Indian institute of Management (IIMA)

The Indian Institute of Management located in Ahmedabad, Gujarat is one of our country’s finest institutes for high management studies. It has been comfortably sitting in the top 2 spots in institutes' NIRF ranking and IIM-B. It was established in 1961 with Ravi. J. Matthai as its founding director. It has a rich and varied history that has endured more than 50 years and has seen contributions from many notable citizens of our country such as physicist Vikram Sarabhai, businessman Kasturba Lalbhai and Kamla Chowdhary. Currently, it is the first management school in our country to be awarded EQUIS (European Quality Improvement System) in 2008.

The selection criteria for IIM-A consists of multiple stages. The first stage is to clear the percentile cutoff in CAT (Common Admission Test). The selection of candidates eligible will be done based on multiple factors, including the eligible candidate's profile.

At different stages of the selection process, an applicant's Application Rating' (AR) score will be used. An applicant's AR score is the sum of the rating scores ‘A', ‘B', ‘C' and ‘D' (Tables 2-5) based on their percentage of marks obtained in the 10th standard, the 12th standard (depending upon the stream, viz., ‘Science', ‘Commerce' and ‘Arts & Humanities), the bachelor's degree program (depending upon the discipline) and work experience (as on July 31, 2021) respectively. For different streams/disciplines, the equivalent ARs are arrived at by using a (sort of) percentile equivalence of the score distributions using the previous year's CAT data.

Rating Scores for the 10^th Std. Examination (Rating Score A)

Percent score in 10th Std. Exam	Rating Score A
<= 55	1
> 55 and <= 60	2
> 60 and <= 70	3
> 70 and <= 80	5
> 80 and <= 90	8
> 90	10

Rating Scores for the 12^th Std. Examination (Rating Score B)

Science Stream

Percent score in 12th Std. Exam	Rating Score B
<= 55	1
> 55 and <= 60	2
> 60 and <= 70	3
> 70 and <= 80	5
> 80 and <= 90	8
> 90	10

Commerce Stream

Percent score in 12th Std. Exam	Rating Score B
<= 50	1
> 50 and <= 55	2
> 55 and <= 65	3
> 65 and <= 75	5
> 75 and <= 90	8
> 90	10

Arts/Humanities Stream

Percent score in 12th Std. Exam	Rating Score B
<= 45	1
> 45 and <= 50	2
> 50  and <= 60	3
> 60 and <= 70	5
> 70 and <= 85	8
> 85	10

Rating Scores for the Bachelor's Degree Examination (Rating Score C)

AC-1

Percent score in Bachelor's Degree	Rating Score C
<= 55	1
> 55 and <= 60	2
> 60  and <= 62	3
> 62 and <= 65	5
> 65 and <= 70	8
> 70	10

AC-2

Percent score in Professional courses	Rating Score C
<= 50	1
> 50 and <= 53	2
> 53 and <= 55	3
> 55 and <= 57	5
> 57 and <= 63	8
> 63	10

AC-3

Percent score in Bachelor's Degree	Rating Score C
<= 55	1
> 55 and <= 60	2
> 60 and <= 65	3
> 65 and <= 70	5
> 70 and <= 80	8
> 80	10

AC-4 & AC-6

Percent score in Bachelor's Degree	Rating Score C
<= 60	1
> 60 and <= 65	2
> 65  and <= 70	3
> 70 and <= 75	5
> 75 and <= 85	8
> 85	10

AC-5

Percent score in Professional courses	Rating Score C
<= 50	1
> 50 and <= 55	2
> 55 and <= 60	3
> 60 and <= 65	5
> 65 and <= 75	8
> 75	10

Rating Scores for Work Experience (Rating Score D)

Work Experience in Month (as filled in the CAT Application Form)	Rating Score D
< 12 months	0
>= 12 and <= 36 months	MF * (number of months of work experience – 11)
> 36 months	5

Work-experience Multiplication Factor (MF) = 0.20

The normalized AR score of an applicant is equal to their AR score divided by the average of the top 50 AR scores from the applicants' pool, (the applicants' pool, in this case, is defined as the group of candidates who appear for CAT-2021 and apply to IIMA.)

