IIM Admission 2024: Process, Steps, Shortlisting and Final Admission Criteria

IIM MBA Admission process 2024, which started with the beginning of CAT exam registration in August, has closed on September 21, 2023 with high number of 3.30 lakh candidates applying for IIM Admission 2024. However, the 21^st IIM of India, IIM Mumbai has separately opened its application process for MBA Admission 2024 from October 18, 2023.

IIM MBA Admission 2024 will have two major steps – Shortlisting after declaration of CAT 2023 result and final IIM selection process that will begin after shortlisting process is over. CAT exam 2023 Result is expected in January 2024 first week and immediately after this, top IIMs – IIM Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta, Lucknow, Kozhikode will release their shortlists.

At present there are 21 IIMs after NITIE Mumbai has been awarded the status of IIM Mumbai. If you are looking for IIM Admission 2024 updates, you are at the right place. MBAUniverse.com has researched each IIM selection and admission criteria. This article below shares all about the IIMs Admission stages from application submission to selection. Let’s begin with the various stages for IIMs Admission

 IIM Admissions 2024: How to Take Admission in IIM 2024-26?

Show to take admission in IIM 2024-26 batch? Please note that IIM Admission process goes through following six stages:

After the implementation of IIM Act 2017, almost all of the IIMs confer MBA degree on completion of the management programme. Earlier all the IIMs used to award Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM). More than 6000 candidates are offered MBA admission in Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) every year. Since IIMs are considered as the best Management Institutes in the country, doing MBA from top IIM is the dream of every MBA aspirant. IIM Admission 2024 Policy is being released individually by each IIM.

IIM Shortlisting: Weightage Parameters

Shortlisting by IIMs is done after CAT result is declared and candidates can check their score card as CAT score and percentile play an important role in shortlisting process. Based on the process in IIM Admission, the shortlisting criteria for these IIMs have following components and weightages. It may be noted that while some of the IIMs like IIM Bangalore, IIM Calcutta, IIM Lucknow are keeping the weightage for CAT score in admission process 2024 high, other IIMs may reduce it. However, other components are getting included with high weightage.

IIM Admission: Final Selection Components & Weightages

CAT score weightage is substantially reduced in final selection as compared to shortlisting stage in final IIM Selection and Admission Criteria. It is not necessary that IIMs will offer admission to all the shortlisted candidates. Sometimes IIMs do not offer admission even to candidates with high CAT percentile. For example, IIM Ahmedabad rejected the candidates with CAT 99.95 percentile in final admission in previous years. You need to score high on all the key components of final selection round to get final admission offer from IIMs.

IIMs Admission Eligibility: Check Key Points

CAT is the mandatory entrance exam for admission in any of the 21 IIMs and other top MBA colleges like FMS Delhi, MDI Gurgaon, IMI New Delhi, NITIE Mumbai, IITs. IIMs admission eligibility criteria require minimum 50% marks in graduation in any discipline.

IIMs Admission eligibility for IIM Selection has two aspects – IIMs admission eligibility requirement for CAT exam and the specific eligibility criteria for IIM Admission. Although there is not much difference between the minimum eligibility requirement to appear in CAT exam and to be considered for admission in IIMs, as both need minimum 50% marks in graduation, the weightages awarded to your CAT score, academic excellence and other parameters differ from one IIM to other IIM. 

You first need to apply and appear in CAT Exam. The CAT conducting IIM releases the CAT exam notification in July/August and the registration and application process for IIM-Common Admission Test (CAT) starts online in the first week of August every year. You have to apply for IIM admission test – CAT from August to September when the application process remains open. Please note if you do not apply for CAT, no IIM will consider you for next round of admission process.  

Alongwith the CAT notification, IIMs also launch official CAT exam website iimcat.ac.in. The website contains all the details about candidates’ eligibility requirement for CAT and for admission in IIMs including new IIMs admission process.

