IIM Waitlist Movement: Meaning & Past Trends

Every year, approx 2.50 Lakh aspirants apply for admission to PGDM/PGP/MBA programmes offered by the 20 IIMs in India. As the total number of seats in IIMs are app 7500 as on 2025, every student cannot make it to IIMs.
For the IIM waitlist movement, a decisive moment in the admissions journey has begun. To the majority of the aspiring candidates, it's more than just a wait; it's a second chance at making it to the top Indian MBA colleges such as IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore, IIM Calcutta, and the like. With thousands of aspirants targeting limited seats, an appreciation of such waitlist trends only provides clarity, strategy, and most importantly-hope.
For the year 2025, with many opting for online CAT coaching under expert guidance, applying to multiple IIMs has made waitlist conversions all the more important. Let us decode how this movement works, what it signifies, and what it means for you.
Although many aspirants succeed for IIMs WAT-Group Discussion/Personal Interview round and pass it too, as their composite score for final selection is less than others, they miss the final selection chance.
What is IIM selection process?
For getting into IIMs students need to pass through a rigorous selection and filtration process. Generally it is into three phases.
- CAT
- WAT
- PI
- Some IIMs may also go for Group Discussions
(Also Read:Group Discussion Topics)
On the basis of the scores, minimum IIM cut offs in the sectional percentile ranks, the overall percentile rank is selected for the next stages.
Candidates get shortlisted for WAT, GD & Personal Interview.
In the final selection stage, selection is strictly based on the shortlisting of the candidates done separately for each category (General/SC/ST/NC-OBC/PwD) based on the Final Composite Score’s (FCS).
Also Read: IIM Common Admission Process - CAP 2025

Highlights IIM Waitlist Movement 2025
There is no accurate data available on IIM waitlist. Daddysdata Analytica team has researched collected some data from varied sources on internet. We have collected information from various sources like blogs , students answering and then filtetred the information in order to serve the best data.
Expected IIM Waitlist Conversion 2025
IIM Ahmedabad
IIM Bangalore
IIM Calcutta
IIM Kozikhode
IIM Indore
IIM Ranchi
IIM Trichy
IIM Udaipur
IIM Kashipur
IIM Nagpur
IIM Amritsar
Past Trends and Dates
IIMs Shortlist for Admissions 2024: Important Dates:
Important dates for IIM Shortlist 2024 for GD-PI-WAT rounds for PGP/MBA admissions 2024:
What is the IIM Waitlist Movement?
Once the initial merit lists are released, selected candidates are given a deadline to accept or reject their admission offers. But not everyone accepts — some go for global B-schools, others prefer private Indian colleges with niche specialisations, and some simply drop out due to personal reasons.
These unclaimed seats don’t go vacant — they’re passed on to candidates on the IIM waitlist.
This process of reallocating seats is known as waitlist movement, and it can be the make-or-break moment for many aspirants. From IIM Ahmedabad’s modest waitlist shift to IIM Indore’s massive movement across categories, the trend varies greatly — and every year brings surprises.
IIMs Shortlist 2025: Seats and Expected Number of Candidates
IIMs shortlist 2025 generally will have app 10 times more candidates as compared to their number of actual seats. Below is the mention of the available seats in IIMs in 2025 along with expected number of shortlisted students for the different IIMs.
IIM Amritsar
Shortlisting for CAP will be done by coordinating IIM in discussion with each participating IIMs.
Top IIMs Shortlists
The below information is on the norms and highlights of IIMs shortlists for all the top IIMs which include IIM A, IIM B, IIM C, IIM I and others. We will keep on updating this article for the IIM shortlist 2025.
Also Read: Top 50 MBA Colleges in India
IIM Ahmedabad (IIMA) Shortlist: See Shortlisting Criteria and Highlights
IIM Ahmedabad will release PI shortlist for PGP and PGP FABM programmes at the same time. This is released on day of CAT result or a day later after release of CAT result.
