How to Get Admission into IIMs: CAT Percentile & Admission Process

Getting into an IIM (Indian Institute of Management) is almost dreamt by every management student because it is known for academic excellence, industry-connection, high quality peer group, experienced faculty, brand name, and excellent career opportunities.

However, getting into IIMs is quite a challenging journey. It's not an easy path to take, it requires dedication, determination, discipline and consistent effort. It is not simply about scoring a high percentile in CAT. The Admission process includes many factors other than CAT percentile such as past academic performance, work experience, diversity, personal interview round and group discussion round.

Therefore the right question is not just, “How much do I need to score in the CAT examination”

Instead the question students should ask themselves is, “which IIMs are realistic for my profile, how much percentile do I need to target and how should I prepare for the selection process?”

Also let’s first understand, “What is an IIM?”

The Indian Institute of Management (IIMs) are India’s top management institutes offering postgraduate courses, doctoral programmes and executive management programmes.

Students first need to complete their graduation to be eligible and then crack the CAT examination to pursue the two year full-time MBA/PGP from IIMs.

There are 22 IIMs in India and there are 3 categories of IIMs:

Old and Established IIMs which are also known as First Generation IIMs:

These IIMs were established in (1961-1996) mostly before 2011. These Institutes are known as top tier because of:

Corporate placements
Massive alumni networks and
The most competitive CAT cutoffs.

→IIM Ahmedabad

→IIM Bangalore

→IIM Calcutta

→IIM Lucknow

→IIM Kozhikode

→IIM Indore

→IIM Mumbai

New IIMs which are also known as Second Generation IIMs:

These IIMs were established between 2007 and 2014. These institutes are known for:

Mature campus life
Stable infrastructure
Strong placements ranging from 18-26 LPA and
Accessible CAT cutoffs usually between 85-97 percentile.

→IIM Udaipur

→IIM Trichy

→IIM Raipur

→IIM Ranchi

→IIM Kashipur

→IIM Rohtak

→IIM Shillong

Baby IIMs which are also known as Third Generation IIMs:

These IIMs were established after 2014 between 2015-2016. These institutes are well known for:

Rapidly scaling infrastructure
Evolving placements records, and
Lower general CAT cutoffs making it achievable around 70-80+ percentile

→IIM Visakhapatnam

→IIM Nagpur

→IIM Amritsar

→IIM Sambalpur

→IIM Sirmaur

→IIM Bodh Gaya

→IIM Jammu

→IIM Guwahati

Each IIM has its own admission policy, every IIMs has a different criteria involved and accordingly they take the admission.

How to Get into IIMs ?

The whole admission process can be divided into 5 parts or stages:

Eligibility

↓

CAT Registration

↓

CAT Examination

↓

IIM Shortlisting

↓

Written Aptitude Test/ Personal Interview

↓

Final Selection

Step 1: Checking your Eligibility

The first step required is to check your eligibility, a candidate must have a recognised bachelor’s degree having minimum 50% or equivalent CGPA, with 45% for SC, ST and PwD candidates, subject to the programme's detailed conditions. A particular stream is not required, a student can complete the graduation in any of the streams like engineering, commerce, science, arts/humanities, medicine, law, economics, computer science, management and other recognised disciplines.

Step 2: Register for CAT

CAT (Common Admission Test) is the entrance examination which is required to be written to specifically take the admission at IIMs for the MBA/PGP programmes.

CAT examination majorly evaluates these 3 areas:

VARC (Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension): It includes:

→Reading comprehension

→Vocabulary

→Grammar

→Para jumbles

→Sentence-based questions and

→Verbal reasoning.

DILR (Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning): It includes:

→Analysing the data

→Interpreting charts and tables

→Identifying patterns

→Solving logical puzzles and

→Making decisions using limited information.

Quantitative Aptitude: It includes:

→Arithmetic

→Algebra

→Geometry

→Number systems and

→Modern mathematics.

So the students need to really work hard for every section of the exam in order to secure a high percentile.

Step 3: Prepare well so that you can aim for right CAT percentile:

It is a misconception among MBA aspirants that if the cutoff is 90 percentile then they only need 90 percentile to get a call. But this is not how it works. There is a difference between a minimum cut offs and an actual competitive percentile for receiving a call.

The percentile required for the shortlist depends upon various factors such as IIM, category, academic profile, gender, academic discipline, work experience, CAT sectional performance, number and quality of applicants.

So what percentile can be targeted ?

If the percentile is 90-94 then you can target some newer IIMs/other B-schools, depending on the profile and category.

If the percentile is between 95-97 then the students can target several IIM opportunities.

If the percentile is between 97-99 then the students have a high chance of getting into the top IIMs.

If the percentile ranges above 99+ then the students can target highly competitive IIMs.

Step 4: Understanding the IIM Shortlisting

After CAT results are declared, IIMs start analysing the candidate’s profile on the basis of their individual admission policies.

This is the stage where the student’s overall profile is being considered like:

→CAT Score

→Class 10th performance

→Class 12th performance

→Graduation performance

→Work experience

→Academic diversity

→Gender diversity

Depending on the institutes other achievements also considered to be valued like achievements in curricular activities, sports, competitions, professional certificates and other areas can also be considered.

For example: IIM Ahmedabad considers all the attributes like academic excellence, CAT score, extra curricular activities, WAT/PI, and work experience.

Step 5: Written Assessment Test and Personal Interview

Only clearing the CAT examination is not enough and the selection process is not finished there. Clearing the CAT exam does not automatically get you admitted into the IIMs.

After getting shortlisted the candidates have to go through the stages like written assessment and personal interview. The process followed is not the same in every IIMs.

For example, Analytical Writing Test and Personal Interview round is conducted by IIM Ahmedabad and Written Ability Test and PI round is conducted by IIM Bangalore.

In the Personal Interview round, following questions can be asked by the Interviewer:

Academic Profile like graduation subjects, fundamental concepts,etc.

Current Affairs like economy, business, government policies, international events.

Career like Why MBA? Why IIM?, short term goals and long term goals.

Personal Questions like strengths, weaknesses, hobbies, achievements,etc.

What kind of IIMs can you target ?

This is one of the main questions that comes into every student’s mind about what kind of IIMs they can target.

Tier 1:

The most popular and the commonly targeted legacy IIMs are IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore, IIM Calcutta. Securing 99+ percentile should be the aim if the candidate wants to get into these institutes but it also depends upon the academic profile of the candidate.

Tier 2:

Other highly reputed IIMs like IIM Lucknow, IIM Kozhikode, IIM Indore, IIM Mumbai are also considered to be the most targeted IIMs. Securing 97-99 percentile in CAT should be the aim and also it depends on their profile and category.

Tier 3:

Newer IIMs like IIM Udaipur, IIM Trichy, IIM Raipur, IIM Ranchi, IIM Kashipur, IIM Vishakhapatnam can also be an excellent option for candidates who may not have high percentile in their CAT exam.

Students should not just simply choose an IIM only because of the tag. Before accepting the offer they should also compare on the basis of placement outcomes, batch size, roles offered, fees, faculty, alumni network, industry exposure, desired specialisation.