IIM Lucknow MBA Admission Criteria 2026-2028: Check CAT Cut Off 2025 and PI Weightage
CAT 2025 cut off fixed for IIM Lucknow admission 2026 was 90 percentile for MBA and 85 percentile for MBA-ABM and MBA-SM. Check the IIM Lucknow admission criteria 2026-28 below.
IIM Lucknow admission criteria for 2026-2028 was not much different from previous batch. The only change was introduction of 24 month work experience criteria for MBA-SM programme. The qualifying score required in CAT 2025 to make it to IIM Lucknow’s Written Ability Test (WAT) and Personal Interview (PI) round of MBA course was 90 percentile for General category students. For NC-OBC candidates, it was 82 percentile whereas for SC candidates it was 65 percentile and for ST candidates, it was 60 percentile.
Candidates who selected IIM Lucknow in the CAT 2025 application form, and meet the qualifying cut off were selected for the PI round, which was held in February 2026. The final merit list for MBA 2026 batch was released in May 2026.
- IIM Lucknow Selection and Admission Criteria 2026-2028
- IIM Lucknow Eligibility Criteria for MBA
- IIM Lucknow Admission Criteria 2026: CAT Cut Offs
- IIM Lucknow Admission Criteria 2026-28: WAT-PI Shortlisting
- IIM Lucknow Admission Criteria: Weights for Composite Score Calculation
- IIM Admission Criteria of Other Campuses
IIM Lucknow Selection and Admission Criteria 2026-2028
IIM Lucknow offers three MBA programmes, Master of Business Administration (MBA), MBA Agribusiness Management (ABM) and MBA in Sustainable Management (SM). Read below to understand IIM Lucknow selection and admission criteria for 2026-28 batch.
The IIM Lucknow admission process 2026-28, includes three stages:
- Shortlisting of candidates on the basis of CAT 2025 score
- WAT-PI round
- Final Selection
IIM Lucknow Eligibility Criteria for MBA
- For MBA, the candidate must be a Graduate in any stream with 50 per cent marks in aggregate or equivalent from a recognized university.
- For MBA-ABM the candidate must possess Bachelor’s degree in Agriculture Science/ Agricultural Engineering/Engineering/Technology or allied subjects and MBAP-SM.
- Candidates not having these degrees will have to fill a special form at the time of personal interview, if selected. For MBA-SM, along with Graduation degree, minimum two years of work experience is mandatory.
IIM Lucknow Admission Criteria 2026: CAT Cut Offs
The CAT cut off percentiles mentioned below as per the IIM Lucknow selection and admission criteria 2026-2028 are qualifying cut offs. The final CAT 2025 cut offs were higher.
| Cut-off percentile for shortlisting candidates for WAT- PI stage for MBA |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Category |
VARC |
DILR |
QA |
Overall |
| General |
85 |
85 |
85 |
90 |
| EWS |
77 |
77 |
77 |
82 |
| NC-OBC |
77 |
77 |
77 |
82 |
| SC |
55 |
55 |
55 |
65 |
| ST |
50 |
50 |
50 |
60 |
| PWD |
50 |
50 |
50 |
60 |
| Cut-off percentile for shortlisting candidates for WAT- PI stage for MBA-ABM |
||||
| Category |
VARC |
DILR |
QA |
Overall |
| General |
80 |
80 |
80 |
85 |
| EWS |
72 |
72 |
72 |
77 |
| NC-OBC |
72 |
72 |
72 |
77 |
| SC |
55 |
55 |
55 |
65 |
| ST |
50 |
50 |
50 |
55 |
| PWD |
50 |
50 |
50 |
55 |
| Cut-off percentile for shortlisting candidates for WAT- PI stage for MBA-SM |
||||
| Category |
VARC |
DILR |
QA |
Overall |
| General |
80 |
80 |
80 |
85 |
| EWS |
72 |
72 |
72 |
77 |
| NC-OBC |
72 |
72 |
72 |
77 |
| SC |
55 |
55 |
55 |
60 |
| ST |
50 |
50 |
50 |
55 |
| PWD |
50 |
50 |
50 |
55 |
IIM Lucknow Admission Criteria 2026-28: WAT-PI Shortlisting
In the second stage of IIM Lucknow admissions, candidates were evaluated on parameters listed in the below table and consequently shortlisted for WAT-PI round. WAT or the Written Ability Test was a 30-minute essay writing test on current affairs topics. Maximum weightage was given to scaled CAT score for WAT-PI shortlisting (60 points). Check the table below for other parameters:
| Component |
MBA Weight |
MBA-ABM Weight |
MBA-SM Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scaled CAT 2025 score |
60 |
60 |
60 |
| Class 12 marks |
10 |
10 |
10 |
| Graduation marks |
10 |
10 |
10 |
| Work Experience |
10 |
0 |
10 |
| Diversity Factor |
5 |
20* |
5 |
| Gender Diversity |
5 |
5* |
5 |
* The maximum marks for the diversity factors (including Gender) cannot exceed 20 for MBA-ABM program.
