Every year thousands of students in Andhra Pradesh apply for MBBS, BDS and post-graduate medical seats. Dr. NTR University of Health Sciences (now Dr. YSR University of Health Sciences) runs that admission process for the whole state. We built the online system that takes a student from the first registration all the way to a confirmed seat.

The problem

Admissions used to mean paperwork, travel and long queues at the university. The rules behind a seat are complicated - merit rank, category, reservations, local and non-local status, and a fresh government order almost every year. Doing that by hand is slow, and one mistake in a seat list can be challenged in court. The university needed a system that applies the same rules to every candidate, every time, and keeps a record of it.

What we built

• Student registration and login - sign-up with a mobile number and a one-time password, so only the real applicant can use the account.
• Application form and document upload - personal details, qualifying exam marks and scanned certificates, all submitted from home.
• Online fee payment - the processing fee is paid through a payment gateway and the receipt is stored against the application.
• Verification officer screens - university staff check each uploaded certificate and approve, query or reject it, with the reason recorded.
• College and principal login - each college sees its own candidates and confirms who actually reported and joined.
• Web options (choice filling) - candidates list the colleges and courses they want, in their own order of preference, and can change the list until the deadline.
• Merit list and seat allotment - the allotment runs against the rank list and the government orders in force, handles category conversions and search priority, and releases seats that were allotted but not reported so they go back into the next round.
• Allotment letters and SMS alerts - every candidate gets a downloadable letter and a message at each stage.
• Reports for the university - live counts of applications, verifications, payments, allotments and vacancies.

The same platform was extended to cover AYUSH admissions - Ayurveda and Homoeopathy post-graduate registration - reusing the registration, verification and payment modules.

How it helps

• Students apply, pay and choose their colleges without travelling to the university.
• The same rules are applied to everyone, so the allotment can be explained and defended.
• Officers verify certificates on screen instead of handling paper files.
• Each counselling round can be repeated with new data without rebuilding anything.

Technology

An ASP.NET (VB.NET) web application hosted on Windows and IIS, with a secure database, an online payment gateway and SMS alerts. The project was completed under the university tender and closed with a formal project completion letter.