AYUSH Courses After NEET: BAMS, BHMS, Fees and Scope

AYUSH courses are the five and a half year medical degrees in India's traditional systems: BAMS in Ayurveda, BHMS in homoeopathy, BUMS in Unani and BSMS in Siddha. All four need a NEET UG score at the 50th percentile, and admission to All India Quota seats runs through AACCC counselling.

AYUSH courses: key takeaways

• The entry bar is the same exam, at a lower percentile. You sit NEET UG exactly as an MBBS aspirant does, and you need the 50th percentile for the general category and the 40th for SC, ST and OBC candidates.

• The degree is five and a half years, not five. Four and a half years of study are followed by a compulsory rotatory internship of one year, which you cannot skip.

• Counselling has its own body. AACCC, the Ayush Admissions Central Counseling Committee, runs the All India Quota rounds, not the Medical Counselling Committee that handles MBBS.

• AACCC handles only part of the seats. It covers 15% All India Quota seats of government and government-aided colleges, plus 100% of the seats at named national institutes and deemed universities. The rest go through your state.

• Two commissions, not one. Ayurveda, Unani and Siddha sit under the National Commission for Indian System of Medicine. Homoeopathy sits under the National Commission for Homoeopathy.

• Registration is in the system you studied. An AYUSH degree registers you to practise that system. It is not a registration under the National Medical Commission, which governs MBBS.

AYUSH courses at a glance

What are the four AYUSH courses?

Each degree trains you in one system, and the system decides the syllabus, the register you join and the clinics that will hire you.

Our existing guide to becoming a homoeopathic doctor goes deeper on BHMS specifically, including the year by year syllabus and college fees, and the naturopathy route covers BNYS, which sits outside AACCC counselling.

What NEET score do you need for AYUSH courses?

You need the same NEET UG paper and a qualifying percentile, not a cutoff mark fixed in advance. The National Commission for Homoeopathy sets it out as follows, and the same percentile rule applies across the ASU and H undergraduate courses:

• General category: 50th percentile. This means scoring at or above the mark that half the candidates in the all-India merit list fall below.

• Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes: 40th percentile.

• General category with a benchmark disability: 45th percentile, under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016.

• Reserved categories with a benchmark disability: 40th percentile.

The percentile is worked out from the highest marks in the all-India common merit list that year, so the mark it translates into moves every year. The commission also states that any admission made against these criteria is cancelled, so a college offering a seat below the percentile is offering you a seat that will not stand.

How does AACCC counselling work?

AACCC runs three main rounds and then stray vacancy rounds, on a published calendar. The 2026-27 schedule looks like this.

Dates are from the AACCC-UG counselling schedule for 2026-27. Round 3 reporting is open as this is written, and the stray vacancy round follows in November.

Which seats does AACCC actually fill?

This is the detail that decides whether AACCC is your route at all. The committee handles:

• 15% All India Quota seats in government and government-aided ASU and H colleges across every state and union territory.

• 100% of the BAMS seats at Banaras Hindu University, ITRA Jamnagar, NIA Jaipur and NIA Panchkula, apart from nominated seats.

• 100% of the BHMS seats at the National Institute of Homoeopathy, Kolkata, apart from nominated seats.

• Seats at deemed universities, which have their own fee structures and their own deposit.

Everything else, which is the large majority of AYUSH seats in the country, is filled by your own state counselling authority. If you want a seat in your home state's government college, the state process matters more to you than AACCC does.

How to apply for AYUSH courses, step by step

1. Sit NEET UG and clear the percentile. There is no separate entrance test for AYUSH courses, and the same scorecard serves both MBBS and AYUSH counselling.

2. Decide between All India Quota and state counselling. You can register for both, and most candidates should, because the seat pools barely overlap.

3. Register on the AACCC portal and pay. Registration and the refundable security money are paid together at this stage.

4. Fill and lock your choices. Choices are locked at a published time, and the committee states that once locked they cannot be changed.

5. Check the result and read the college's own terms. Fee, bond, stipend and hostel details come from the college, and AACCC states it takes no responsibility for them.

