How to Choose School Preferences in AISSAC Counselling

Last verified: 1 October 2026. Counselling rules below follow the AISSAC 2025 SOP from the Sainik Schools Society (Tier-1 source). The AISSEE 2027 bulletin is still awaited; rules are EXPECTED to repeat with minor changes.

Clearing AISSEE is only half the battle. The school your child actually gets depends on AISSAC — the All India Sainik Schools Admission Counselling run by the Sainik Schools Society on pesa.ncog.gov.in. It is online, free, and usually runs for about six rounds. And the order of your school preferences matters more than most parents realise.

Understand the quotas before you order anything

For the 33 established Sainik Schools, seats are divided by two axes at once:

The practical takeaway: if you are domiciled in the state where a school sits, you are competing inside a 67% pool instead of the 33% pool. A school 50 km away in your own state is often a smarter top preference than a famous school two states away. For New Sainik Schools, the 40% AISSEE route (covered in our explainer on the new Sainik Schools routes) works differently — check the vacancies appendix of the bulletin before ordering.

For the full reservation breakdown, see SC, ST & Defence Quota in Sainik Schools, and for school-by-school numbers, see the Sainik School Seats 2027 Matrix.

The 6 rules of ordering your preferences

1. Order by genuine preference, not by cutoffs. Within your quota and category, AISSAC allots the highest school on your list whose cutoff you clear. Putting a school you would never send your child to at the top is self-sabotage; putting it low harms nobody.
2. Fill the maximum preferences allowed. More entries mean more rounds can upgrade you. An empty lower half is a wasted safety net.
3. Mix aspirational and realistic. One or two dream schools at the top, then schools where your child’s mock-test scores comfortably beat last year’s published cutoffs. The Society publishes the marks of the first and last candidates called for medicals, school-wise and category-wise — use those as your reality check.
4. Weigh home-state schools heavily. The 67% pool is simply bigger. Two schools you like equally should be ordered with the home-state one higher.
5. Factor in the medical. After the initial call list comes document verification and the medical examination — standards are published in the bulletin appendix, and a rejection at this stage ends that round’s allotment. Read the medical test guide before finalising preferences; there is no point preferring a school your child would be medically rejected from.
6. Do not freeze your list too early. AISSAC allows editing during the choice-filling window. Update your order once school-wise tentative vacancies are published in the bulletin appendix.

Three strategy templates, pick yours

Round-by-round: how upgrades actually work

AISSAC allots seats round after round against your list. If round 1 gives you preference #5, rounds 2–6 can slide you up to #4, #3, and so on as higher-scoring candidates vacate seats or seats unlock. Two implications:

• Stay in the counselling even after an early allotment you are not thrilled about. Exiting early locks in disappointment.
• Never game the system by withholding acceptance steps — missing document verification or the medical deadline forfeits the allotted seat and can bar you from later rounds.

If your child’s mock scores are volatile right now, your most useful work this month is stabilising them — see our 30-day revision plan for a week-by-week structure.

Pre-submission checklist

• Domicile certificate matches the state you are claiming home quota in
• Category certificate (SC/ST/OBC-NCL/Defence) issued by the competent authority and within validity
• Maximum preferences filled — no blanks at the bottom
• Home-state schools ranked above out-of-state schools of equal appeal
• Medical standards read and cleared mentally against the bulletin appendix
• New Sainik Schools’ 40% route understood before including them
• List re-checked after tentative vacancy numbers are published

FAQs

What is AISSAC counselling for AISSEE? AISSAC is the online e-counselling conducted by the Sainik Schools Society for admission to Sainik Schools after AISSEE. It runs on pesa.ncog.gov.in, is free of cost, and usually completes in about six rounds.

Does my domicile decide my quota in AISSAC? Yes. In the 33 established Sainik Schools, 67% of seats are reserved for candidates from the school’s home state or UT, decided by the domicile certificate you submit — not by the city where you wrote the exam.

Should I put only my dream Sainik School in the AISSAC preference list? No. Fill the maximum number of preferences allowed, ordered honestly by preference, and mix aspirational and realistic schools. Rounds keep upgrading candidates, but only among schools on your list.

What happens if I am allotted a school in an early AISSAC round? You go through document verification and the medical examination. If you stay in the counselling, later rounds can upgrade you to a higher-preference school on your list as seats open up.

Is there any fee for participating in AISSAC counselling? No. AISSAC counselling registration itself is free; you pay the school’s admission fee only after a seat is finally allotted and you accept it.

Sources

• AISSAC 2025 SOP, Sainik Schools Society: https://sainik.bpssikar.org/media/notice/0520581AISSAC%202025%20SOP.pdf
• PIB — 45 new schools approved: https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2057614&pli=1&tf=1&pli=1&reg=48&lang=2
• PIB — 33 existing schools list: https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1706594&ui=2&tf=1&pli=1&reg=48&lang=2
• HT — 3 new schools added Oct 2025: https://www.hindustantimes.com/education/competitive-exams/aissee-2026-new-sainik-schools-added-for-candidates-check-list-here-101761637617637.html