IIM Lucknow Admission Criteria: Weights for Composite Score Calculation
For the final score calculation more weightage was allotted to WAT and PI than CAT score. While CAT score had weightage of 30-35; the WAT and PI together had weightage of 50. Candidates must score a minimum of 12 out of 40 in the PI round to be considered for final selection.
| Component |
Weight |
|
|---|---|---|
| MBA & MBA-SM |
MBA-ABM |
|
| CAT 2025 |
30 |
35 |
| Academic Performance |
5+5 |
5+5 |
| Diversity Factor |
5 |
5 |
| Work Experience |
5 |
NA |
| Writing Ability Test (WAT) |
10 |
10 |
| Personal Interview (PI) |
40 |
40 |
| Final Score |
100 |
100 |
Commonly asked questions
In CAT 2025, the number of 100 percentilers was 12. Check state wise data:
Overall Percentile | Total | Gender and Discipline | State wise distribution |
|---|---|---|---|
100 | 12 | Female - 2 Male - 10 Engineering - 3 Non-Engineering - 9 | Uttar Pradesh 1 Karnataka 1 Maharashtra 1 Delhi 3 Haryana 2 Gujarat 2 Jharkhand 1 Odisha 1 |
CAT cut off is prepared by all accepting colleges individually. There is no one authorized body to do so. Even the IIMs determine their admission cut offs separately.
PGP-ABM: Academic Disciplines
Listed below are the subjects and disciplines considered for MBA-ABM programme:
| Academic Disciplines (AD) for MBA-ABM Program |
|
|---|---|
| Agriculture |
Science |
| Agriculture, Agronomy, Soil Science, Agricultural Biochemistry, Agricultural Economics, Agricultural Extension, Plant Breeding and Genetics, Entomology, Plant Pathology |
Biology, Biochemistry, Biotechnology, Biotechnology Engineering, Botany, Home Science, Life Science, Zoology, Veterinary Science, Animal Husbandry, Fisheries, Dairy Science, Agricultural Engineering, Dairy Technology, Food Technology, Food Technology & Management, Forestry, Horticulture, Rural Studies, Rural Sociology, Rural Cooperatives, Rural Banking |
IIM Admission Criteria of Other Campuses
To read IIM admission and selection criteria for each institute, refer to the table below:
| IIM Admission Criteria and Selection Process |
|
|---|---|
Commonly asked questions
Qualifying CAT cut off percentiles of Iims for Written Ability Test (What) and Personal Interview PI are listed below. Candidates who MET the qualifying CAT cut off, were eligible for What-PI round. These qualifying CAT cut offs are for General Category. The cut offs for Reserved category students are lower:
- IIM Ahmedabad: 95 percentile
- IIM Bangalore: 85 percentile
- IIM Calcutta: 85 percentile
- IIM Lucknow: 90 percentile
- IIM Kozhikode: 85 percentile
- IIM Indore: 90 percentile
- IIM Udaipur: 93 percentile
- IIM Shillong: 75 percentile
- IIM Trichy: 93 percentile
- IIM Visakhapatnam: 80 percentile
- IIM Rohtak: 95 percentile
- 1IIM Nagpur: 85 percentile
- IIM Jammu: 93 percentile
- IIM Ranchi: 90 percentile
- IIM Sirmaur: 92 percentile
- IIM Bodhgaya: 93 percentile
- IIM Sambalpur: 93 percentile
- IIM Kashipur: 94 percentile
- IIM Raipur: 93 percentile
- IIM Amritsar: 90 percentile
For complete details of IIM selection and admission process read this article: https://www.shiksha.com/mba/articles/iim-shortlist-selection-admission-criteria-blogId-18787.
Also Read:
Commonly asked questions
CAT cutoffs are usually not announced with the CAT result. The CAT cutoffs are also not released to the public.
