NEST Counselling 2026 - NISER and UM - DAE CEBS will start the NEST 2026 counselling registration process in July for the candidates who have qualified in the NEST 2026 exam. NISER and CEBS will hold the counselling sessions separately for the convenience of the candidates. The National Entrance Screening Test (NEST) will be held to provide admissions for M.Sc programmes at NISER, Bhubaneswar and UM - DAE CEBS, Mumbai.
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Candidates who qualified in the NEST exam should appear for the counselling and submit their documents for document verification at the time of counselling. The candidates who qualified in the NEST exam 2026 will be announced in the form of a merit list. The NEST merit list 2026 contains the ranks of candidates in Section-wise Minimum Admissible Score (SMAS) and Minimum Admissible Percentile (MAP). The candidates who got shortlisted will be eligible for the NEST 2026 counselling. Read more to know about the NEST counselling 2026, Documents required for NEST counselling 2026, etc.
Events | Dates |
NEST 2026 | June 2026 |
NEST 2026 Result | July 2026 |
NISER merit list | July 2026 |
Email regarding Expression of Interest (EOI) | July 2026 |
Last date to fill the EOI form | July 2026 |
Document uploading | July 2026 |
First Round for admission | August 2026 |
First Round for counselling | August 2026 |
Payment window for admission through round 1st counselling | August 2026 |
Second round for counselling | September 2026 |
Payment window for admission through round 2nd counselling | September 2026 |
Third round for counselling | September 2026 |
Payment window for admission through round 3rd counselling | September 2026 |
Spot admission for the remaining candidates | October 2026 |
UM-DAE CEBS registration | July 2026 |
Last date to fill UM-DAE CEBS registration | July 2026 |
UM-DAE CEBS First merit list | August 2026 |
Payment for UM-DAE CEBS first merit list candidates | August 2026 |
First Round for Counselling | August 2026 |
Second Round for Counselling | September 2026 |
Third Round for Counselling | September 2026 |
Semester Registration | October 2026 |
NISER, Bhubaneswar and UM - DAE CEBS will conduct the NEST 2026 counselling in offline mode. Candidates are required to attend the counselling sessions at the scheduled location on scheduled date and time. Candidates should submit all the required documents for verification before the NEST 2026 counselling process.
Applicants are required to submit the application form to appear for the NEST 2026 counselling.
Candidates can choose their preferred location based on their convenience for the counselling session.
Candidates are allowed to proceed with the process after the original documents have been verified.
Candidates must present the appropriate certificate for claiming the reserved category.
Candidates are required to choose a college and a course preference during counselling.
Candidates are required to submit a demand draft for the required fee to gain admission in the allotted college.
Candidates will be issued an offer letter by the authority, with which the candidate can enrol in the designated course and college.
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Candidates are required to carry all the required documents to the NEST counselling process for verification. The admission process will not be completed without document verification. Here are the documents required for NEST exam counselling 2026.
Class 12 marksheet.
Category certificate.
Printout of NEST 2026 scorecard.
Four passport size colour photographs.
Proof of Date of Birth.
Photocopies of all the documents mentioned above are also required.
Candidates who wish to discontinue from the counselling process and want to withdraw their NEST 2026 admission are required to follow the steps mentioned for withdrawing seats.
Name
Application number and roll number
Date of Birth
Percentage of Class 12th
Venue for counselling
NISER and CEBS will offer reservations to the reserved category candidates applying for admission. NISER and CEBS also reserve a certain percentage of seats for candidates of SC/ ST, OBC-NCL, PwD and Supernumerary Quota seats for candidates who are from Jammu and Kashmir.
OBC-NCL
27% of the total seats are reserved in the admission process for candidates of the OBC-NCL category. It must be noted that candidates belonging to the OBC category are not considered eligible for reservation. Such candidates are treated the same as General category candidates. Even candidates who belong to the Socially and Educationally Backward Class have to match the criteria of OBC NCL to be considered eligible for the reservation as stated by the state government.
SC/ ST
15% of the total seats are reserved for candidates of SC category, whereas 7.5% of seats will be reserved for candidates of ST category. To avail the reservation, candidates have to submit the requisite documents like a caste certificate to the admission committee during admission.
PwD
Candidates of PwD category will have 5% of the total seats reserved for them. The disability certificate presented by candidates has to be in accordance with the latest guidelines specified by the Government of India.
Supernumerary Quota for students from Jammu and Kashmir
Two supernumerary seats at both NISER Bhubaneswar and UMDAE-CBS will be reserved for candidates from Jammu and Kashmir. To avail the supernumerary quota, candidates must have completed their class 12th from the State Board of Jammu and Kashmir or from CBSE-affiliated schools which are located in Jammu and Kashmir.
