A branch predictor answers a narrower question than a college predictor: not "which colleges can I get," but "which specialties are realistically within reach at my rank and category, across all institutes combined." That distinction matters if you're more attached to a specialty (say, Radiodiagnosis or Dermatology) than to any particular college.
The number that actually matters: specialty-wise closing rank
On NEET-PG Help's Branch Predictor, each specialty is shown with its all-India closing rank for your category and round, plus how many institutes and seats that figure is based on. A specialty with a closing rank of 45,000 based on 55 seats across 55 institutes is a very different bet from one based on 3 seats at a single institute -- the predictor shows you both numbers so you're not reading a cutoff in isolation.
A real example
In 2025 Round 3, General Medicine (MD/MS) closed at rank 228,379 for Open category, across 585 seats and 229 institutes -- versus 10,075 for OBC (171 seats). That's not a typo or an error in the data; Open category pulls from the largest and most competitive pool, so its closing rank naturally runs far higher than reserved categories at the same specialty. See our category-wise cutoff breakdown for the full picture across five specialties.
How to use this practically
- Pick your round and category correctly first -- Round 1/2 use provisional allotment; Round 3 and Stray use different, non-comparable candidate pools.
- Look at the specialty's closing rank and its seat count together -- a favorable rank on very few seats is a long shot, not a safe bet.
- Cross-check against the seat matrix for the current year, since seat counts do change year to year.
- Use the College Predictor next to see which specific institutes are behind that specialty-level number.
The Branch Predictor is free on the Predictor tab of NEET-PG Help -- pick a real MCC round, not the estimate dataset, for figures sourced directly from official allotment PDFs.