For post-graduate education, more and more students are opting for a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree. Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) are considered top-tier business schools in India. Evidently, admission into IIMs is becoming increasingly fierce every academic session.
IIMs have designed few parameters to ensure that candidates meet their high standards and thus allow only the best of the best to be admitted in the schools. One of these parameters is qualifying the Common Admission Test (CAT). In each academic session, approximately 2,00,000 students appear for the Common Admission Test (CAT), which is conducted by IIMs.
Among these students, a few thousand candidates qualify and are eligible to acquire admissions into the best management colleges in India. India comprises a total of 20 IIMs, each of which set different admissions criteria.
IIMs consider various parameters to shortlist students for admissions; however, CAT scores are the most crucial parameter. CAT cutoff are the minimum scores that candidates must acquire to be shortlisted by IIMs as well as other CAT-participating institutions.
It is pertinent for students to give and qualify the CAT exam for admission. The admission process includes shortlisting candidates for a written ability test (WAT), a group discussion (GD), and a personal interview (PI).
IIMs in total have 5000 seats for post-graduate programs. In addition to candidates’ CAT scores and WAT, GD, and PI performance, institutes also consider their academic history, academic diversity, gender diversity, and work experience.
For the academic batch of 2021–2023, the admission criteria for IIMs includes qualifying CAT 2020, the successful completion of a bachelor’s degree with a minimum of aggregate score of 50% (for general category) and 45% (for SC, ST, and PWD categories) or an equivalent CGPA score from a recognized university.
Students still pursuing a bachelor’s degree and are in their final year can give CAT and apply for the programs at IIMs. However, despite these general criteria, all IIMs set their independent criteria for CAT scores, previous academic performance and cut-offs, and work experience.
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The following table shows the number of seats in some of the most prestigious IIMs:
| Institute | Number of seats |
| IIM Ahmedabad | 395 |
| IIM Bangalore | 400 |
| IIM Calcutta | 460 |
| IIM Indore | 450 |
| IIM Lucknow | 500 |
| IIM Kozhikode | 375 |
| IIM Shillong | 180 |
| IIM Trichy | 240 |
| IIM Rohtak | 240 |
| IIM Visakhapatnam | 120 |
Below we discuss the admission process of IIMs:
|
Phases of the admission procedure |
Procedures |
|
Phase I |
After announcing CAT results, the qualified candidates can apply for the WAT and GD/PI for all IIMs on their official websites. Candidates are shortlisted based on the cut-off score, and they can submit their names and CAT scores through their login IDs on the websites. |
|
Phase II |
The shortlisted are evaluated based on their academic record, and the selected candidates are invited for interviews. |
|
Phase III |
Based on different parameters, such as undergrad scores, 10th/12th standard scores, WAT and PI/GD scores, the institute generates a final score. This final score determined whether the candidate will be granted admission at the given institute. Other factors, including academic and gender diversity and work experience, are considered as well. |
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