40 Popular Tier 2 MBA Colleges in India You Can Apply To
Check the list of 40 popular tier 2 MBA institutes that provide value for money vis-a-vis education, exposure, placements and fees.
Top Tier 2 MBA Colleges in India: Every management aspirant wish for a top B-School to complete MBA/PGDM. Aspirants must not lose hopes if they do not get a call from their dream b-school. Many reputed MBA colleges in India offer world-class management education with good placements. Candidates must hunt for the next best option to get their MBA admissions. With more than 5,500 MBA colleges in India, selecting the right institute can be daunting. Besides the Tier-1 MBA colleges in India, candidates can also consider tier-2 MBA colleges.
Similar to the tier-1 MBA colleges, tier 2 MBA colleges have modern infrastructure, and some have an economical fee. Additionally, tier 2 MBA colleges also have good faculty and a dedicated placement cell. Some of the private tier 2 MBA institutes also offer exchange programmes with foreign universities. These institutes are also ranked in the top 50, in the MBA institute ranking order. Most of them select candidates based on the common entrance exams like CAT, XAT, CMAT, SNAP, MAT, MAH-CET and GMAT. Therefore, candidates might not have to appear for any additional exam. In other words, tier 2 MBA colleges in India must be among the second preference if you can’t make it to the top 25 institutes.
Candidates can also get tier-wise MBA colleges in India on shiksha.com college listing. Scroll down to know the 40 popular tier 2 MBA colleges and their courses.
Top 40 Tier 2 MBA Institutes
Here's the list of some of the popular MBA colleges to consider while planning a career in management.
| Institute Name |
MBA Course Offered |
Entrance Exam Expected Cut-offs |
|---|---|---|
| K. J. Somaiya Institute of Management Studies and Research, Mumbai |
PGDM |
CAT: 90 percentile, CMAT: 187 marks |
| PGP in Rural Management |
CAT: 80 percentile |
|
| MBA (International Business) |
SNAP: 98 percentile |
|
| PGDM |
CAT: 80 percentile GMAT: 650 marks XAT: 80 percentile |
|
| MBA |
SNAP: 95 percentile |
|
| PGDM |
CAT: 90 percentile |
|
| PGDM |
CAT: 90 percentile CMAT: 90 percentile GMAT: 600 marks XAT: 90 percentile |
|
| PGDM |
CAT: 90 percentile |
|
| MBA |
CAT: 80 percentile |
|
| PGP |
CAT: 90 percentile |
|
| PGP |
CAT: 97.16 percentile |
|
| PGP |
CAT: 85 percentile |
|
| PGP |
CAT: 90 percentile |
|
| PGDM |
CAT: 90 percentile CMAT: 198 percentile XAT: 76.48 percentile |
|
| MBA |
CAT: 96 percentile |
|
| Xavier Institute Of Management & Entrepreneurship, Bangalore |
PGDM |
CAT: 60 percentile CMAT: 85 percentile MAT: 60 percentile XAT: 60 percentile |
| MBA |
SNAP: 97 percentile |
|
| PGDM |
CAT: 87.25 percentile |
|
| PGDM |
CAT: 86 percentile XAT: 80 percentile |
|
| MBA |
CAT: 65 percentile |
|
| PGDM |
CAT: 85 percentile CMAT: 244 marks XAT: 80 percentile |
|
| MBA |
CAT: 95.75 percentile |
|
| Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management (LBSIM), Delhi/NCR |
PGDM |
CAT: 83.21 percentile |
| MBA |
IBSAT: 65 percentile |
|
| PGDM (Rural Management) |
CAT: 80 percentile CMAT: 100 percentile XAT: 60 percentile |
|
| MBA |
SNAP: 60 percentile |
|
| MBA |
CAT: 84 percentile |
|
| Institute for Financial Management and Research (IFMR), Chennai |
PGDM |
CAT: 80 percentile CMAT: 70 percentile XAT: 85 percentile |
| PGDM |
CAT: 90 percentile |
|
| University Business School (UBS), Panjab University, Chandigarh |
MBA |
CAT: 88 percentile |
| PG Diploma (Forest Management) |
CAT: 75.7 percentile |
|
| MBA |
CAT: 83 percentile |
|
| MBA |
SNAP: 95 percentile |
|
| Institute for Future Education, Entrepreneurship and Leadership, Lonavala | PGDM | MAH CET: 85 percentile CAT: 65 percentile |
| MBA (ITBM) |
SNAP: 88 percentile |
|
| MBA (Operations) |
SNAP: 94 percentile |
|
| PGDM |
CAT: 75 percentile |
|
| MBA |
CAT: 94 percentile GMAT: 600 marks |
|
| PGP |
CAT: 80 percentile |
|
| MBA |
CAT: 85 percentile CMAT: 75 percentile XAT: 60 percentile |
*Cutoff percentiles mentioned here are indicative. For the actual cutoff refer to the institute website.