 

Notes about the marks obtained:

1. Percentages of marks of an applicant who is yet to complete the bachelor's degree will be computed based on their available marks.
2. For a candidate having cleared CA/ICWA/CS or Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries of India (FIAI) without having a bachelor’s degree, the aggregate final percentage of marks of all the levels examinations obtained and as entered in the CAT application form would be treated as their available marks.
3. For computing the AR score of an applicant, scores in all subjects that appear in their marks-sheet of 10^th and 12^th Std. examinations will be considered irrespective of whether the board considers them for calculating the percentage.
4. For the bachelor's degree, the percentage of marks awarded by the candidate's institution/university will be treated as final. If the institution/university does not award the percentage of marks, it will be calculated based on the marks obtained in all the subjects listed in the marks sheet.
5. For the bachelor's degree, if the percentage of marks awarded by the candidate's institution/university does not take into account marks obtained in all the subjects as mentioned in the marks-sheet(s) for all the years, the candidates must produce a certificate from the principal/head of the department/registrar/director of the institution/university certifying details of the practice at the institution/university at the time of the interview if shortlisted for the same.
6. If any board/institution/university awards only letter grades without providing an equivalent percentage of marks on the grade sheet, the candidate should obtain a certificate from the board/institution/university specifying the equivalent marks which should be used for filling the online CAT application form. The original equivalence certificate needs to be submitted at the time of interview if shortlisted for the same.
7. For candidates having undergone/completed an integrated master's degree or dual degree directly after their 12^th/HSC, the percentage of marks obtained as per their institute/university norms which are considered as equivalent to a bachelor's degree will be considered. For those undergoing (yet to complete) an integrated master's degree or a dual degree directly after their 12^th/HSC, the percentage of marks, similarly obtained, for the years/semesters completed till the date of application for CAT will be considered.

2.  Shortlisting for Analytical Writing Test (AWT) & Personal Interview (PI)

Shortlisting will be carried out in two stages.

Stage 1: (From the Applicants' pool: Selection of exceptional performers across different disciplines)

IIMA endeavors to recognize exceptional performers in terms of their previous academic records as well as their performance in CAT across diverse academic backgrounds. Towards that, a certain number of top candidates from each of the academic disciplines will be shortlisted for AWT & PI based on their composite score ‘CS' (see below) subject to their fulfilling certain criteria.

From each of the academic categories (AC) for which the total number of applicants to IIMA who appear for CAT-2021 from SC/ST/NC-OBC/PwD categories is at least 100, the top 5% in the respective AC limited to the respective categories (General/SC/ST/NC-OBC/PwD) among the applicants to IIMA who appear for CAT-2021, henceforth referred to as ACRC groups, (subject to upper limits on the numbers per ACRC group as specified in Table 6) will be shortlisted for AWT & PI based on the composite score ‘CS' (see below) subject to their fulfilling criteria C1-C3.

CS (Composite Score) = ARF_CS * Normalised AR score + CATF_CS * Normalised overall score in CAT-2021

Application Rating Multiplication Factor for Composite Score (ARF_CS) = 0.35; CAT Multiplication Factor for Composite Score (CATF_CS) = 0.65

 The upper limits (UL) on the number of candidates to be shortlisted per RC for AC-1, AC-2, AC-3, AC-5

Category	Upper Limit (UL)
General	100
NC-OBC-cum-transgender	57
SC	32
ST	16
PWD	6

The upper limits (UL) on the number of candidates to be shortlisted per RC for AC-4

Category	Upper Limit (UL)
General	150
NC-OBC-cum-transgender	85
SC	48
ST	24
PWD	9

 

Criteria C1-C3:

C1.  PVRC, PDILR, PQA, and PT must not be lower than the minimum cut-offs as specified in Table 1.

C2.  P ≥ Minimum cut-offs (specific to the category and the stream as shown in Table 7), where P is the average of the percentages of marks scored in 10^th and 12^th std. examinations.

Minimum cut-off for P across different disciplines and different categories
 

Stream in 12th std.	General-cum-EWS Category	NC-OBC-cum-transgender Category	SC    Category	ST     Category	PWD   (General, NC-OBC-cum-transgender, SC)	PWD (ST)
Science	80	75	70	65	70	65
Commerce	77	72	67	62	67	62
Arts & Humanities	75	70	64	59	64	59

 

C3.  (Percentage of marks in the bachelor's examination) ≥ Minimum cut-off percentage, to be set at the 80^th percentile of the percentage of marks of the respective ACRC group of the applicants' pool, (the applicants' pool, in this case, being defined as the group of candidates who appear for CAT-2021, apply to IIM Ahmedabad and belong to the respective ACRC.)

Any AC, for which the total number of applicants to IIMA who appear for CAT-2021 from SC/ST/NC-OBC/PwD categories is less than 100, will not be subdivided into ACRCs as above. For such an AC, the top 100 or the top 5% in the respective AC among all the applicants to IIMA who appear for CAT-2021, whichever is less, will be shortlisted for AWT & PI based on the composite score ‘CS' (see above) subject to their fulfilling criteria C4-C6.

