CAT Admission Process
Clearing CAT is only the first step towards getting admission to the prestigious IIMs. You have to go through several other steps before you can secure yourself a seat to the post graduate programmes offered by the IIMs.
The following information will help you guide through the admission process after CAT:
Short listed candidates and scorecard: You can check the details of short-listed candidates by different IIMs for group discussion and/or interview on CAT website (www.catiim.in). You would also be sent letters by respective IIMs.
Note: The CAT scorecard will be mailed to the candidates in January 2010. The CAT score will remain valid for admission to PGPs of IIMs only for the year 2010-11, unless specified otherwise. For further details, kindly refer to CAT Bulletin.
Group Discussion and Personal Interview: After clearing the written test and having yourself short listed, you would be called for the second round of admission process which includes group discussion and personal interview. You have to perform well not only in your own capacity but in comparison to others as well. The scores are used for final ranking as well. Your academic performance and relevant work experience may also be counted for short listing candidates for group discussions and personal interviews.
Variation in rankings: Some times you may notice that rankings of each IIMs differ from one another. Each IIM short listed candidate for Group Discussions (GD) and/or Personal Interviews (PI) are independent of other IIMs. Therefore it is possible to have a variation in the list of candidates short-listed by different IIMs.
Important: Read carefully the instructions and admission process related information of each IIM or section 4 of the CAT Bulletin and on the web sites of respective IIMs.
Offers from IIMs: After the GD/PI round, admission offers are made by IIMs to successful candidates. The ranking and final selection is based on:
• Performance in CAT
• Performance in GD/PI, academic
• Co-curricular and extra-curricular achievements
• Work experience and
• Academic performance
The weights given to each of these attributes may vary across IIMs as the admission process of each IIM, subsequent to CAT is independent.
Candidates, who appeared in GD/PI will be able to view whether they have been offered admission by different IIMs by visiting the websites of respective IIMs. Admission offer letter would be sent to all successful candidates by different IIMs for which the candidates have been selected. Candidates, who are offered admission, need to confirm their acceptance by completing all the required formalities usually by the beginning of May. Initially, some candidates may be placed on the waiting list. Offers to such candidates would depend upon the number of successful candidates accepting the offer made by an IIM.