Yes, you heard it right! After reading this article you will know how you can get into IIMs without CAT?
The Indian Institute of Management, widely known as IIMs, are the most prominent B-Schools for Business studies in India. They offer a number of undergraduate, postgraduate, executive and fellow or doctoral programs. They are famous for their MBA, PGDM, PGP, Executive MBA and fellowship programs. Nevertheless, a candidate must be aware of the eligibility for IIMs, if they decide to apply to these Business Schools.
IIMs are created by a special act of parliament and are registered under institutions of national importance. As of date, there are 20 IIMs in India. Moreover, few of these are regarded as the dream B-schools for most MBA aspirants in India for the reason of their respect and reputation.
IIM-A (IIM Ahmedabad), IIM-B (IIM Bangalore) and IIM-C (IIM Kolkata, earlier-Calcutta), generally known as IIM-A, B and C, and has the highest rank across the country in terms of Research, Placements, faculty, curriculum etc.
About the Eligibility for Admission in IIM without CAT:
- For getting admission in an MBA program in IIMs, the aspirant necessary requires to hold a graduation degree in any area from a recognized university with a minimum of 50% marks (No lower limit for 2021) or equivalent GPA. This is a crucial IIM MBA eligibility criteria for any aspirant applying. On the other hand, if the candidate belongs to any other category, i.e. SC/ST/PwD, the eligibility criteria is relaxed to 45% (No lower limit for 2021).
- Now for admission into an IIM without CAT is writing the GMAT. The aspirant needs to write the GMAT exam and should score the minimum required percentile to be eligible for admission in IIMs. It is important for students to qualify for both the sectorial and the overall cut off GMAT score.
- If the bachelor score report of the aspirant consists of grades/GPA instead of marks, the student needs to get an equivalence letter given by the college/university from where the degree has been earned. The aspirant needs to present a written document from the principal or some competent authority from the university mentioning the same.
- The aspirants who are appearing for their Graduation final year examinations or those who have already written their final year exams and are waiting for their results are also eligible for applying to the IIMs.
- It is a must to submit the final score report of graduation after the candidate has been approved for admission. Failure to provide the same leads to the cancellation of admission.
- Aspirants who have cleared the minimum GMAT cut-off to need to take WAT, GD and PI process and clear it successfully. The passing of the GMAT cut-off merely doesn’t guarantee admission into IIMs. After clearing all the compulsory assessment procedures and submitting the necessary documents, the aspirant is accepted.
- There is no definite age limit for admission into IIMs. The candidate should just have a graduation degree with a minimum of 50% marks to be considered.
IIM Admission criteria for GMAT
Commonly, the total GMAT score ranges from 200-800, and an average score of an applicant ranges from 400-600. But IIMs require quite a high GMAT score of 720+. The main IIMs like the IIM-B, IIM-I, IIM-C, and IIM-A eligibility criteria require above 700 GMAT scores for their one-year PGPx program.
Also Read:- CAT Exam Date & Timings
IIM Eligibility Criteria for MBA, PGP, PGDM:
The first step towards getting into an IIM is cracking the CAT/GMAT or Common Admission Test with a high score. It is an important test for admission into PGP, PGDM or MBA conducted in India by IIMs. CAT is taken by nearly 2.30 lakh aspirants every year for around 5500 seats.
Aspirants who wrote this exam and meet the eligibility criteria of their chosen program are then shortlisted for Analytical Writing Test (AWT), Group discussion round (GD) and Personal Interview (PI).
Aspirants can also get selected to other programs similar to MBAs at IIMs through their GMAT scores. GMAT or Graduate Management Admission Test is a multiple-choice, computer-based test intended to test an aspirant’s critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
Final selection:
Final selection is made based on the aspirants’ Final composite score, which is calculated by taking the following into consideration:
- Writing Ability Test score
- Personal Interview score,
- GMAT score
- Past academic performance and 5. Work experience.
Minimum Cut offs of GMAT scores for Admission to IIMs 2020-22
| Verbal | Quantitative | Total |
| 40 | 50 | 720 |
After evaluating the students on these parameters, he/she is finally selected.
If you are targeting the IIMs without CAT, it is critical to know that your GMAT score matters, but it is not the only criterion for getting you into an IIM. You have to have an equally extraordinary work profile and an outstanding academic background. Furthermore, your performance in the other rounds matters too. You need to be well prepared for your personal interview (PI), written ability test and group discussion rounds.
Total No. of candidates called for AWT-PI for PGP at IIM-A 2020-22
| Category | Number |
| General | 587 |
| EWS | 30 |
| NC-OBC | 312 |
| SC | 174 |
| ST | 102 |
| PwD | 38 |
| Total | 1243 |
for more information visit the CAT website.