Criteria C4-C6:

C4.  PT ≥ 80, PQA ≥ 70, PDILR ≥ 70 and PVRC ≥ 70.

C5.  P ≥ 80 (Science), 77 (Commerce), 75 (Arts/Humanities), where P is the average of the percentages of marks scored in the 10^th and 12^th std. examinations.

C6.  (Percentage of marks in the bachelor's examination) ≥ Minimum cut-off percentage, to be set at the 80^th percentile of the percentage of marks of the respective AC group of the applicants' pool, (the applicants' pool, in this case, being defined as the group of candidates who appear for CAT-2021, apply to IIM Ahmedabad and belong to the respective AC.)

Note: For AC 1, separate short-lists will be drawn, computing the Composite Score (CS) using a separate bachelor’s degree 80th percentile cut-off marks (C3 & C6 criteria) of Part I & Part II respectively.

Stage 2: After removing the candidates selected in Stage 1 from each category (General, NC-OBC, SC, ST, and PWD) the additional number of candidates to be shortlisted for AWT & PI will be selected based on the composite score ‘CS' (see above) subject to their fulfilling criteria C1-C2.

3. Final Selection

The selection at this stage will strictly be based on the shortlisting of the candidates done separately for each category (General/SC/ST/NC-OBC/PwD) based on their ‘Final Composite Score's (FCS). The numbers selected in different reservation categories will be in proportions mandated by law.

The FCS of a candidate who appears in AWT & PI will be computed as follows:

 

FCS = PIF * Normalised PI Score + AWTF * Normalised AWT Score + CATF_FCS * Normalised CAT Score + ARF_FCS * AR

Personal Interview Multiplication Factor (PIF) = 0.50 AWT Multiplication Factor (AWTF) = 0.10 CAT Score Multiplication Factor for Final Composite Score (CATF_FCS) = 0.25 Application Rating Multiplication Factor for Final Composite Score (ARF_FCS) = 0.15

 

The normalized PI and AWT scores of a candidate are their scores in the respective field divided by the average of the top 1% scores in the same field respectively.

The following information is about the admission process followed by IIMA for its PGP after CAT. It is, therefore, important for the candidates to read them carefully.

1. Performance in CAT is an important input in the admission process. Candidates should note that it is important to perform well in each section of the test. In addition to the performance in CAT, IIMA uses the academic performance of the candidates throughout their academic career up to the bachelor's level for shortlisting for AWT & PI.
2. Please note that IIMA shortlists candidates for AWT & PI independent of the other IIMs. Hence it is possible to observe variations in the lists of the candidates shortlisted by different IIMs.
3. Details of the candidates shortlisted will be made available on the IIMA website (www.iima.ac.in) tentatively by the second week of January 2022 after the CAT results are published. Shortlisted candidates would also be sent AWT & PI call letters by IIMA. No communication would be sent to applicants who are not shortlisted for AWT & PI.
4. After the AWT & PI round, admission offers are made by IIMA to successful candidates. The final selection is based on a diverse set of attributes which includes performance in CAT, performance in AWT & PI, academic, co-curricular, and extra-curricular achievements, work experience, etc. All selected candidates for the IIMA 2-year PGP must be of 19 years of age as of June 30, 2022.
5. Disclosure of information about the admission process is driven by concerns which at times conflict with each other. IIMA would like the admission process to be transparent. At the same time, IIMA would wish to protect the privacy of the individual candidates and the confidentiality of the process to prevent abuse. Based on these considerations, the details of the performance of an individual are not made available to any other person. Similarly, the details of the performance of a candidate in AWT & PI, including assessment of attributes mentioned under paragraph 4 above, are not disclosed to anyone to prevent the exercise of undue pressure on the panelists participating in the admission/selection process. IIMA exercises its own discretion in disclosing weights assigned to diverse sets of attributes mentioned under paragraph 4 above. To ensure that the perceived lack of transparency does not in any way affect the candidates negatively, adequate care is taken of information of the interview panels, development of objective criteria for assessment, random allocation of candidates to interview panels, and other such measures.
6. Candidates, who appear in AWT & PI will be able to view whether they have been offered admission by IIMA tentatively during the second week of April 2022 by visiting the IIMA website. An admission offer letter would be sent to all successful candidates. Candidates, who are offered admission, need to confirm their acceptance by completing all the required formalities by the first/second week of May 2022. Some candidates may also be placed on the waiting list initially during the second week of April 2022. Offers to candidates on the waiting list would depend upon the number of successful candidates accepting the offer made by IIMA.

