I’ll be sharing with you my opinion on both.

As a 6-year MCh candidate, you’ll rotate through 10 months of general surgery. However, general surgery skills aren’t of much use in Neurosurgery, except the very basic knot-tying and suturing skills. You can also acquire those from dedicated lab practice. The other techniques followed in Neurosurgery are very different from those followed in general surgery. 

Neurosurgeons generally use access surgeons (thoracic surgeons or urologists) to perform unconventional approaches to the spine. It is much safer for the patient. Also, opting for a 6-year course after MBBS means one less entrance exam.

So it isn’t very beneficial for you to take up 3 years of MS general surgery. I would recommend you choose the direct 6 year Mh Neurosurgery course at AIIMS or NIMHANS instead.

As a student of UCMS, I will try to enlighten you about my college.

• Location- It is true that UCMS is located in the periphery of Delhi, and its surrounding is not as developed as that of VMMC. Regardless, the location of UCMS offers most of the facilities required for a good college life. You can access Cinepolis, PVR and Big Cinemas from here, reach CP in 20-30 minutes by metro/private vehicle, and catch a metro from Jhilmil metro station to explore Delhi/NCR. 

• Campus- UCMS has a beautiful campus, the best among Delhi medical colleges. It has a huge central field where you can play cricket, basketball, football, etc. Boys get single seater hostel rooms from the first year itself. The campus has two 24*7 canteens, a book shop from where you can access all your medical books, an ATM, and a post office.The hospital has undergone renovation, and looks new and well managed.

• Academics- UCMS offers excellent academics. The faculty is skilled and teaches with sincerity. The Histology Lab in the Anatomy department is really good. 

• Extracurriculars- UCMS has a sports society, a western dance team, a theme choreography team, a dramatics team, a musical society, a literary society and a medical education unit. You can join any of these.

According to me, both UCMS and VMMS are good medical colleges. You can choose the latter if location is a concern to you, otherwise, UCMS is a good choice too.

There are a lot of factors which should be kept in mind while opting for either of the colleges. Some of such factors are mentioned below. 

Attendance- 

• For attendance, HR is way more lenient than NM College. If you have a valid reason for low attendance such as preparation of CR, then you might be exempted. 
• However, this doesn't work in NM college, they are extremely strict about their attendance.

Distance- If you are a resident of Mumbai then you should consider the distance of the college from your home. It is an important factor to consider, and saves a lot of time and money.

Focus area- 

• If your goal is holistic development i.e. curriculum studies plus co-curricular activities, then NM college is the preferred choice. 
• HR is close to NM in this race. But NM provides a wider exposure owing to its central location of the college, surrounded by various other universities.

Let’s take a look at the advantages of all the above-mentioned colleges in a tabular form below.

Community- Often this factor is excluded while selecting a college, but this factor is as important as any of the above-mentioned factors. Although, if you have good people skills, you don’t need to consider it. But if you need a community then, in NM you will be surrounded by Gurjatis and in HR by Sindhis.

Infrastructure- 

• NM College is up-to-date with its infrastructure regardless of the fact that it is one of the oldest and well-known colleges in Mumbai. 
• HR College is outdated, not maintained, in terms of infrastructure.

Cost- If you are not a resident of Mumbai, South Mumbai is expensive in comparison to West Mumbai. 

Thus, keeping the above analysis in mind, NM College is the best out of the four colleges.

In my opinion, it’s best to complete an MD in medicine first rather than pursuing DM Neuro directly after MBBS. 

It is so because M.B.B.S. students receive minimal clinical exposure and therefore their interest in a particular field might not be genuine. They might later regret their choice. 

An integrated program is a 5-year program that requires a lot of commitment. So, if you go for a field you are not interested in, you will be wasting 5 years of your life. Even if you are sure of your interest in neurology, you may not actually like it when you start working. That being said, it's better that you do MD in medicine, have first-hand exposure to all the specialties, and then choose one for you. 

People often choose integrated courses so as to save one year of education. However, they fail to recognize the risks involved. 

Ultimately, unless you love neurology passionately and have enough exposure in the same, go for direct DM, else completing MD would be the safest bet. 

VMMC offers two kinds of MBBS seats- Subsidized and Non Subsidized.

The annual fee for subsidized seats is around Rs. 37,000. On the other hand, for non-subsidized seats, it is around 1.25 Lakhs. The internship stipend is around Rs 26,300 per month. 

VMMC is a prestigious medical institution, and the best place to fulfill your dreams. It is growing at a rapid rate.