Indian Institutes of Management, popularly called IIMs, are the top institutes of management education and research in India. There are 20 IIMs and these mostly offer post-graduate, doctoral, and executive programs. Every MBA aspirant hopes to get into an IIM for a management program and therefore we get a lot of queries on how to get into an IIM and the IIM admission process.
Getting into an IIM requires various steps and plenty of hard work to crack the entrance exam and clear the interview rounds. Based on the performance of a candidate in these stages along with your academic and professional portfolio, a final offer is made.
To get into an IIM you have to clear some stages before a final offer of the seat can be made.
If you are a candidate searching for how to get into an IIM, the CAT exam is the first step on this journey. Common Aptitude Test commonly called CAT is an entrance exam conducted by IIMs for admission into their management programs. CAT is a highly competitive exam written by around 2 lakh candidates competing for approximately 5000 seats in the IIMs. Candidates should focus on getting a good overall and sectional score to meet the IIM cutoffs.
Candidates who meet the cutoffs get a call for further GD/PI/WAT rounds. Personal Interviews (PI) at IIMs are usually taken by the IIM faculty, sometimes ex-faculty or even alumni in some cases. This round checks your various soft skills and interpersonal skills. Questions may vary from personal details to work and academics. Along with PIs, the IIMs also conduct a Written Ability Test (WAT) to check your writing ability and comprehension of the topic given. Group Discussions (GDs) have become obsolete amongst IIMs except for IIM Shillong, which conducts GD in its 2nd stage of the selection process.
The final selections are based on certain parameters that may be different for each IIM. Different marks are assigned based on your composite CAT score, past academic performance, work experience and performance in WAT/GD and PI. Based on these final scores final selections are made.
It is now easy for you to know which IIM is likely to shortlist your WAT/GD and PI round and at what CAT percentile. Visit IIM Profilizer and get your own IIM shortlist ready.
The eligibility for IIMs is the same as the CAT eligibility requirements. However, here are a few added points to be kept in mind.
IIMs hold their individual interviews and admission processes after the CAT results are released. Thus, the details of the admission process can change from one IIM to the other. However, the IIM admission process is not limited to the CAT scores and WAT/GD and PI rounds.
IIM admissions are based on a Composite Score for selections to the WAT/PI stage and a Final Composite Score that a candidate secures during the final admission process. The weightage of parameters for these scores varies as the process is not centralized. Thus each IIM offers weightage to parameters such as work experience, 10th marks, 12th marks, WAT/PI score, CAT score, etc.
CL' Rank |
IIM |
Qualifying CAT Cutoffs 2021 (Percentile) |
IIM Info |
1 |
Indian Institute of Management (IIM-A) Ahmedabad |
80%ile |
|
2 |
Indian Institute of Management (IIM-B) Bangalore |
85%ile |
|
3 |
Indian Institute of Management (IIM-C) Kolkata |
>=85%ile |
|
4 |
Indian Institute of Management (IIM-K) Kozhikode |
85%ile |
|
5 |
Indian Institute of Management (IIM-I) Indore |
90%ile |
|
6 |
Indian Institute of Management (IIM-L) Lucknow |
90%ile |
|
7 |
Indian Institute of Management (IIM-Rai) Raipur |
>=92%ile |
|
8 |
Indian Institute of Management (IIM-T) Trichy |
>=92%ile |
|
9 |
Indian Institute of Management (IIM-U) Udaipur |
92%ile |
|
10 |
Indian Institute of Management (IIM-R) Ranchi |
94%ile |
|
11 |
Indian Institute of Management (IIM-S) Shillong |
85%ile |
|
12 |
Indian Institute of Management (IIM-Ro) Rohtak |
95%ile |
|
13 |
Indian Institute of Management (IIM-Ka) Kashipur |
92%ile |
|
14 |
Indian Institute of Management (IIM-N) Nagpur |
85%ile |
|
15 |
Indian Institute of Management (IIM-SB) Sambalpur |
92%ile |
|
16 |
Indian Institute of Management (IIM-AM) Amritsar |
85%ile |
|
17 |
Indian Institute of Management (IIM-SR) Sirmaur |
94%ile |
|
18 |
Indian Institute of Management (IIM-BG) Bodhgaya |
92%ile |
|
19 |
Indian Institute of Management (IIM-J) Jammu |
93%ile |
|
20 |
Indian Institute of Management (IIM-V) Visakhapatnam |
80%ile |
All the older IIMs have their individual processes of admission following the CAT exam. However, nine new IIMs have a Common Admission Process (CAP) that makes the selection process common. Here are some key points to keep in mind-