Top career options for PCB students after Class 12

Medicine is the most popular choice for PCB students. To secure a seat in five-year MBBS and BDS (Bachelor of Dental Surgery) programs, students need to clear NEET (National Eligibility and Entrance Test), which offers admission to government/private colleges and central/deemed universities, except AIIMS and JIPMER.

Students can also opt for allied-medical and paramedical fields like nursing, physiotherapy, medical-lab technology, optometry, etc.

Some of the top colleges offering the best undergraduate medical, allied medical and paramedical courses include AIIMS (admission through AIIMS MBBS entrance for medicine) and JIPMER Pondicherry (through JIPMER MBBS test).

Top colleges that admit students to courses through NEET (for medical courses) are Vellore's Christian Medical College, Pune's Armed Forces Medical College, Delhi's Maulana Azad Medical College, and Delhi's Lady Hardinge Medical College.

PCB students can also pursue pharmacy, the field of health sciences focusing on safe, effective medication.

Colleges offering the best Bachelor of Pharmacy (BPharm) degree include Manipal College of Pharmaceutical Sciences (admission through MU-OET), Chandigarh's University Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (through PU-CET), Jamia Hamdard University (through NEET or qualifying exam+interview), Poona College of Pharmacy (through BVPCET), Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra (JEE-Main or NEET).

Biotechnology and biomedical engineering are two other interesting choices for PCB students. While Biotechnology (BTech) is the study of living systems/organisms to develop/modify products, Biomedical Engineering (BME) deals with application of engineering to medicine/biology.

Some top institutes are IITs (through JEE), Vellore Institue of Technology (VITEEE), Delhi Technological University (JEE-Main), MIT Manipal (MU-OET), Kolkata's Netaji Subhash Engineering College (WBJEEE/JEE-Main), Coimbatore's PSG College of Technology.

PCB students can also pursue a career in science by opting for Bachelor of Science (BSc) in biology, zoology, botany, physiology, environmental science, genetics, bioinformatics, physics, chemistry, biophysics, cosmology, agriculture, etc.

Popular colleges are Chennai's Loyola College, Mumbai's St. Xavier's College, Bengaluru's Christ University, Oxford College of Science (Bengaluru), Pune's Fergusson College, Delhi's Miranda House College and Ramjas College, and Chennai's Stella Maris College.

Nutrition and Dietetics is another interesting career choice dealing with the science of food and nutrition aimed at promoting healthy-living among people by helping them improve their eating and lifestyle habits.

Colleges offering good nutrition science courses are Bengaluru's Mount Caramel College, Jamia Hamdard University, Amity University, Chennai's Ethiraj College and Women's Christian College, Imphal's Central Agricultural University, Udaipur's Pacific University.