NIFT MDes cutoffs are the highest for Delhi and Mumbai campus. Go through NIFT MDes cutoffs for the past five years (2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018) for all NIFT campuses.
Aspirants need to give a written entrance exam in order to be shortlisted for admission in Master of Design (MDes) course offered at the campuses of National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT). The NIFT Entrance Exam for MDes admissions comprises a Creative Ability Test (CAT) and General Ability Test (GAT). Candidates who clear these admission rounds for MDes course then need to appear for Group Discussion/ Personal Interview (GD/ PI) round.
NIFT CAT for MDes admissions consists of three questions that aspirants need to attempt in three hours duration whereas NIFT GAT consists of 120 questions that need to be attempted in two hours duration.
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Candidates who clear these admission rounds then need to meet NIFT cutoffs for MDes course admissions. After analysing past years’ NIFT cutoffs for MDes course, it is now known that the most popular campus to pursue this course is NIFT Delhi followed by NIFT Mumbai.
Commonly asked questions
Candidates can check NIFT cutoff 2026 online on the official website of the National Institute of Fashion Technology. NIFT cutoff is released as a PDF file containing the opening and closing ranks. The cut-off would be category-specific. So, the candidate needs to check the cut-off for the category they belong to. Also, note that candidates from reserved categories will be considered for admission under general category as well. However, candidates belonging to open category will not be considered for admission under reserved categories.
Yes, the NIFT 2025 exam will also include the expected cut-off for the exam. Note that the expected cut-off is shared by candidates who have appeared in the entrance exam. In addition, the leading NIFT 2025 coaching institutes will also release the expected cut-off, which would be updated here. The cut-off would depend on a host of factors like the number of applicants, difficulty level of the paper, etc. The candidate by consulting the cut-off would get a rough idea about ones admission process.
Note that as per the student feedback so far, the NIFT question papers for both CAT and GAT were easy to moderate. So, expect the cut-off to stay high.
NIFT 2026 cut off list will include opening and closing ranks of candidates for each participating institute and category. Among the various categories for which the cut-off would be released are General, SC, ST, OBC-NCl, Domicile, and PwD categories. The candidate needs to consult the cut-off for their respective categories for the programme they are seeking admission to.
Opening rank is the highest rank for which the seat has been allocated. Closing rank is the minimum rank for which admission is allocated. Only such candidates who secure a rank equal to or higher than the closing rank will get admission.
It may be noted that all NIFT campuses do not offer MDes course. Only four out of all the NIFT campuses offer MDes course.
Further, aspirants can go through the past years’ NIFT cut off analysis for MDes courses offered at all the NIFT campuses in India. The cutoffs mentioned in the table/ graph below include the last merit rank (General category) that was offered admission in an MDes course in a given year.
NIFT Cutoff for MDes Course (Closing CMR for Open category)
| Colleges |
NIFT Cutoff 2022 |
NIFT Cutoff 2021 |
NIFT Cutoff 2020 |
NIFT Cutoff 2019 |
NIFT Cutoff 2018 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 58 |
24 |
26 |
41 |
24 |
|
| 79 |
64 |
57 |
67 |
64 |
|
| 74 |
58 |
87 |
104 |
79 |
|
| 145 |
154 |
120 |
145 |
132 |
|
| NIFT Gandhinagar |
124 |
103 |
- |
- |
- |
Aspirants can go through the graph containing MDes cutoffs for NIFT admissions below:
NIFT MDes Course
Aspirants who want to pursue MDes course from any NIFT campus can select any Deepening Specialisation (DS) based on their prior academic, professional background, and skills. Deepening specialisation will be available to candidates subject to meeting the capping of minimum and maximum number of students. The four DS on offer to MDes aspirants is as mentioned below:
- Design for Society
- Experience Design
- Design Strategy
- Theoretical Studies in Design
Read More:
Commonly asked questions
NIFT master's programme is offered in Master of Design (M. Des. ), Master of Fashion Management (M. F. M) and Master of Fashion Technology (M. F. Tech. ).
The cut-off would be released separately for all these courses. This means, if the candidate meets the cut-off criteria for M. Des but fails to meet the cut-off for M. F. Tech, in that case the candidate will only be eligible for admission to the M. Des programme. So, the candidate needs to check out the cut-off or closing ranks for the programme they are seeking admission to. The cut-off would be determined by considering factors like total applicants, seat intake, merit ranks of the applicants, and also admission category.
The cut-off of NIFT for the various academic courses is not fixed. This is because the cut-off depends on variables like seat intake, the performance of applicants in the NIFT exam, total number of applications received for admission, etc. Now these variables may change from year to year. For instance, the number of candidates appearing in NIFT and qualifying the exam may be different across the years. And when that happens, the cut-off also changes. Typically, if the seat intake increases, the cut-off goes down and vice versa. Likewise, if the number of applicants increases, expect a higher cut-off.
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Student Forum
Answered a month ago
NIFT 2026 Final Result for UG and PG programmes was released on June 03, 2026.
S
Contributor-Level 10
Answered 2 months ago
There is no fixed number of mock tests one should take before the NIFT Entrance Exam. A candidate should take at least one mock test daily for the NIFT Entrance Preparation. 10-15 mock tests will really help in preparing for the exam.
S
Contributor-Level 10
Answered 2 months ago
There are 20 participating institutes of NIFT that offer the B. Des and B.F.Tech programmes. B. Des programme offers specializations in the following programs: Fashion Design (FD), Leather Design (LD), Accessory Design (AD), Textile Design (TD), Knitwear Design (KD), Fashion Communication (FC).
For B
S
Contributor-Level 10
Answered 2 months ago
NIFT cutoff for a participating NIFT is the last rank for which admission is offered in for a particular programme and category. This means, if a candidate fails to score a rank equal to or higher than the cutoff rank, they don't get admission. Typically, a higher ranked institute will invite: More
S
Contributor-Level 10
Answered 2 months ago
NIFT Delhi is frequently ranked among the top design colleges in the country. So, the admission cut-off for the institute is pretty high, especially when compared to the lower-ranked colleges. This is because being a higher-ranked college, NIFT Delhi receives a higher number of applicants. Another f
S
Contributor-Level 10
When is NIFT 2026 Final Result be released?