Indian B-School Cut-offs & Percentile requirements

This is an attempt to compile the likely cut-offs for various business schools for admissions to their MBA/PGDBM programmes. Unless specifically mentioned, the cut-offs given below are for the flagship programmes of the respective institutes. All cut-offs are for open/general category students and unless mentioned the cut-offs are in percentiles and not percentages (%) or absolute scores.

Wherever possible, the cut-offs mentioned have been sourced from the respective b-schools, else it has been predicted based on past and current data plus personal interactions and experience. Though I have tried to minimise mistakes to the best of my knowledge, please forgive should a mistake have crept in. The cut-offs mentioned may not be the lowest cut-off but of the lowest point after which very few students would get a call. Please confirm this information with at least one other source before making any final decisions, and use the data prudently.

IIM Ahmedabad - CAT- 98.3 percentile

IIM Bangalore - CAT - 92 percentile

This year, IIM Bangalore has given huge weightage to work-experience thus bringing the cut-offs down. I have personally seen students not getting calls with 99.8 percentile!! ( this student had very good scores across sections but no work-experience)

IIM Calcutta/Kolkata - CAT - 97 percentile

IIM Indore - CAT - 98 percentile

IIM Kozhikode - CAT - 98 percentile

MDI Gurgaon - CAT - 97 percentile

cut-off for MDI Human Resources programme would be about 95 percentile

Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad (MICA) - CAT - 90 percentile

MICA also accepts XAT and GMAT scores. Though there is no confirmation for the same, it's widely believed that MICA expects a high English/Verbal score. Yet, quite a few Engineers do make it through so there is no bias against any academic groups.

Institute of Management Technology (IMT), Ghaziabad - CAT - 95 percentile

May not be considering sectional cut-offs

International Management Institute (IMI), New Delhi - CAT - 93.6 percentile

You also need to fare well across sections as IMI considers sectional cut-off as well.

FORE, New Delhi - CAT - 88 percentile

Quite a few very high scores, with percentile over 98 in the CAT were not given calls - FORE may have an upper cut-off.

NITIE, Mumbai - CAT - 97 percentile

Sectional cut-offs considered, only for Engineers

XLRI, Jamshedpur - XAT - 95 percentile

Goa Institute of Management (GIM), Goa - XAT - 87 percentile

T.A. Pai, Manipal (TAPMI) - CAT - 93 percentile

Sectional cut-offs required

University Business School (UBS), Chandigarh - CAT - 93.6 percentile

Sectional cut-offs: don't know for sure

Nirma, Ahmedabad - CAT - 90 percentile

K J Somaiyya, Mumbai - CAT - 83 percentile

for those without any work-experience the cut-offs may jump to over 88

Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management - CAT - 85 percentile

Great Lakes, Chennai - CAT - 85 percentile

Work-experience required

Welingkar, Mumbai - CAT - 85 percentile

ISWBM, Kolkata - CAT - 80 percentile

IMDR, Pune - CAT - 70 percentile

IMFR, Chennai - CAT - 70 percentile

Amity, Noida - CAT - 70 percentile

Amity also has its own separate entrance test called AMCAT, you need to score over 60 approx out of 100, there is no negative marking here. You can also enter through MAT with a score of 600 plus.

SDM, Mysore - CAT - 75 percentile

Birla Institute of Management & Technology (BIMTECH), Greater Noida - CAT - 80 percentile

You may apply through MAT as well. BIMTECH also has a separate category of admissions for industry sponsored candidates.

Alliance, Bangalore - CAT - 82 percentile

Kirloskar, near Bangalore - CAT - 70 percentile

Jamnalal Bajaj (JBIMS), Mumbai - MAT percentile of 99 plus

the chief entrance test is Maharastra's state test, the Common Entrance Test (CET) or what's also known as MH-CET or M-CET

Symbiosis Centre for Management & Human Resource (SCMHRD), Pune - CAT - 94 percentile

the chief entrance test is the SNAP, a score of 75 should do, though like other Symbiois colleges, SCMHRD also factors in other parameters like work-experience and educational background before arriving at the GD/PI shortlist.

