Dr NTR University of Health Sciences has issued an advisory on web options for MBBS and BDS admissions for 2026-27 that changes one of the more consequential rules in Andhra Pradesh counselling.
What changed
In the university’s own words, even if a seat is allotted to a candidate in one round of counselling, not joining that seat no longer stops them taking part in the next round. The advisory states directly that candidates who did not join the seat allotted to them were earlier not eligible to participate in the subsequent counselling, and that this rule has now been changed.
This is a real shift. Under the earlier rule a candidate who was allotted something they did not want faced a hard choice: join it, or be out of the remaining rounds. That pressure is gone.
The restriction that remains
One limit still applies, and it is easy to miss. At every subsequent stage a candidate may choose the college they wish to join, but they will not be permitted to select, in a later round, the college that was previously allotted to them and which they did not report to or join.
So the choice is not free of consequence. Declining an allotment keeps you in the process, but it removes that particular college from your options for good. Think of it as spending the college, not the round.
Two other things in the advisory
- Candidates who were unable to submit web options in the first phase can enter their options in the subsequent phase.
- The government has provided the facility to change the order of preference of colleges.
What to do about it
The university’s advice is to enter every college you would accept, in your genuine order of priority, and it repeats the point twice: more options means a better chance of a seat. That advice now carries more weight than it used to, because a low-priority option you list is no longer a trap. If it comes to you and you decline it, you stay in the running for everything else.
What has not changed is that your order of preference is what the allotment engine acts on. List colleges in the order you actually want them, not in the order you think you can get them.
Our Andhra Pradesh cutoff pages show the closing ranks by college, category and seat type, and the predictor shows which of them your rank reaches, which is the input you need before ordering a long options list.
Source: Dr NTR University of Health Sciences advisory on web options for MBBS and BDS admissions 2026-27, referencing the office notification dated 05.08.2026.