6. Report at the allotted institute inside the window. Reporting windows run about a week per round.

7. Complete the one year internship after the fourth and a half year. It is compulsory and it is part of the degree, not an optional add-on.

8. Register with the state board for your system. Registration is what lets you practise, and it is specific to Ayurveda, homoeopathy, Unani or Siddha.

What does AACCC counselling cost?

The registration fee is never refunded. The security money is, unless you break the counselling scheme. A candidate who registers for both streams across rounds and then does not comply can lose the whole amount paid, which the bulletin illustrates with a worked example reaching Rs. 76,000.

How long are AYUSH courses, and what is the internship?

Every one of these degrees runs five and a half years. The National Institute of Homoeopathy, an autonomous institute under the Ministry of Ayush, describes its BHMS as a five and a half year course in which every student undergoes a compulsory rotatory internship of one year after passing the final examination.

The internship is clinical and rotational, which means you move through departments rather than sitting in one. It is also the year in which most graduates decide whether they want practice, a government job or a postgraduate degree, so it is worth treating as training rather than as a formality.

What can an AYUSH graduate legally practise?

A BAMS, BUMS or BSMS graduate registers under the National Commission for Indian System of Medicine framework and practises the system named in the degree. A BHMS graduate registers under the National Commission for Homoeopathy and practises homoeopathy. The two commissions were created by the NCISM Act, 2020 and the NCH Act, 2020, and they replaced the earlier central councils.

What the degree does not do is register you under the National Medical Commission, which is the regulator for MBBS and for modern medicine. Rights to prescribe modern medicine are set by rules made at state level and differ between states, so a graduate's day to day scope is decided by where they register, not by the degree certificate. Ask the state board you plan to register with, in writing, before you build a plan around a particular scope.

Where do AYUSH graduates actually work?

Four routes carry most graduates, and they are not equally crowded:

• Own practice or a clinic. The most common destination, and the one with the widest range of outcomes, because income follows location and reputation rather than the degree.

• Government service. State AYUSH dispensaries, district hospitals and posts under the National AYUSH Mission, which the Ministry of Ayush runs.

• Hospitals and wellness groups. Panchakarma and integrative departments inside hospital chains and larger wellness businesses.

• Postgraduate study and teaching. An MD in the same system, entered through AIAPGET, leads to college faculty posts and specialist practice.

AYUSH courses or MBBS abroad: how the two differ

These are different degrees leading to different registers, so the comparison is about what each one gives you rather than which is better.

If the goal is specifically to practise modern medicine, an AYUSH degree does not lead there and no amount of later study converts it. If the goal is to be a registered doctor in a traditional system in India, it is a direct five and a half year route with no screening exam at the end. Our pages on studying MBBS abroad and on how many MBBS seats India actually has set out the alternative honestly, and how to become a doctor in India walks the whole domestic path.

Who should think twice about AYUSH courses?

• Anyone treating it as a back door to MBBS. The registers are separate and there is no bridge from one to the other.

• Anyone who has not read the college's bond. Bond amounts and rural service conditions are set by the college and vary widely.

• Anyone relying on a seat below the percentile. Admissions made against the criteria are cancelled by the commission.

• Anyone who has not checked the college's permission status. NCISM publishes advisories about colleges denied permission that continue admitting under interim court orders.

For students weighing a drop year against another route altogether, our drop year comparison lays the two side by side, and becoming a doctor without NEET covers what is and is not possible.

Conclusion

AYUSH courses are a real five and a half year medical training with their own regulator, their own counselling body and their own register. They are not a lesser version of MBBS and they are not a route into it. Clear the 50th percentile, register for both All India Quota and state counselling, read the bond before you report, and treat the internship year as the start of the career rather than the end of the course.

AYUSH courses: frequently asked questions

Sources

• Ayush Admissions Central Counseling Committee, Ministry of Ayush

• AACCC-UG Information Bulletin 2026-27

• AACCC-UG counselling schedule 2026-27

• National Commission for Indian System of Medicine, regulator for Ayurveda, Unani and Siddha

• National Commission for Homoeopathy, rules and regulations

• National Institute of Homoeopathy, BHMS prospectus 2026-27

• Ministry of Ayush, Government of India