Symbiosis Institute of Business Management (SIBM), Pune - SNAP score of 83.75

IMT, Nagpur - CAT - 90 percentile

S P Jain, Mumbai - CAT - 89 percentile

SIIB, Pune - Internation Business - SNAP score of 76.75

SIIB, Pune - Agri Business - SNAP score of 51.00

Both the above Symbiosis cut-offs have been arrived at after giving weightages to various parameters including work-experience, education etc. For details, check the official SIBM site

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For the sectional and overall cut-off for the IIM CAT 2008, click here.

India's Best B-Schools - A Ranking (continued)

This post is in continuation to my earlier post where we had discussed the country's top ten b-schools. Let's now look at other good options for India's MBA aspirants. This list contains those management schools which may probably not fetch you the mind-boggling dollar salaries that the IIMs can. However, an MBA from these places will get you an assured placement at a reasonably great organisation of your choice and over a period of 3-5 years, if you can display your competitiveness at the workplace, you can reach at par with your contemporary IIM alumni or atleast very very close. From there it will be all upto you, as you compete with them for money, power and glory.

There are two distinct clusters in this second list:
1) b-schools offering the regular MBA degree / PG Diploma in Business Managment and
2) management schools offering specialised programmes. We will take up the second one first.

India's Best Specialised Management Programmes: ( not ranked )

1. Post Graduate Programme in Communications Management offered by the Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad (MICA)

2. Post Graduate Programme in Agri Business Management offered by IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Lucknow

3. Master of Arts in Human Resource Management and Labour from Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai

4. Post Graduate Diploma in Rural Management at Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA)

5. MBA in International Business offered by Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), New Delhi

6. P.G. Diploma in Computer Aided Management offered by IIM Calcuatta

7. Post Graduate Diploma in Forestry Management from Indian Institute of Foreign Management (IIFM), Bhopal

8. Masters programme in Social Work at TISS ( refer to 3 above)

9. XLRI's post graduate programme in Personnel Management and Industrial Relations.

10. Post Graduate Programme in Fashion Management offered by National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), Delhi

Dark-horse:
2-yr Programme in the Business of Film & Television at Subhash Ghai's Whistling Woods International, Mumbai

( will update the post soon to discuss the general b-schools)

India's Best B-Schools - A Ranking

1.Indian Institute of Management(IIM) - Ahmedabad
2.Indian School of Business(ISB) - Hyderabad
3.IIM - Bangalore
4.IIM - Calcutta
5.IIM - Lucknow
6.Xavier's Labour Relations Instiute(XLRI) - Jamshedpur
7.National Institute of Industrial Engineering(NITIE) - Mumbai
8.Faculty of Management Studies (FMS) - Delhi
9.S.P.Jain Institute of Management & Research (SPJIMR) - Mumbai
10.Shailesh J.Mehta Institute of Management, IIT Mumbai

The Common Admission Test, populary known as the CAT is not without reason India's best known MBA Entrance Exam. Out of the above 10 b-schools, as many as 6 use the CAT as the written test. A good percentile in the CAT can earn you an interview call from one or more IIMs, NITIE and S.P. Jain. If you have appeared in the CAT that just went by, on 19th December 2006, you will probably need a score in excess of 110 to get a call from the IIMs. Of course, one also has to ensure that the score is distributed fairly well across the 3 sections to meet the sectional cut-off norms.

If your target is the b-school located in the Steel City of Jharkhand, your entrance examination is called the XAT(Xavier Admission Test). XLRI's entrance test has a higher level of mathematics. It also has a 20 minutes essay writing part.

The IITs hold the Joint Management Entrance Test(JMET) for entry into the various management programmes offered by the various IITs and the Indian Institute of Science Bangalore. As these programmes are meant for engineers only, you can expect a definitely tougher mathematics section. The JMET also includes a separate Logical Reasoning question. The coming Sunday (10th December 2006) will see the country's brightest engineers fighting it out for these premier techno-management seats.

FMS Delhi has its own separate test, whereas ISB Hyderabad uses the GMAT scores for screening candidates. The latter is open to students with a minimum of 2 yrs of work experience only.

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