The following seats are available at NISER and CEBS for each category:
Category | Seat Intake at NISER | Seat Intake at CEBS |
General | 101 | 23 |
Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) of the General category | NA (to be confirmed at the time of admission process only) | 06 |
Other Backward Classes (OBC) - Non-Creamy Layer | 54 | 15 |
Scheduled Caste (SC) | 30 | 09 |
Scheduled Tribes (ST) | 15 | 04 |
Divyangjan | 5% of seats in each category above | 5% of seats in each category |
Total | 200 | 57 |
The NEST 2026 cut off will be declared by various institutions. Go through the below table to know about the NEST cut off marks for each category.
Subject | General/ General-EWS | OBC-NCL | SC/ ST/ Divyangjan/ JK | |||
Shift-I | Shift-II | Shift-I | Shift-II | Shift-I | Shift-II | |
Biology | 5.698 | 5.541 | 5.128 | 4.987 | 2.849 | 2.771 |
Chemistry | 5.215 | 6.106 | 4.694 | 5.495 | 2.608 | 3.053 |
Mathematics | 4.979 | 6.082 | 4.481 | 5.474 | 2.49 | 3.041 |
Physics | 4.817 | 5.125 | 4.335 | 4.613 | 2.409 | 2.563 |
Category | Percentile |
General / General-EWS | >=90 |
OBC-NCL | >=85 |
SC/ST/Divyangjan/JK | >=60 |
Category | Biology | Chemistry | Mathematics | Physics |
General | 4.2170 | 3.4805 | 3.6305 | 2.9345 |
OBC | 3.7953 | 3.1325 | 3.2675 | 2.6411 |
SC/ST/PD/JK | 2.1085 | 1.7403 | 1.8153 | 1.4673 |
Category | Biology | Chemistry | Mathematics | Physics |
General | 3.4599 | 3.3875 | 2.7815 | 2.9620 |
OBC | 3.1140 | 3.0488 | 2.5034 | 2.6658 |
SC/ST/PD/JK | 1.7300 | 1.6938 | 1.3908 | 1.4810 |
Category | Biology | Chemistry | Mathematics | Physics |
General | 8.43 | 6.96 | 7.26 | 5.87 |
OBC | 7.59 | 6.26 | 6.53 | 5.28 |
SC/ST/PD/JK | 4.22 | 3.48 | 3.63 | 2.93 |
Category | Biology | Chemistry | Mathematics | Physics |
General | 6.92 | 6.78 | 5.56 | 5.92 |
OBC | 6.23 | 6.10 | 5.01 | 5.33 |
SC/ST/PD/JK | 3.46 | 3.39 | 2.78 | 2.96 |
Category | Overall Cut Off |
ST/ SC/ Divyangjan | 75% |
OBC | 90% |
General | 95% |
Category | Reservation (%) |
OBC-NCL | 27% |
SC | 15% |
ST | 7.5% |
PD | 3% |
J&K Candidates | 2 seats in each institution |
Read more -
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
The NEST counselling 2026 for NISER Bhubaneswar and UM - DAE CEBS Mumbai will begin in July.
NISER Bhubaneswar and CEBS Mumbai will accept admissions through the NEST 2026 exam.
Candidates appearing for the NEST 2026 should have completed Class 12 with Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Mathematics as mandatory subjects in Class 12.
No, there won’t be any reservation for the OBC Creamy Layer category in NEST exam 2026.
No, only candidates from the non-creamy layer will be given preference under the OBC category.
The University of Mumbai, Department of Atomic Energy will release the UM-DAE CEBS 2026 first merit list in July.
Qualified candidates from the EWS category will only be given a seat reservation at the CEBS under the General-EWS category. The NISER does not accept such reservations.
NEST counselling process is typically done in three rounds.
No, there is no reservation for the OBC Creamy Layer category.
Yes, the NISER and the CEBS will each publish their own merit lists.
On Question asked by student community
Hello,
CEBS has started the NEST 2026 registration process on January 5 at nestexam.in. Candidates can fill and submit the NEST 2026 application form till April 6. The last date to pay the NEST application fee 2026 is April 12.
For NEST Exam Eligibility 2026, Age Limit, Qualification, Marks Required,
Hi, the exact data for 2025 is not available. However, in 2024, over 45,000 students registered for the exam and more than 27,000 appeared. The NEST 2026 exam is scheduled to be held on June 6.
If any candidate has lost their NEST exam certificate, they can visit the official website, nestexam.in to request another copy of the certificate.
https://www.nestexam.in/qnsans/NEST-25.pdf
HELLO,
Yes , the NEST exam is generally considered tougher than NEET as it requires more focus towards conceptual understanding and thinking , while NEET generally tests NCERT based knowledge where as in NEST it requires you to have deeper clarity in Physics , Chemistry , Biology and Mathematics.
NEET
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