The requirement of entrance exam varies course-wise. Aspirants seeking admission in Executive PGDM do not require passing an entrance test. The selection is based on performance of the candidates in the personal interview round. For MBA courses, candidates do need to pass SNAP. Selected candidates have to futher pass GEPI round for final admission.
No, IIMs do not accept MAT score for MBA Admission. They only accept CAT score for admission to their MBA/PGP programmes. However, MAT score is accepted by over 700 MBA colleges in India including: Amity University GL Bajaj Institute of Management & Research Christ University GITAM Institute of Management JIMS Rohini Jain University Taxila Business School, Jaipur SRM University Birla Institute of Management Technology Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University Tezpur University Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India IIFM Bhopal YMCA.
MBA Entrance Exams Accepted by Tier-2 Colleges
Typically MBA colleges accept more than one entrance exam for admissions. Tier-2 colleges listed above have been accepting the following entrance exams for MBA admissions:
- CAT
- XAT
- CMAT
- NMAT
- GMAT
- SNAP
- MAH MBA CET
Besides the above mentioned entrance exams, tier-2 MBA colleges may add any additional entrance exam for admissions.
Also Check: Top MBA Entrance Exams 2025
For MAT CBT, candidates will be allotted a test centre in the city they shall have selected as preference in the, MAT application form. Candidates can appear for MAT from home in only IBT mode. MAT CBT is held in the followimg cities: Agra, Ahmedabad, Asansol, Bareilly, Bengaluru, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Coimbatore, Dehradun, Delhi, Ernakulam - Kochi, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon, Guwahati, Hubballi (Hubli), Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Jammu, Kolkata, Kozhikode, Lucknow, Madurai, Meerut, Mumbai, Mysuru (Mysore), Nashik, Noida, Patna, Pune, Raipur, Ranchi, Rourkela, Shillong, Shimla, Silchar, Thiruvananthapuram, Thrissur, Vellore and Vijayawada
Since MAT is an entrance exam for post graduate level management courses, the minimum eligibility criteria for MAT exam is graduation. Candidate should have completed graduation in full-time or part-time mode in Arts, Commerce or Science from a recognised university. The eligibility criteria for MAT PBT, CBT and IBT are the same. Final year graduation students who will be giving their final exam or awaiting results are also eligible to appear in MAT. There is no minimum score requirement in MAT. Candidates need to have passing marks in graduation.
The answer to this question of whether an average student can get into IIM can be both yes and no depending on the definition of an average student.
- Based on Academics (Class 10/ Class 12/ Graduation): While a student with average scores in Class 10, Class 12 and graduation with a good CAT score certainly has good chances of getting a call from IIM-A, chances are less for someone with an average CAT score.
- Based on student category (General or Reserved): While it is tough for a General category average student to grab a seat at IIM due to high score requirements, a reserved category student can get admission being at average scores as well.
- Based on past work experience, diversity and other factors: Gender and academic diversity is also a factor on which students are shortlisted at IIM. IIMs judge the past academic category based on the degree obtained by the students before MBA and then a weightage is allotted based on that. For Engineers, the percentage for scoring the highest marks is higher as compared with other streams
- Performance in selection rounds: Once you make it to the final selection rounds, i.e., AWT/PI process, it can be considered a fresh start. At this stage, students can forget their past average-ness but definitely require good grasp over the past subjects as academics-related questions are asked in the interview.
Based on the above factors, it can be considered that while getting into top Management institutes, such as IIM is extremely tough, the past performance, CAT performance, student category and a lot of factors can be the reasons for a student to receive that final call.
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IISc Bangalore admission is competitive due to high cutoff and limited seats. The entrance tests required for getting admission in the institute are taken by many. Hence, the chances of securing seat becomes less. Students are required to perform well in the entrance exam required for their course to get admission in the institute. In 2024, the JEE Main closing R1 cutoff for General category candidates was 903 for BSc (Research) in Physics.