If you wish to pursue your MBA in India, then one of the best options in the country will be the IIM’s (Indian Institute of Management). Their teaching methods combined with the most experienced faculty in the country has made IIM one of the most popular destinations for students who wish to pursue an MBA degree, PGDM, Executive MBA, PGP, and other fellowship programs. Therefore, naturally their admissions process tends to be competitive when compared to other business schools. Let us learn more about the eligibility criteria and admissions procedure at IIM’s.
Eligibility Criteria
If you wish to gain admissions into IIM for an MBA degree, then you must have a Bachelor’s degree from a recognised university with at least 50% of marks or its equivalent GPA. If you are a student in your final year of study, you can still apply, however, you will need to submit a written statement from your university principal/director mentioning the same. You will have to submit your final score report once you have received your admission letter from the IIM. There is no IIM eligibility age limit for admissions. The only important factor is that you must have a graduate degree with 50% marks.
Having said that, it is important that you score well on the qualifying exam, which is the CAT or GMAT. This is vital since each of the IIM’s have their own set of score cutoffs and admissions processes. You must do adequate research to check all the details before you proceed to apply in these institutes.
Let us now look at the admissions process and score cutoff at IIM.
Score Cutoffs and Admissions Process at IIM
The admissions process is pretty straightforward at IIM. The first step will be to attempt the CAT or GMAT exam. While IIMs generally accept CAT scores for the admissions process, they have now started accepting GMAT scores as well. The GMAT cutoff for IIM varies for each university. For example, at IIM Ahmedabad the cutoff score is 706, for IIM Bangalore the score is 690, for IIM Calcutta the cutoff is 700+. Once you have achieved these scores you will be shortlisted based on your past academic performances and personal information.
Next, there will be a screening and candidates will be shortlisted based on their performance in the following rounds — Written Ability Test, Group Discussion, and Personal Interview. The final selection will be done after checking the candidate’s composite score that takes into account — the GMAT/CAT score, the personal interview score, the past academic performance, work experience, and Written Ability score.
As you can see from the above information, getting an admission into an IIM is no easy task, hence, it will require a lot of preparation from your end. You will need stellar scores on your GMAT/CAT, impressive work experience, and an overall good profile.
Good Luck!