 

Note:

In the event of specific guidelines being issued by the Government of India, IIMA reserves the right to, depending on the nature of the guidelines, continue with its AWT & PI as stated above OR use an alternative selection procedure which may include calling for additional information from the shortlisted candidates, a supplementary test or any other suitable process/mechanism.  Care will be taken to ensure that candidates are not put to undue inconvenience.

The exact cut-offs mentioned above are computed based on the previous years' CAT data. It depends on various factors like the applicants' pool, the distribution of CAT scores, etc. which may change year to year. Because of this fact, the Admissions Committee of IIMA reserves the right of changing the cut-offs if deemed desirable in the light of CAT-2021 data.  

Categories for bachelor's degree/integrated master's degree (as per CAT Application)

AC-1 (Medicine and Surgery based subjects): Part I: MBBS, MD (USA) Part II: BDS, BAMS, BHMS

AC-2 (Selected Professional Degrees): Chartered Accountancy (CA), Cost and Works Accountancy (ICWA), Company Secretaryship (CS), Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries of India (FIAI)

AC-3 (All Commerce, Economics, Finance, and Management Related Degrees): Including BAF, BBA, BBE, BBI, BBM, BBS, BCAF, BCCA, BCOM, BFIA, BFM, BHM, BHMCT, BIBF, BMS (Bachelor of Management Studies) and BSBA degrees. In particular, including Economics/ Economic Development and Planning Any degree in Hospitality/Hospitality Studies, Catering/Catering Technology, Hotel, Travel and Tourism Management, Tourism Studies, and any other related discipline. Commerce (Accountancy, Auditing, Banking, Business Mathematics, Business Organisation, Finance, Information Technology, Insurance, Investment Analysis, Public Finance, Secretarial Practices, etc.) Management (Advertising, Agriculture and Food Business, Agribusiness Management, Agriculture Marketing and Cooperation, Agriculture and Rural and Tribal Development, Business Administration, Business Management, Business Studies, Commercial Agriculture and Business Management, Entrepreneurship, Management Studies, Sports Management, Real Estate, and Urban Infrastructure, Renewable Energy Management, Oil and Gas Management, Production and Industrial Management)  Any other vocational degree in commerce and management.

AC-4 I (All Engineering, Technology, and Architecture related Areas): Including BARCH, BE, BIT, BINFTECH, BS (ENG)/ BSC (ENG), BTECH, and integrated MTECH degrees (Excluding all degrees in Accessories Design/Apparel Production/Design/Fashion Communication/Fashion Design/Fashion Technology/Interior Design/Knit Wear Design/Leather Design/Jewelry Design/Footwear Design, and BS/BSC degrees in Information Technology).  In particular, including Agricultural Engineering/ Dairy Technology/ Food Technology Architecture BE/BS (ENG)/BSC (ENG)/BTECH/integrated MTECH degrees in Biosciences, Geological Sciences, Information Technology, Mathematical Sciences, and Natural Sciences BE/BS (ENG)/BSC (ENG)/BTECH/integrated MTECH in all Engineering/Technology and related areas, including subjects like Chemical Technology, Electronics, Engineering Physics, etc. Textile Engineering/Technology Others: All other fields where BE/BS (ENG)/BSC (ENG)/BTECH/integrated MTECH degrees are awarded, not explicitly included or excluded elsewhere in the list.   II (Science and Agriculture related Areas, other than Medicine and Surgery): Including all BS/BSC and integrated MS/MSC (excluding degrees in Economics, Fashion Design, Journalism, and Leather Design). Also including degrees in paramedical, veterinary degrees. In particular, including Actuarial Science Agriculture (Agronomy, Soil Science, Agricultural Biochemistry, Plant Breeding and Genetics, Plant Pathology, Soil Science, etc.)  Biosciences (Biology, Biochemistry, Biotechnology, Botany, Life Science, Zoology, etc.) Computer Applications (BCA, MCA) Fisheries Forestry Geological Sciences (Geography, Geology, and Geophysics.) Horticulture Information Technology All bachelor's/integrated master's degrees in Mathematical Sciences (Computer Science, Mathematics, Statistics, etc.) Natural Sciences (Chemistry, Physics, etc.) Paramedical/Physiotherapy Pharmacology/Pharmacy Planning Veterinary Science/ Animal Husbandry Media Science, Media Science, and Technology Physiology Any vocational degree in science (BS/BSC) Science (Others): Forensic