Once the IIM Ahmedabad shortlist is declared, aspirants may see their admission status by login with their CAT 2024 registration number and email ID at IIM Ahmedabad PGP admission 2025 website. Shortlisted students will have to submit online Interview Form at IIM A website before the last date as mentioned on the website.
IIM calls for Interview
Or the final admission IIMs the candidates are called after finishing the shortlisting process for GD-PI-WAT rounds. This is noteworthy that IIMs selection focuses more on the student quality and not just the CAT exam scores. The students profile is prepared and that plays an important role for improving diversity in the IIM classrooms.
Also Read: How an MBA aspirants should prepare for an interview?
IIM Selection and Shortlisting criteria emphasis is on the following 3 Parameters:
- CAT Scores: Each IIMs shortlisting criteria specify its minimum required sectional as well as overall percentile score.
- Academic Profile & Diversity: IIMs selection criteria gives weightage to excellent academic record till graduation. Candidates coming from Non-Engineering background are also given extra weightage. Girl aspirants are also given weightage to promote gender diversity in the IIM classrooms.
- Work Experience: A supervisory experience of 2 to 3 years can get extra weightage of 5 to 10% in selection process.
Also Read: How to Get Admission in IIMs without CAT?
Here this is worth explaining that couple of aspirants who has topped in CAT or even candidates with 99%ile may not at a call from IIM A. As the admission process focus on diversity aspirants with even 90 %ile may get a call due to their profile, academic diversity regardless of scoring low in the CAT.
IIM Shortlist Criteria at a Glance: Key Components & Weightage
Also Check:IIM Admission Predictor
Key Factors That Drive IIM Waitlist Movement
The IIM waitlist dynamics aren’t random — they’re influenced by several real-world factors. Here's what shapes how far the waitlist moves each year:
1. Acceptance Rates
Top-tier IIMs like IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore, and IIM Calcutta typically have higher offer acceptance rates. This means fewer students drop out — leading to lower waitlist movement, especially in the General and EWS categories.
However, newer and mid-tier IIMs often see a significant waitlist shift as many top-rankers opt for other options.
2. Multiple Offers and Alternative Preferences
With CAT toppers receiving calls from multiple institutes — including FMS Delhi, XLRI, ISB, and global B-schools — not everyone sticks with their IIM offer. Some may prefer:
- Lower fee structures (like FMS Delhi),
- Preferred campus location (e.g., Delhi over Kozhikode),
- Specialized MBA programs.
This triggers waitlist movements in top IIMs, making space for the next-in-line candidates.
3. Category-Wise Movement Trends
Waitlist movement isn't uniform across categories. For instance:
- OBC and SC categories often see moderate to high movement.
- General category movement is generally lower in top IIMs but high in mid-tier ones.
- PwD category sometimes experiences slower movement due to fewer applications and higher acceptance.
Understanding category-specific trends is essential to estimate your chances of conversion.
4. Strategic Withdrawals & Timing
Some candidates delay confirmation to top B-schools abroad or private colleges, only withdrawing at the last minute. This can cause last-round waitlist conversions — often surprising those who had mentally moved on.
So if you’re waitlisted, stay prepared. Last-round calls often go to serious, ready-to-enroll candidates.
2024 IIM Shortlist: Main Highlights, Short listing Criteria:
1. IIM Ahmedabad Shortlist
- 1246 candidates were shortlisted for PI-WAT round by IIM A.
- CAT cut off lowered to 80.75 percentile from 83.32 for general category
- For EWS category CAT cut off had gone down to 85.34 percentile from 90.75 last year
- 940 out of 1246 shortlisted candidates were male constituting 75% of shortlisted candidates
- 67% candidates were engineers in the IIMA shortlist
Following weightages were awarded in IIMA Shortlisting process. The IIMA shortlist included major achievers in diverse academic fields. These aspirants may not have scored very high CAT percentile but they were shortlisted on the basis of diverse profile despite low CAT percentile.
