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If you wrote the JEE exams, NEET-UG and a state entrance test, you may be in three counselling processes at once: JoSAA for IITs and NITs, MCC for All India Quota medical seats, and your state's rounds. Each runs on its own clock, with its own rules for what you lose if you change your mind.
What does it cost to accept a seat and then leave it?
The figures below come from the 2026 rule books. Check the current year's version before you pay anything.
JoSAA (IITs, IISc, NITs, IIITs and other GFTIs). Under the JoSAA 2026 Business Rules, the seat acceptance fee is ₹30,000, or ₹15,000 for SC, ST and PwD category tags. Not paying by the round's deadline counts as rejecting the seat and drops you from later rounds. A valid withdrawal refunds the fee minus a ₹7,000 processing charge. NIT+ candidates who still hold a seat after Round 5 also pay a partial admission fee of ₹45,000 (₹20,000 for SC, ST and PwD tags), and the same rules say this fee is not refundable.
MCC (NEET-UG All India Quota, central and deemed universities). The MCC NEET-UG 2026 information bulletin sets a refundable security deposit of ₹10,000 for UR and EWS candidates and ₹5,000 for SC, ST, OBC and PwD candidates on the AIQ and central-university side. Deemed universities need ₹2,00,000. Not joining a Round 1 seat does not cost you the deposit, but if you are allotted a seat in Round 2 or later and do not join, you lose it. You also lose it if your admission is cancelled, for example over wrong details or missing documents. Refunds come only after every round has finished.
How do you track deadlines across JoSAA, MCC and state counselling?
In 2026, JoSAA ran five rounds from 13 June to 21 July, and withdrawal from IIT and IISc seats closed at 5 pm on 14 July, according to the JoSAA 2026 schedule. MCC published its NEET-UG schedules for Round 2, Round 3 and the stray-vacancy round in September (see the MCC UG counselling page). State rounds often overlap with both.
So build one master calendar before Round 1: a shared spreadsheet with one row per round of each counselling, and these columns:
Result date and time
Last time to pay or report online (write down the hour, not just the day)
Last time to withdraw, resign or exit, and what that costs
What happens if you do nothing
Which documents you used, what you paid, and from which bank account
The MCC bulletin refunds the deposit only to the account it came from, so keep that account open. Set a phone reminder 24 hours before every deadline: the JoSAA rules say you will not get a separate message about your allotment.
Which seat should you accept when two offers overlap?
Accept any seat you would really take; accepting keeps you in the process. In JoSAA, choose float or slide to keep moving up. Our explainer on JoSAA freeze, float and slide covers each option.
Before paying a second fee, write down what leaving the first seat costs today, and when that cost rises.
Don't freeze until you are sure. The JoSAA rules say a freeze cannot be changed in later rounds.
Worked example. Riya, an illustrative general-category student, gets an NIT branch in JoSAA Round 2 that is not her first choice. She accepts with float and pays ₹30,000. Then her state counselling offers a seat closer to home.
If she withdraws from JoSAA inside a withdrawal window, she gets ₹23,000 back (₹30,000 minus ₹7,000), but she leaves JoSAA completely.
If she stays and pays the NIT partial admission fee, that ₹45,000 is non-refundable, so leaving later costs much more.
So she must decide before the NIT+ withdrawal window closes and the partial admission fee is due. She marks both dates in red and reads the state's refund rules before paying there.
NEET-UG works the same way: MCC Round 1 is the cheap time to leave, and from Round 2 leaving costs the deposit. MCC's bulletin adds that once you join a Round 3 seat, you cannot resign from it or take part in any other counselling.
If you have already missed a date, check which counselling rounds are still open. If you are leaving a seat you have already joined, read how to withdraw your admission seat and get a refund.
What should you do on each result day?
Log in to every portal yourself, not through agents or forwards.
Save the allotment letter and fee receipt as PDFs, named by round.
Read that round's official notice; rules change every year.
Decide together, then one person pays while another checks the screen.
If the stress starts to feel like too much, Tele MANAS is a free, 24x7 national helpline on 14416.
Once your seat is settled, first-semester maths and physics come next. Fermi's AI tutor works out what you already know and builds a plan for each session, so every time you sit down you know what to do next.
