Every student aspiring to take admission in a B school has always dreamt of being a student of one of the IIMs since they are the best schools for business management. Every IIM has a different process that needs to be followed to be a part of it. IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Lucknow, IIM Calcutta have already released their admission criteria while the other IIMs will declare their respective admission criteria soon.

There are about 20 IIMs in our country and all of them have different admission criteria. Here we will tell you about the admission criteria for the IIMs for 2019-21 batches.

Most of the IIMs require the CAT results to even start their admission process. The candidate would first need to be eligible to sit for the CAT exam. The eligibility criteria for a person giving the CAT exam are given below.

To appear for the CAT2018 exam the candidate must have a bachelor’s degree with at least 50 per cent marks (for General category) and 45 Percent (for SC, ST and PWD category) or equivalent CGPA from any recognized university. The CAT exam takes place every year by different IIM colleges. This year IIM Calcutta held the CAT 2018 exam. To know more in detail, please go through this link Common Admission Test (CAT).

Usually the IIMs follow two steps to decide if a candidate is worthy to be a part of their college. The steps are: –

1. CAT exam
2. Writing Ability Test (WAT) and Personal Interview (PI)

The candidates are first short listed according to their CAT score and then are called for the WAT and the PI. Mostly weightage is given to the CAT score and the PI but past performance in college and the working experience and the performance at work is also an important criterion.

Many IIMs select students based on only their CAT score and do not take any writing ability test or a personal interview. While some other IIMs shortlist, the candidates based on their CAT scores and then conduct an interview.

The six new IIMs take group WATs and PIs while the old IIMs like IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Calcutta and IIM Lucknow conduct CATs, WATs and PIs. However, the participating institutes declare separate merit lists. The CAT cut off for all the IIMs has not changed since the last year’s cut off.

IIM Ahmedabad

As discussed earlier this IIM conducts PI and WAT. The students are required to score the minimum cut off marks to be shortlisted for the WAT and PI. The cut off marks for the batch of 2019-21 is given below.

• General – 80
• NC-OBC – 75
• SC – 70
• ST – 60
• PWD (General, NC-OBC-cum-transgender, SC) – 70
• PWD (ST) – 60

The candidates will be chosen depending on their CAT score, performance in the WAT and PI, and on their working experience and the performance in their graduation college.

IIM Bangalore

IIM Bangalore also conducts its admission process by conducting a CAT and by the following WAT and PI. The CAT score is given the most importance when deciding the candidates’ fate. However, the performance in WAT and PI and the past performance in work and college also play a very important role. The cut off for the college are same as before but the cut off for the PWD and SC has been decreased for the batch of 2019-21.

• PI – 30
• CAT score – 25
• WAT – 10
• Bachelor’s Degree – 10
• Work Experience – 10
• 10th Marks – 10
• 12th Marks – 5

These are the weightage listed for the processes that are taken into consideration for an admission in IIM Bangalore.

IIM Calcutta

Even the first IIM of India gives the personal interview the most importance. This IIM gives the sectional as well as the overall score in the CAT exam great importance. The marks scored by the candidate in tenth as well as in twelfth also decide the fate of the student. There is a gender diversity factor as well that is taken into consideration. The cut offs as per the categories is listed below.

• General – 90
• NC-OBC – 85
• SC – 70
• ST – 70
• PWD/DA – 70 

The weightage of every section is listed below for your convenience.

• Personal Interview (48)
• CAT score (30)
• WAT (10)
• work experience (8) and
• past academic performance (2)

IIM Lucknow

This very reputed IIM gives importance to the sectional as well as the overall CAT score and the cut off for both is different for different category students.

• General category score 90 percentile
• NC-OBC score 82
• SC score 70
• ST score 65 and
• PWD category students need to score 65