IIM Bangalore (IIMB)
IIM Bangalore will release PI shortlist almost within a week after announcement of CAT exam result. Last year, IIMB shortlist was released after 11 days of CAT result on January 17, 2024. The PI-WAT round began in February and continued till second week of March. IIM Bangalore conducted the PI-WAT round in different cities like Bangalore, New Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Hyderabad on different dates.
IIMB Shortlist Criteria
IIM B Focused more on academic profile, IIM Bangalore shortlist was prepared considering candidate’s academic performance, quality of work experience among others. CAT score was not the only point in IIM Bangalore shortlisting criteria.
The Weightage of 40 points for CAT percentile score was divided further into the performance in each of the three sections to shortlist candidates for PI round as under:
IIM Calcutta (IIMC) Shortlist: Shortlisting Criteria, Highlights
IIM Calcutta shortlist 2025 will be released around 20 days after the declaration of CAT exam result. Last year IIMC released the shortlist on January 25, 2024. IIM Calcutta has changed the title of its flagship 2 years full time management program to MBA from PGP. IIM Calcutta shortlisting criteria prescribe less weightage to CAT cut offs and greater weightage to academics
IIM Calcutta Shortlist: Key Highlights
- IIM Calcutta was the last among the top three IIMs to release its shortlist for PI round
- IIM Calcutta conducted PI round online instead of in-person interviews
- CAT Cut off was reduced to 85 percentile
- CAT sectional cut off for Quantitative Ability reduced to 75 percentile for General category
- For other categories also QA minimum required percentile was reduced to 65 and below
- Weightage for CAT score reduced to 56% in shortlisting for PI round
- Weightage for Academics and Diversity was increased to 44% in shortlisting process
- 15% weightage for Bachelor’s degree awarded in shortlisting
- Class 10 score weightage reduced to 10% from 20% in shortlisting
- Class 12 score weightage reduced to 15% from 20% in shortlisting
EWS category reservation as per GoI norms started with requirement of reduced percentile in CAT exam
IIM Lucknow (IIML) Shortlist: Shortlisting Criteria, Highlights
IIM Lucknow will release the shortlist for PI-WAT in the third week of January 2025. Last year IIML released the shortlist on January 16, 2024. A comprehensive list of 8044 candidates shortlisted for PGP, PGP‐ABM and PGP‐SM was placed on IIM Lucknow website.
IIM Lucknow Shortlist of Candidates: Programme wise
For admission 2024, programme wise Number of candidates considered and finally shortlisted for IIM Lucknow PI WAT were as below:
IIM Lucknow Shortlisting Criteria
*Maximum marks for diversity factor (DFa and DFb) cannot exceed 20 (for PGP-ABM Program only).
IIM Lucknow Shortlist: Key Highlights
- 8044 candidates were shortlisted for WAT & PI Round
- Candidates shortlisted for PGP, PGP-ABM and PGP-SM program 2024-23 batch in different categories could check their programme wise status
- Blank cell in the shortlist as released by IIM Lucknow meant that the candidates had not qualified for the respective programme
- Candidates shortlisted for WAT‐PI based on composite score cut‐offs needed to submit their WAT‐PI form online
- A candidate's name was dropped for WAT‐PI if he/she failed to submit the form online within the stipulated deadline.
IIM Kozhikode (IIMK) Shortlist: Shortlisting Criteria, Highlights
IIM Kozhikode will release the shortlist 2025 within 3-4 days after declaration of CAT exam result. Last year IIM Kozhikode shortlist was released on January 7, 2024 for final selection round for PGP 2024-23 batch. Candidates could check their short list status by login with CAT registration ID and email id on IIM Kozhikode official website
IIM Kozhikode Shortlisting Criteria
Last year, IIM Kozhikode released the shortlist of candidates for PI stage on the basis of five parameters. IIMK shortlisting criteria included - CAT score, academic scores of class X and XII and Academic & Gender diversity, work experience. There was no weightage to the academic scores after class 12.
