Admission Procedure to the IIMs & Top B Schools in India
1. CAT - The Written Test / Entrance Exam
All B-Schools in India have a written aptitude test as the first stage of screening applicants. The 13 IIMs conduct a Common Admission Test (CAT) which is followed by many institutes like. S.P. Jain Mumbai, Management Development Institute (MDI) Gurgaon, NITIE Bombay and many other business schools and MBA colleges base their selection on CAT scores. Other popular written tests in India include the XAT (Xavier Admission Test) conducted by XLRI Jamshedpur and this score is a criterion for admission to XIM Bhubaneswar, BIM Trichy, LIBA Chennai, XIME Bangalore, Goa Institute of Management, Goa and score of other business schools. NMAT, IIFT Delhi ,IRMA SNAP have their own respective tests.
The written test, the first stage of elimination, tests a student's ability to perform under pressure. The areas of testing include quantitative techniques,, English verbal ability and analytical & logical reasoning. The written test is the most difficult step in getting into a top B-School in India. Most of the elimination takes place at this stage.
About 300000 students took CAT in 209. Around 2050 students get admission into the IIMs.
2. B School Application Essays and Reference Letters
Application Essays are an integral part of most top B Schools selection process. While only those shortlisted based on their written scores in CAT are expected to write these essays in the case of the IIMs, some other top management institutes in India such as the SP Jain ask you to write many essays at the first stage itself. In the case of SP Jain, your application essays play a crucial role in getting shortlisted for the next round - viz., group interviews. However, in the case of the IIMs, they could form the basis for the interview process. IIM Bangalore, in the recent past, requires those aspirants who have cleared CAT and been shortlisted for the GD-PI to produce three letters of reference.
3. Group Discussions / Personal Interviews - GD / PI
Based on the performance in the written test, students are short listed for a Group Discussion and Personal Interview. At the IIMs, anyone who is shortlisted for the GD PI process attends both the group discussion and the personal interview. GD is not an elimination stage at the IIMs. However, other b schools could have the GD as an elimination process.
4. Admission
Admission is usually offered based on the cumulative scores of written test, GD / PIs, and work experience (in some cases). Admission notification from top B Schools start from the second week of March and continue till the end of April. Many of the management institutes also have a waitlist of candidates which gets updated based on the number of students in the first list who accept offers made to them.