Odisha NEET UG 2026 Counselling: Round 1 Choice-Filling Deadline Extended to August 22

If you are a NEET UG 2026 candidate hoping for an MBBS or BDS seat under Odisha's state quota, take note: the Odisha Joint Entrance Examination Board (OJEEB) has pushed back the Round 1 choice-filling deadline and released a revised timetable for allotment and admission. This matters because choice filling is the step where you decide, in order of preference, which college and course you would accept if a seat becomes available — get the order or the deadline wrong, and you could lose a seat you were otherwise eligible for. The extension is linked to changes in the national-level counselling calendar run by the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) for the 15% All India Quota, so OJEEB has adjusted its own dates to avoid a clash for students who are participating in both streams at once. Round 1 currently covers 2,009 seats across government and private medical and dental colleges in the state.

What exactly changed

OJEEB has extended the window during which candidates on the final Odisha state merit list can add, remove or reorder their choice of college and course for Round 1. The board issued a fresh notice on its official portal, ojee.nic.in, with the updated dates. Everything else about Round 1 — including the total number of seats and the split between MBBS and BDS — remains as originally announced.

The trigger for this change was a revision to the MCC's own Round 1 schedule for the 15% All India Quota (AIQ), which is run centrally for seats reserved from every state's medical and dental colleges. Because a large number of NEET candidates participate in both the AIQ and their home state's counselling simultaneously, a mismatch in dates can force them to lock one set of choices without knowing the outcome of the other. OJEEB's extension is meant to reduce that risk for Odisha candidates.

Revised Round 1 schedule at a glance

Below is the updated timeline released by OJEEB. Candidates should still open the official notice on the portal to confirm the exact date and time before acting, since counselling schedules can shift again.

Who can take part, and what to keep ready

Only candidates who appear on the final Odisha state merit list, published on August 14, 2026, are eligible to fill choices in this round. You must also have completed OJEE registration and document verification for the state quota before this stage — choice filling is not the place to sort out pending eligibility issues.

Have your documents scanned and ready before you sit down to fill choices, since some portals ask you to re-upload or confirm details at the locking stage.

• NEET UG 2026 admit card and scorecard
• Class 10 and Class 12 mark sheets and certificates
• Odisha residence or nativity certificate
• Category certificate, where applicable
• A valid government-issued photo ID

How to fill and lock your choices correctly

The choice-filling and locking process is the single most consequential part of this round — the system treats whatever is saved and locked as your final, binding preference order. A rushed or incomplete list can mean being allotted a college or course you would not actually have chosen.

• Log in at ojee.nic.in using your NEET UG application number and password.
• Open the Choice Filling tab on your candidate dashboard.
• Add every college-course combination you are willing to accept, arranged strictly in your true order of preference.
• Re-check the saved list for errors before locking — once locked, no changes are permitted for Round 1.
• Click Lock Choices and download the confirmation slip; keep both a digital and printed copy.
• If you do not lock manually, the system will auto-lock whatever list you have saved when the extended window closes on August 22, 5 PM.

Why the extra time is genuinely useful

Many NEET candidates are simultaneously tracking probable ranks and allotment chances in the AIQ round run by MCC. A few extra days lets you compare how your rank might fare centrally against your state-quota options before committing to a final Odisha preference order — rather than locking blind and hoping the two schedules line up later.

That said, extensions are not guarantees of further leniency. Treat the new date as firm and plan to lock well before the last hour to avoid last-minute server load or connectivity issues, which are common on counselling portals near deadline time.

Frequently asked questions

Odisha state-quota candidates should log into ojee.nic.in now, review their preference list against both government and private options, and lock their final choices well ahead of the August 22 cutoff rather than waiting till the last hour. Keep checking the portal for the provisional allotment on August 24 and the reporting window that follows, since missing the admission-reporting dates can cost you the seat entirely.