One of the Best Medical colleges in Maharashtra

I had applied for all the top government medical colleges in Maharashtra including the ones in Mumbai and Pune. Through the state counselling of Maharashtra, I was allotted Government Medical College, Kolhapur in the second round. I am an open category student. The cut off for the open category was 594 marks, I had scored 600. The minimum age for applying for NEET is 17 years and passing class 12 boards with 60% marks. The admission process was smooth at GMC, Kolhapur, all the process was done within 3 hours. But in the college I was allotted in the first round, ie GMC, Latur, the process was not so smooth. The officials were arrogant and did not explain the procedure initially properly leading to a lot of wastage of time.

I chose the Medical profession out of the will to give back to society and also because of the thrill of the field. It is not a very typical profession. The faculty: student ratio is very good. There are 150 students in my batch and there are 3 subjects per year with each subject having more than 5 faculties for teaching. All the faculties are higly qualified with MD(Master of Doctorate) in their field. The exam dates are set by the MUHS and is strictly followed by our college. The pass rate is about 70% in the first year.

There is a compulsory 1 year internship for students to serve after clearing final year exams. It is paid. As per my seniors, the internship teaches a lot, there are a variety of patients coming in with different ailments from rural areas nearby.

The students of our college have to compulsorily serve a 1 year paid internship for the hospital after passing the final year exams. (12k per month). There are as such no companies visiting the campus. My plans are to give the NEXT exam and USMLE exam preparing for the Postgraduate courses in India and the USA.

The college is funded by the government, meaning minimal fees with occasional, small fee hikes. I'm an open category student, the fees is about 1.12 lakh rupees a year considering the tuition and accommodation fees. The government provides scholarships to the economically weak category students (EWS) with a reduction in fees of about 50%. However, I could not avail of this. If any student faces financial difficulty, there are provisions to reduce fees and provide assistance. The internship in the hospital itself as Junio Doctors after final exams of the 3rd year pays about 12,000 rupees per month.

There are a lot of different clubs(Acting, Singing, Dance, Chess, Table Tennis, Football...) suitable enough that every student can surely be accommodated in one at least. The classrooms are very spacious, with speakers arranged to make sure even the students in the back can hear. It is equipped with a projector. A new library is being constructed as of today(July-2021), it is expected that when it's inaugurated in late-2021, it'll be one of the most well equipped and the largest library in the whole district. There are existing libraries in each department with a variety of books. The college campus is spread out on 30 acres of land, there's a different play area for every sport played. The students of GMC, Kolhapur run Letters to Strangers, a social initiative. (L2S- available on Instagram)

Boy's hostel - College Campus; Girl's hostel - hospital campus; Both are about 4 km away. The rooms provided are spacious, with 3 students per room. 1 fan, 1 tube light, 1 study table, 1 Cushioned chair(For top 30 students. Normal chairs for the rest) and 1 electric socket per student. Solar heated water is also provided, functional for 6 months of the year. Rest of the year - personal Induction coils. The mess - in college campus - 12 hour service, variety of snacks provided (Dosa, Noodles, Fries, Sandwich, Khandoli), meals also provided. Cost - Medium, affordable to most. Hostel registration - one day before college starts, take about 2 hours. Rent - 4000 rupees per annum. Bathrooms - Not so good. Domestic help comes to clean every day, but the buildings are 20 years old with 0 maintenance.