IIMK shortlist was prepared in each category and was created based on an Aggregate Index Score (AIS). The AIS was computed based on the performance in CAT , Class X and XII marks and diversity. The weight of each component in the AIS was as follows:
IIM Kozhikode Shortlist: Key Points
- Registration for Stage 2 shortlist was required. The process was closed in a week’s time after release date
- Only those candidates who had successfully completed the online registration process for IIM Kozhikode were considered for Stage 2
IIM Indore (IIMI) Shortlist: Shortlisting Criteria, Highlights
IIM Indore shortlist 2025 will be released in the third week of January 2025. Last year also IIM Indore released the shortlist on January 18, 2024. Final selection process began in February.
IIM Indore Shortlisting Criteria
IIM Indore will shortlist the candidates for WAT & PI stage on the basis of composite scores which are arrived at by accounting for the academic profile also. The Composite Score therefore is calculated on the basis of CAT score, academic scores, and gender diversity. There is no weightage to the academic scores beyond class 12. Candidates scoring percentage of marks above 85 gets a good weightage in the computation of composite scores. Last year shortlisting criteria as applied by IIM Indore was:
* Composite Score = Sum of the above scores (Max 100) is the formula to arrive at the maximum score to check whether you would be shortlisted by IIM Indore after CAT result is announced. Please note that Zcandidate, Zmin, Zmax for 10th and 12th Standard are computed using the normalisation process.
IIM Rohtak Shortlist: Shortlisting Criteria, Highlights
IIM Rohtak will release shortlist 2025 in the last week of January 2025. It will conduct Online PI Round. You could check your short list status by login with CAT registration ID and your email id on IIM Rohtak official website. IIM Rohtak shortlist is prepared for each category of the candidates.
IIM Rohtak Shortlisting Criteria of Last Year
IIM Rohtak shortlist of candidates for Online PI stage is based on overall CAT percentile score. Last year IIM Rohtak did not announce any sectional cut off requirement in shortlisting process.
NA=Not Announced in IIM Rohtak Admission Policy 2024
IIM Rohtak Shortlist: Key Instructions
- Candidate needed to submit an application/ admission data form along with registration fee of Rs. 2000/- by January 21
- The candidates, who submitted the application forms and registration fees by the stipulated date and time, were considered and invited (as per merit) for the Online Personal Interview (PI)
- Shortlisted candidates received an email with a web-link for online registration in PGP batch. Candidates needed to create their Login ID (USER NAME & PASSWORD for online registration.
Top IIMs Shortlist: Many 99 Percentilers are not in IIMs Shortlists
CAP Participating IIMs Shortlist 2025
CAP is common Admission Process and is done for nine new IIMs for MBA admission.
This Common Admission Process (CAP) 2025 will be conducted for
- IIM Bodh Gaya
- IIM Jammu
- IIM Kashipur
- IIM Raipur
- IIM Ranchi
- IIM Sambalpur
- IIM Sirmaur
- IIM Trichy
- IIM Udaipur.
CAP has two components:
- Common WAT (Depends upon the prevailing Covid-19 pandemic situation and Govt. guidelines)
- PI round for these nine IIMs and will be conducted as final selection round from February to March 2025 in three phases.
During 2024 IIM Raipur conducted Common Admission Process. This year some other baby IIM may conduct CAP.
IIM Rohtak will not be participating in CAP 22 will release its shortlist for PI round independently.
IIMs Shortlist 2025: Baby IIMs Shortlist based on Two Different Cut offs
The 7 new IIMs, irrespective of the fact, whether they are taking part in CAP 2025 or are conducting independent PI round will ask the aspirants to apply and reconfirm their interest for admission in them by a fixed date before considering their candidature for the final admission. The release dates for all the baby IIMs shortlist 2025 will be declared in March 2025.
Two Admission Chances for CAP Participating Baby IIMs
Out of the four CAP 2025 participating baby IIMs - IIM Bodhgaya, IIM Jammu, IIM Sambalpur, IIM Sirmaur, the two –IIM Bodh Gaya and IIM Jammu have different shortlisting criteria for CAP and for their own selection round.
