round 1 registration and payment opened August 5 and closes today. Choice filling and locking run August 6 to 13, with locking specifically ending at 11 AM on August 13. Seat processing follows from August 13 to 16, the result is expected on August 17, and candidates allotted seats report to their institutes between August 18 and 22. Each of these dates has held steady so far this cycle, and MCC has been explicit that none of them are expected to move, so building your own personal buffer well ahead of each one, rather than waiting for the final hour, remains the safer approach for every stage that follows.

Candidates should complete every step within the prescribed deadline, as registration, payment, choice filling and reporting windows may not be extended.— MCC NEET UG Counselling 2026 official schedule advisory

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Official Sources