They are published after a few days of the result announcement when the IIMs and other colleges start their shortlisting process. The IIMs opens their shortlisting window based on the CAT cut-offs two to three days after the result announcement. The CAT percentile of candidates shortlisted for the Written Ability Test (WAT), Group Discussion (GD), and Personal Interview (PI) can be considered the cut-off for that IIM. For example, if a candidate with a CAT percentile of 99 belonging to the General category is selected for the WAT/GD-PI of IIM Calcutta, then the CAT cut-off for IIM Calcutta is 99 percentile. Only those candidates who make it to the WAT/GD-PI round of IIMs will get to know the cut-offs.
Yes, the CAT accepting MBA colleges conduct either GD/PI or WAT/PI. Since MBA is a professional course about business and team management, personality assessment round is essential to ensure that the aspirant has the flair for management which can be polished during the programme. Communication skills, problem solving ability, management and leadership are essential qualities for MBA thus, every B-School conducts GD/PI or WAT/PI.
No, securing a high CAT percentile is not enough for admission. One has to clear the selection process round too, like WAT and PI.
To get 99 percentile and above, candidates must attempt 40-45 out of 68 questions in CAT, with maximum accuracy.
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Contact Details
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Indian Institute of Management, Prabandh Nagar, IIM Road.
Lucknow ( Uttar Pradesh)
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Student Forum
Anything you would want to ask experts?Answered 3 weeks ago
IIM Lucknow - Indian Institute of Management is ranked 30 in the Full-time MBA Rankings - Asia category by QS 2026. Below given are other QS rankings of the IIM Lucknow:
Ranking Body | Category | Rank |
| QS Global MBA Rankings 2026 | Global MBA | 201-250 |
QS Global MBA Rankings 2026 | Asia | 30 |
QS WUR Ranking By Subject 2025 | WUR Ranking By Subject | 131 |
QS Ranking 2025 | World University Rankings - Masters In Management | 111-120 |
S
Contributor-Level 10
Answered 3 weeks ago
Accenture, Deloitte, EY, McKinsey & Company, Microsoft, P&G, BCG, PwC, etc.. are some of the top recruiters during IIM Lucknow the latest 2026 placements for PGP. The average package for PGP and PGP-ABM in 2026 was INR 33.2 LPA.
S
Contributor-Level 10
Answered 3 weeks ago
Yes, IIM Lucknow - Indian Institute of Management has been ranked by various organizations. The institute was ranked 5 in NIRF 2025 under the Management category. It was also ranked 58 in the FT Global MBA Ranking 2026 for its International Programme in Management for Executives (IPMX).
S
Contributor-Level 10
Answered 3 weeks ago
Indian Institute of Management Lucknow's PGP placements are decent. IIM Lucknow average package for PGP and PGP-ABM in 2026 was INR 33.2 LPA. The highest Domestic Salary for PGP and PGP-ABM in 2026 was INR 100 LPA.
S
Contributor-Level 10
Answered 5 months ago
Candidates must keep the below enlisted documents ready at the time of IIM Lucknow application process:
- Class 12 marksheets & Certificate
- UG/PG degree marksheets and Certificate
- Entrance exam scorecard & admit cards
- SOP - if applicable
- Aadhaar card or other identity proof
- Caste certificate - if applicable
Contributor-Level 10
Answered 5 months ago
IIM Lucknow conducts the application process online. The step-wise application process is given below:
- Go to the official IIM Lucknow website at iiml.ac.in.
- Go to "Apply".
- Fill the required info, like name, email ID, etc.
- Payment of the application fee.
Contributor-Level 10
Answered 5 months ago
IIM Lucknow tuition fee costs around INR 1.7 L – INR 26 L. This fee is exclusive of other components such as examination fee, application fee, hostel fee, security deposit, etc. This fee is taken from the official website. It is subject to change. Hence, it is moderately costly.
Contributor-Level 10
Answered 5 months ago
IIM Lucknow offers admission primarily on the basis of the scores obtained in the national level entrance exams including CAT, XAT, GMAT, GATE, etc. To get admission to IIM Lucknow, candidates must fulfil the course-specific eligibility. Candidates can apply to the desired course online on the insti
Contributor-Level 10
Vipra Shrivastava is MA in English Literature from Delhi University with extensive experience in content writing of over 14 years. She has been handling content for Management, Accounting and Commerce streams for 8
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