Higher cut offs are announced for the CAP round and lower cut offs are announced for their own selection process after CAP is over. These IIMs have clarified that the Candidates who have not received call from CAP will receive separate communication from these IIMs based on their respective shortlist criteria given in their admission policy. Key difference between CAP shortlisting cut off and own admission shortlisting cut off was as under last year:
IIM Nagpur, IIM Visakhapatnam, IIM Amritsar do not participate in CAP. They announce dates and schedule for their shortlisting process separately.
CAP Participating IIM Bodh Gaya Shortlist: Criteria, Selection Process
IIM Bodhgaya will participate in CAP 2025 as it did last year. IIM Bodh Gaya will release the shortlist for PI round with a different cut off for CAP and for its own selection round which will be conducted after CAP is over.
IIM Bodh Gaya Shortlisting Criteria for CAP
The minimum cut-offs of CAT percentile required in each section and overall percentile for shortlisting candidates for personal interview are common for all the participating 9 IIMs. The shortlisting criteria was changed further for all the CAP participating IIMs last year, as under:
IIM Bodhgaya Shortlist Cut Offs: Minimum Cut off for all the Candidates
Last year IIM Bodhgaya released actual CAT percentile cut offs for all categories in shortlisting process for MBA admission:
Source: IIM Bodhgaya Shortlisting Criteria 2024
IIM Bodhgaya Cut offs: Minimum Cut off for Female Candidates
With a view to improve Gender Diversity, IIM Bodhgaya applied the following cut offs in shortlisting the female candidates for CAP round. The female candidates who were shortlisted due to these cut-offs were considered for supernumerary seats only
IIM Bodh Gaya Shortlisting Criteria: Key Highlights
While the shortlisting criteria for CAP was common for all the participating IIMs at 93 percentile, the key changes in IIM Bodhgaya minimum cut offs and admission criteria were as below
- CAT Cut off was kept at 90 percentile
- CAT sectional cut off reduced to 70 percentile
- Cut off for the female applicants reduced to 87 percentile for final admission
- 2% Weightage Awarded to female candidates
- EWS category reservation as per GoI norms has started
Candidates could check their shortlist status by login at IIM Bodh Gaya Shortlist at admission.iimbg.ac.in with their CAT registration Id, Email ID and their date of birth as below:
CAP Participating IIM Jammu Shortlist: Criteria, Selection Process
IIM Jammu will participate in CAP 2025. Last year also, IIM J participated in CAP and released the shortlist for PI round with a different cut off for CAP and for its own selection round which was conducted after CAP was over.
IIM Jammu Shortlisting Criteria for CAP
The minimum cut-offs of CAT percentile required in each section and overall percentile for shortlisting candidates for personal interview were common for all the participating 9 IIMs. The shortlisting criteria was changed further for all the CAP participating IIMs including IIM Jammu, as under:
IIM Jammu Cut Offs: Minimum Cut off for all the Candidates
IIM Jammu released actual CAT percentile cut offs for all categories in shortlisting process for MBA admission last year:
Source: IIM Jammu Shortlisting Criteria 2024
IIM Jammu Cut offs: Minimum Cut off for Female Candidates
To improve the Gender Diversity, IIM Jammu used the following cut offs in shortlisting the female candidates for CAP round. The female candidates who were shortlisted due to these cut-offs were considered after CAP round was over
Candidates can see their shortlist status by login at IIM Jammu Shortlist at official IIM Jammu website with their CAT registration Id, Email ID and their date of birth:
IIMs Shortlisting Cut Offs
The minimum CAT percentile cut offs in IIM Shortlist during 2024 were as below. Actual cut offs in shortlist this year can be different.
How IIMs Shortlist are declared as per IIM Admission Criteria?
The norms being adopted by IIMs to announce the shortlist for final selection round is changed every year in harmony to respective IIM Admission policy for the upcoming batch. IIM Admission criteria 2025 now focus more on academic diversity, gender diversity and diverse profile of the candidates along with the quality of work experience. Therefore the IIM Shortlist criteria is changed by giving less weightage to CAT score and higher weightage to other skills of the candidates as integrated in the IIM admission criteria.
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