AC-5 (All Arts/Humanities Related Degrees, Design, Education, Fashion Design/Technology, Law and Rural Studies): Including any BA (excluding Economics, Geography, and Geological Sciences, Mathematics and Statistics), BAA, BAJM, BCJ, BDES, BED, BFTECH, BJ, BJMC, BL, BM (Bachelor of Music), BMC, BMM, BMus, BSW, and LLB. In particular, including    Accessories Design/Apparel Production/Design/Fashion Communication/Fashion Design/Fashion Technology/Fashion Merchandising and Retail Management, Interior Design/Knit Wear Design/Leather Design/Footwear Design/Jewelry Design (all degrees) Arts/Humanities (Archaeology, Education, Fine Arts (Dance, Drama, Film, Music, Painting, etc.), History, Languages, Library Science, Literature, Mass Communication, Media Studies, Philosophy, Political Science, Public Administration, Social Work/Welfare, Sociology, etc.) Education (including Physical Education and Sports) Journalism/Mass Communication/Media Studies (all degrees) Law (BL LLB/B.Com. LLB/BBA LLB) Psychology (all degrees) Rural Studies/Rural Sociology/Rural Cooperatives/Rural Banking Any vocational degree in arts/education/humanities (BA)

AC-6: Any other discipline not mentioned in AC-1 to AC-5.

 

Note:

1. Dual bachelor's degree holders will be classified in one of the categories AC-1 to AC-6 based on their field(s) and subjects. Applicants are requested to mention both the degrees of specialization separately in Bachelor Degree 1 and Bachelor Degree 2.
2. Final discretion on the academic category that an academic program will be classified into rests with the Admissions Committee of IIMA.
3. For candidates having undergone/completed an integrated master's degree directly after their HSC, their classification into an academic category will be based on their academic discipline in the integrated master's degree program.
4. For a candidate who has obtained further higher degrees after their bachelor's degree or their integrated Master's degree, other than those degrees listed in Table 8, the discipline(s) of the subsequent degrees will not be taken into consideration in deciding their classification in an academic category.

 

IIM Ahmedabad reserves the right to make changes in the Shortlisting and Selection Criteria if considered necessary at any point.
For an AC for which the number of applicants to IIMA in that particular AC is more than 50% of the total applicants to IIMA, the 'UL per ACRC' numbers will be doubled (e.g., UL for General will be 200 instead of 100, UL for SC will be 64 instead of 32, and so on).

Category	Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension (VARC)	Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning (DILR)	Quantitative Aptitude (QA)	Overall
General, EWS	70	70	70	80
NC-OBC-cum-transgender	65	65	65	75
SC	60	60	60	70
ST	50	50	50	60
PWD( General, EWS, NC-OBC-cum-transgender, SC)	60	60	60	70
PWD (ST)	50	50	50	60

Legend: Economically Weaker Sections (EWS), Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), Non-creamy Other Backward Castes (NC-OBC), Persons with disabilities (PwD).

The placement data for 2020 was published by Indian Placements Reporting Standards (IPRS) and it followed the yearly trend of 100% placement with BCG, McKinsey, HUL, Samsung Electronics, and TCS emerging as top recruiters. The highest domestic package offered was Rs. 55.88 lakh per annum and the highest international package was Rs. 1.32 crore per annum while the average International package stood at Rs. 61.76 lakh per annum.

A total of 388 jobs were offered to the students among which, 19 were international in cities such as  Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, and Qatar. All of these were made by Consulting, Finance, Marketing & Sales, and General Management.

Features	Details
Highest domestic salary offered	Rs. 55.88 LPA
Average domestic salary offered	Rs. 26.13 LPA
Highest international salary offered	Rs. 1.32 CPA
Average international salary offered	RS 61.76 LPA
Number of participating companies	153
New recruiters	38
Top recruiting companies	McKinsey (27 offers) The Boston Consulting Group (23 offers) MasterCard (11 offers)
Total number of offers made	388
Total number of students who opted for campus placement	391
Number of students who did not opt for campus placement	13
Top recruiting sector	Consulting
First-time recruiters	SAIF Partners, Russell Reynolds, Etihad Airways, OLAM, United Breweries

 
Further data can be found on Indian Placements Reporting Standards (IPRS) and IIM-A.

Usually, several banks are interested in offering loans to those admitted to the PGPX. International students, apart from their own banking sources, can approach bank branches of Indian banks in their countries.

The program has instituted 5 Interest Waiver Scholarship on a merit basis which will work as interest waiver on bank loans taken by students (for the program fee) for a year. The maximum amount for the scholarship can go up to 3 Lakhs.