The Insider Life Of A Medico at MGM Medical College, Aurangabad.

The college takes its application of the CBME that is "competency based medical education" very seriously. From second year that is the third semester itself, students have to participate in clinical postings in different departments everyday. During these clinics you get to interact with patients and asses them. Also considering the flood of patients in the hospital, you get to see many different patients and cases during these clinics. Even the more obscure departments like Psychiatry have a variety of patients coming from different places. This allows the students to actually experience in real life, outside of bookish knowledge the sign and symptom presentation of various diseases. This further helps the student to understand and reproduce the theory they've learned better. This is the most important part. Other than that, the professors guide you when you approach them. The other staff is very helpful too like the nurses and ward staff.

The internship is under a bond and has to be completed at the MGM hospital itself. The stipend is 12-15k per month. The internship is of 16 months where the student is assigned a duty at various departments regularly for every month. This helps the student practice their knowledge and hone their skills while learning to apply these skills to real life situations.

The college is a deemed university so their fees are 20 Lakhs per annum as of now. This fee is constant for all the five years that you spend here. Apart from this you have to pay 1 Lakh for the generation of a PNR number which is your identification as a student of MGMUHS. Every year end final exam has a fee. The fee for first year end exam is about 5000/- and for second year is 10,000/- and so on. There is a seperate fee for reevaluation and reexam. One time payment of 20,000/- is made for the gym and library and mantainence. Seperate cost for the journals and logbooks. For hostel, there are three seperate hostels for girls and two for boys. All have different costs according to A/C, bathrooms and number of roommates. There is 10% hike every year in the hostel fees. There is a stipend of 15k per month during internship, more for women. Chatrapathi Shahu Maharaj scholarship is active for students whose annual income is less than 8 Lakh, there will be 50% tuition fee reimbursement.

There is an annual college gathering which is called "Anubhuti." It is a beautiful blend of cultural as well as sports events. It goes on for about a month and gives everyone a chance to interact with eachother, acting like a major ice breaking activity among the juniors and seniors. It also takes away the stress from the daily academic struggles, lets you focus on your hobbies and showcase your talent. During Ganpati there are organised sports called "Swaraj." For more academically oriented people, the college organises a nationwide medical conference called "PLEXUS." It has various guest lectures, discussion forums, medical procedure workshops, BLS workshops, etc. It also has debate competitions, quizzes, case presentation competitions, etc which help the students to show their academic skills. This helps bridge the gap between theory and it's precise application.

The college gives you multiple options to choose from based on your budget. The fees depend on air conditioning, bathroom facility and room occupancy. For girls the Indrayani hostel is most expensive with A/C, seperate attached bathroom & 2 people in 1 room. In other hostels there is no A/C, no elevator, communal bathroom and double or triple occupancy. They provide coolers in summer. For boys there are two hostels, the rooms are divided into A/C and non-A/C with double or triple occupancy and attached or communal bathroom. All have pantries with an oven and induction, and communal study rooms. The rooms come equipped with a study table & chair, a book shelf, a cupboard and a bed. One for each student. The rooms are well lit and well ventilated. Every hostel has a mess. The food quality is 6/10. They offer both veg and non-veg options and 3 meals a day at 4500/- per month. Most of the students though opt for tiffin service. Hospital has a canteen, food is 8.5/10 there.

The cutoff for the college this year (2024) was around 370 NEET score. As the competition in NEET keeps rising the cutoff will no doubt increase. The admission is through the NMC portal. It is the same as the other colleges and the seats are also allotted strictly through NMC. Once done, the application is easy and even the upgrade process is easy.

Well like in any other educational institution, if at the end of the day you want to learn, you will learn inspite of hardships. However, it is a bonus that these hardships are minimal here. Due to the newly applied CBME pattern the faculty are obligated to interact closely with the students. The college regularly holds Small Group Discussion sessions for all subjects where the groups consist of 40 students, this I have found to be highly beneficial. The college also consistently conducts lectures where trained faculties teach for the entireity of the time allotted. All the faculties are minimum MBBS degree holders and past first year, all the professors are Specialists. Also from third year, the students get to learn directly from the doctors like Intensivists, Cardiologists, etc. Sometimes the students are first taught by Resident doctors and then finer knowledge is shelled out by the Specialist doctors. The college also has a special mentor-mentee programme from everyone.