Lived experience of NEET Droppers: Psychological Struggles and Coping after Failure

This study aims to explore the lived experience of NEET droppers with the focus on understanding the psychological struggles by the students internally and exploring their coping mechanism. The National Eligibility cum Entrance TEST (NEET) is considered as a highly competitive examination conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA). Every year millions of aspirants compete for limited seats available in medical colleges. But due to the high stakes, many students take additional years to reattempt for the exam after failing and some students choose to shift towards alternative educational fields. This phase often subjects them to intense psychological struggles including feelings of inadequacy, self-doubt, academic pressure academic pressure and fear of societal judgement. A qualitative phenomenological design adopted to explore the lived experience of NEET droppers. Purposive sampling was used to recruit students who had reattempted after failing and shifted from NEET to alternative educational fields. This study involves 25 participants from Tamil Nadu and Kerala (N=25). The collected data was interpreted using Thematic analysis to identify the key psychological struggles and coping mechanism. The results revealed several important themes: Expectations and social pressure, Acute psychological impact after result, changes in identity and self- confidence, Behavioural and Somatic responses, coping strategies and meaning making, social judgement, stigma and comparison, Practical and contextual barriers and career redirection, recovery and growth. The study highlights the need for mental health support, and early psychological care for young adults who experienced high stress and self-doubt due to dropping NEET. The study also indicates the need for proper career guidance in educational settings. The findings call for reducing the social stigma attached to academic failure and dropping a year, especially within families and communities.