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If you are the parent of a science stream student who will graduate from school this year, it is a safe bet to set aside a good amount of money for their entrance examinations alone. A student who appears for every major entrance examinations in the country that guarantee a seat in a Central government-run university or institute (NEET, JEE Mains, JEE Advanced, CUET and NATA) will shell out ₹7,700.
The Joint Entrance Examination (Advanced) — the test that determines admissions to all IITs — costs ₹2,800, though there are reductions for girls, transgender students, and SC and ST candidates. This is one of the most popular entrance examinations and close to 1.5 lakh students had appeared for it in 2021. The entrance fee was ₹2,000 in 2016, and rose by ₹200 over the next two consecutive years. In 2020, it was hiked to ₹2,800.
JEE Mains — the exam that qualifies a student to appear for JEE Advanced and determines admission to various engineering colleges — costs ₹650 for a male student from general and OBC (other backward classes) categories; the cost is ₹325 for everyone else.
The National Aptitude Test in Architecture will cost a student ₹2,000 this year.
The National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test, the medical entrance examination, costs ₹1,600 per student. Rates are slightly lower for students from the OBC and EWS (economically weaker sections) categories (₹1,500), and for SC, ST and disabled students (₹900). The cost of writing the exam was ₹1,400 in 2017, the year of its inception; the National Testing Agency, the central government body that conducts all nation-wide entrance examinations, had kept the rate the same as the All-India Pre-Medical Test, the entrance exam that existed prior to NEET. The rate was hiked to ₹1,500 in 2020 and to ₹1,600 this year.
This year marked the birth of the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) for admission to various undergraduate, integrated and postgraduate degrees, diplomas, certification courses, and research programmes in 45 Central universities including the University of Delhi, Aligarh Muslim University and Jawahalal Nehru University. The cost of this examination is ₹650 for all general category students, and ₹600 for OBC and EWS students.
What about other exams?
The costliest of all the major undergraduate entrance examinations in the country is the Common Law Admission Test, where an average student will have to pay ₹4,000. CLAT is the entrance test for admission to 22 National Law Universities. For students from below poverty line (BPL) families, scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, the cost is ₹3,500.
The entrance test to the Film and Technology Institute of India is also as expensive as CLAT. However, the cost is much lower — ₹1,250 — for students from reserved categories (SC, ST, OBC and economically weaker sections).
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