IIMs Shortlist based on CAT Score

IIMs release the shortlist of candidates for PI round in January/February. These shortlists for IIMs Admission with CAT cut offs are announced by each IIM from among the candidates who have a valid CAT score, who have applied to the programme and who satisfy the eligibility criteria for the IIM MBA programme.  While CAT cut offs in shortlisting are in the range of 80 to 98 percentile, other parameters like academic profile, diversity are also applied in shortlisting process for final selection round. Read More

IIM Selection Process: Final Round

This is most important. Even if you are shortlisted based on your high CAT exam score, your admission chances in IIMs have only somewhat improved, but you need to convert your IIM call into final admission which is based upon different weightages in final selection process. IIMs award varying weightages to the parameters like CAT score, Personal Interview, Work Experience and profile of the candidates before making final admission offer. Read More

IIM Admission: Generation of Merit List

The final admission result is declared in the months of April/May on the basis of above parameters. As per the past trends, IIMs may offer admission at lower CAT exam score to the candidates who have excelled in various parts of life like working in social sector, villages; have diverse profile like painting, graphology, national level players, writers, scientists among others. 

IIM Selection and Admission Criteria

IIM selection and admission criteria can be divided in two parts – Shortlisting by IIMs and Final selection process in IIMs. Both of these processes award different weightages to the components like CAT exam score, academics, work experience, diversity, Group Discussion/Written Ability Test and Personal Interview. The weightage for CAT score at shortlisting stage is much higher than the weightage awarded final selection round. Following changes are brought in IIM admission process 2024

CAT exam score Weightages Reduced: In the admission process for IIMs, weightage to CAT score in shortlisting is reduced in a range of 50 to 75 percent on a scale of 100, to improve diversity. However, many new and Baby IIMs shortlist the candidates only on the basis of CAT score and award 100% weightage to CAT score

CAT Cut off Percentile Reduced for Admission in IIMs: During last 2-3 years, IIMs have reduced CAT cut offs to 70-80 sectional percentile and 80-90 overall percentile for admission.  IIMs admission cut offs are announced category wise well in advance in their individual admission policy. Although Minimum cut off is announced between 80 to 95 percentile, actual cut off goes much higher. Below these cut off score, IIMs do not shortlist candidates for further rounds of admission. Not only overall score is important but the sectional score in CAT is equally important. You can check the cut offs in shortlisting as per each IIM individual admission policy. 

CAT Cut off for IIMs 

New IIMs Admission: Through Common Admission Process (CAP)

While older IIMs like IIM Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta, Lucknow, Kozhikode, Indore conduct their admission process individually and award weightage to Academics, Diversity, work experience at the shortlisting stage, 9 new IIMs admission process awards weightage to these parameters in final admission round. All these 9 new IIMs including IIM Kashipur, Raipur, Ranchi, Trichy, Udaipur, Bodhgaya, Jammu, Sirmaur, Sambalpur have common shortlisting criteria followed by Common Admission Process (CAP) comprising PI-WAT. It is only after the CAP that each of these new IIMs generate its individual merit list based on its own parameters and weightages to make final admission offer. However, IIM Rohtak, IIM Amritsar, IIM Nagpur, IIM Visakhapatnam conduct their own admission process, instead of participating in CAP.  

IIMs’ Fee
There has been a sharp increase in IIMs fee during last few years. Now the Baby IIMs like IIM Nagpur, Visakhapatnam among others charge MBA fee between 14 to 17 lakhs, second generation IIMs like IIM Udaipur, Rohtak, Tiruchirappalli among others have a fee structure between 16 to 19 lakhs and top IIMs like IIM Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta have a fee structure of 24 to 25 lakhs. Read IIMs Fee in Detail      

IIM Admission Criteria
The details given above are about the different stages of IIMs Admission as reflected in their individual admission policy. However, each of the 21 IIMs has its own admission criteria. The admission criteria contains the required cut offs in CAT exam, weightages awarded to different components in shortlisting and final admission round. You can read in detail all about the IIM Admission Criteria

IIM Selection Process
The final selection process in IIMs start after the shortlisting is completed on the basis of CAT scores and other parameters. In the IIMs final selection process the weightage to CAT exam score is substantially reduced and higher weightage is awarded to PI-WAT, Academics, Work Experience and other parameters. Please note CAT selection and IIMs final selection are two different things and even high CAT scorers may not make it top IIMs. Read here in detail the IIM Selection process

Top Non-IIMs Admission
Apart from IIMs, CAT scores are accepted by many top MBA colleges. FMS Delhi, SPJIMR Mumbai, MDI Gurgaon, XIM Bhubaneswar and other top MBA colleges accept CAT scores. MBA admission in these colleges is based on the basis of different national and state level MBA entrance exams.