IIM Shortlist 2026: Dates, Cut Offs, Shortlist and Final Admission Status of all IIMs

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.

The CAT cut offs for IIM Bangalore hovers between 97-100 percentile. The qualifying CAT cut off required for being eligible for IIM Bangalore's Written Ability test (What) and Personal Interview PI is 85 percentile for General category students, whereas for SC candidates, it is 70 percentile. For ST candidates, it is 65 percentile and for PwD candidates it is 60 percentile. Given below are the sectional and overall qualifying CAT cut offs for IIM Bangalore.

• General category: 80 VARC 75 DILR 75 Quantitative Aptitude 85 (Overall)
• NC-OBC category: 75 VARC 65 DILR 65 Quantitative Aptitude 75 (Overall)
• EWS category: 70 VARC 65 DILR 65 Quantitative Aptitude 75 (Overall)
• SC category: 65 VARC 60 DILR 60 Quantitative Aptitude 70 (Overall)
• ST category: 55 VARC 55 DILR 55 Quantitative Aptitude 65 (Overall)
• PwD category: 50 VARC 50 DILR 50 Quantitative Aptitude 60 (Overall)

No, IIM Calcutta admission to most of the courses is entrance-based. The application process of IIM Calcutta for PG courses takes place via CAT. Therefore, candidates need to visit the official website of CAT to get admission. The institute will further shortlist the candidates based on the CAT score. Moreover, for the Executive MBA course, GMAT score is accepted and for DPM, candidates without CAT score can apply with GMAT/GRE/GATE/UGC-JRF or another accepted exam score. Read more on IIM Kolkata admission.

Some of the top CAT 85 percentile colleges are mentioned below:

·       IIM Amritsar

·       IIM Bodh Gaya

·       IIM Nagpur

·       VGSoM IIT Kharagpur

·       Department of Management Studies – IIT Madras 

·       Department of Management Studies-IIT Roorkee,

·       Department of Management Studies-Delhi Technological University

·       TAPMI Manipal

·       IMT Nagpur

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.