At present there are 20 IIMs in the country including IIM Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta, Kozhikode, Lucknow, Indore among others. 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 2022 Policy has been released individually by each IIM with some or no changes.
So, if you are looking for IIM Admission 2022 updates from the Top or new IIMs, you are at the right place. MBAUniverse.com has researched each IIM selection and admission criteria. This article below shares all about the IIM Admission stages from application submission to selection; IIM admission weightages for shortlisting and in final selection, and finally the latest update on IIM selection and admission criteria alongwith the time lines.
Let’s begin with the various stages for IIM Admission
Admission in IIMs: Four Stages
Each IIM follows four stages beginning with CAT registration process before finalizing admission offers.
- Application Stage
- Shortlisting for GD-PI-WAT
- Participation in Final Selection Round comprising GD-PI or PI-WAT
- Getting Final Admission Offer
Stage-1: Application Stage for Admission in IIMs: Check Your Eligibility and Apply
CAT is the mandatory entrance exam for admission in any of the 20 IIMs. 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.
Since CAT remains the mandatory exam to get MBA admission in 20 IIMs and other top MBA colleges like FMS Delhi, MDI Gurgaon, IMI New Delhi, NITIE Mumbai, IITs, you first need to apply and appear in CAT Exam.
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.
The eligibility has two aspects – eligibility requirement to appear in CAT exam and eligibility for particular 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.
Stage-2 of IIM Admission: Short Listing Based on CAT Score
In the 2nd stage of Admission, 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.
Stage-3 of IIM Admission: Final Selection 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.
Stage-4 of 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. Let us know each of these two criteria
IIM Shortlisting: Weightage Parameters
Shortlisting by IIMs is done after CAT result is declared and candidates can check their score card as CAT cut offs play an important role in shortlisting process. Based on the process in IIMs Admission 2022, the shortlisting criteria for these IIMs have following components and weightages. It may be noted that in IIM Shortlisting weightage to CAT score is going down and other components are getting included with high weightage.
| Name of the IIM | Weight %age for CAT Score | Weight %age for Academics | Weight %age for Work Ex | Weight %age for Others (Diversity etc) |
| IIM Ahmedabad | 65 | 30 | 5 | – |
| IIM Bangalore | 40 | 50 | 8 | 2 |
| IIM Calcutta | 56 | 40 | – | 4 |
| IIM Lucknow | 60 | 20 | 10 | 10 |
| IIM Indore | 20 | 74 | — | 6 |
| IIM Kozhikode | 45 | 40 | 5 | 10 |
| IIM Shillong | NA | NA | NA | NA |
| IIM Kashipur | 100 | — | — | — |
| IIM Raipur | 100 | — | — | — |
| IIM Ranchi | 100 | — | — | — |
| IIM Tiruchirappalli | 100 | — | — | — |
| IIM Udaipur | 100 | — | — | — |
| IIM Rohtak | 100 | — | — | — |
| IIM Amritsar | 60 | 20 | 10 | 10 |
| IIM Bodhgaya | 100 | — | — | — |
| IIM Jammu | 100 | — | — | — |
| IIM Nagpur | 30 | 35 | 20 | 15 |
| IIM Sambalpur | 100 | — | — | — |
| IIM Sirmaur | 100 | — | — | — |
| IIM Visakhapatnam | 40 | 38 | 12 | 10 |
Check the weightages awarded in shortlisting by IIMs:
Following changes are brought in the admission process by IIMs
CAT exam score Weightages Reduced: In the admission process for IIMs, weightage to CAT score in shortlisting has been substantially 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: IIMs admission cut offs are announced category wise well in advance in their individual admission policy. CAT cut offs are reduced to 70-80 sectional percentile and 80-90 overall percentile for admission. 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 call 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
Common Components Introduced for IIMs Admission: While older IIMs like IIM Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta, Lucknow, Kozhikode, Indore award weightage to Academics, Academic & Gender Diversity, work experience in the shortlisting before final selection round, other new and baby IIMs admission process awards weightage to these parameters in final admission round.
IIM Admission: Final Selection Weightage Components
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 candidate with CAT 99.95 percentile in final admission. You need to score high on all the key components of final selection round as under to get final admission offer from IIMs
| Name of the IIM | Weight %age for CAT Score | Weight %age for GD-PI-WAT | Weight %age for Academics & Work Ex | Weight %age for Diversity & Others |
| IIM Ahmedabad | 25 | 60 | 15 | – |
| IIM Bangalore | 25 | 40 | 35 | – |
| IIM Calcutta | 30 | 48 (No WAT) | 12 | – |
| IIM Lucknow | 30 | 50 | 15 | 5 |
| IIM Indore | 20 | 60 | 20 | – |
| IIM Kozhikode | 44 | 44 | — | 12 |
| IIM Shillong | — | — | — | — |
| IIM Kashipur | 33 | 25 | 30 | 12 |
| IIM Raipur | 35 | 35 | 18 | 12 |
| IIM Ranchi | 40 | 30 | 20 | 10 |
| IIM Tiruchirappalli | 50 | 28 | 15 | 7 |
| IIM Udaipur | 60 | 15 | 18 | 7 |
| IIM Rohtak | 60 | 20 | — | 20 |
| IIM Amritsar | 40 | 25 | 25 | 10 |
| IIM Bodhgaya | 40 | 30 | 24 | 6 |
| IIM Jammu | 40 | 30 | 17 | 13 |
| IIM Nagpur | 15 | 50 | 30 | 5 |
| IIM Sambalpur | 30 | 20 | 30 | 20 |
| IIM Sirmaur | 30 | 30 | 25 | 15 |
| IIM Visakhapatnam | 25 | 25 | 30 | 20 |
Due to disruption caused by the COVID, the process of admission in IIMs is changed. Almost all the IIMs including IIM Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta, Kozhikode, Indore have dropped GD-WAT components from the final selection and are conducting online PI round. The weightage for GD/WAT are also dropped from final selection round. However, the final admission results for all the IIMs are released in time and the academic session commences on time either in virtual mode or in mix of virtual and class room mode.
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 12 to 15 lakhs, second generation IIMs like IIM Udaipur, Rohtak, Tiruchirappalli among others have a fee structure between 15 to 18 lakhs and top IIMs like IIM Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta have a fee structure of 23+ lakhs.
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 20 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 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
New IIMs Admission
9 new and baby IIMs conduct Common Admission Process (CAP) before making final admission offer. However, IIM Rohtak, IIM Amritsar, IIM Nagpur, IIM Visakhapatnam conduct their own admission process, instead of participating in CAP.
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.
Latest Update on IIM Admission 2022
- Application for IIM Admission 2022 is closed for all the 20 IIMs
- 7 Baby IIMs will call for expression of interest after declaration of CAT 2021 result, from the candidates who opted to be considered for admission 2022 in them while applying for CAT 2021
- IIM Admission 2022 timeline started in August 2021 and has closed on September 22, 2021.
- Announcement of IIMs Admission Shortlist with CAT cut offs: January 2022
- Check MBAUniverse.com Website and IIM admission website for the call for final admission round from January to April 2022
