CAT 2011: 50 institutes not accepting scores of CAT 2011!

The Indian Institutes of Management have already declared the list of B-schools to accept the CAT 2011 scores in the official CAT 2011 website. Although the total number of B-schools that will consider CAT 2011 scores is 145 excluding IIMs, which is less than the number of B-schools which accepted CAT 2010 scores, which was 147, the encouraging sign this year has been the entry of new institutions who have enlisted themselves for considering CAT 2011 scores.

MBAUniverse.com has conducted an analysis regarding the institutes which are accepting CAT 2010 and 2011 scores. It has been analyzed from the data compiled by MBAUniverse.com that there are 91 institutes apart from IIMs which will accept 2011 scores and they had accepted CAT 2010 scores as well. But the surprise came to the picture when it has been found that 58 institutes have opted out and they will not participate in CAT 2011, 49 institutes have registered for using CAT 2011 scores.

MICA did not use CAT scores for the first level screening of students in 2009 and 2010, but it will accept CAT 2011 scores for the admission of the 2012-14 batch. The management faculty of the IITs used to conduct their MBA entrance exam JMET for the selection of students which has been scraped from this year. Now IITs and IISc Bangalore will accept CAT 2011 scores. Professor L S Ganesh, former HOD of Management Department, IIT Madras said, The intersection of candidates who take both CAT and JMET in a single year is quite large. The decision to use CAT for admission into the IITs and IISc will minimize the test preparation and financial burden on candidates. He also added, CAT is an ideal fit for IITs as it is a well evolved, established, standardized and widely accepted entrance exam for admission into PG programs in Management in India. It is also conceived and developed by the IIMs, which serve as the benchmark for Management education in our country and are highly regarded national institutions like the IITs. Institutes which have opted out

Some of the prominent B-schools which are not listed in CAT 2011 are Fostima Business School, New Delhi; Institute of Management and Development, New Delhi; JK Padampat Singhania Institute of Management & Technology, Gurgaon, Haryana; Skyline Business School, New Delhi; Vignana Jyothi Instititute of Management, Andhra Pradesh; Osmania University Campus, Hyderabad; Suryadatta Group of Institutes, Maharashtra, etc. But these B-schools were in the list of CAT 2010.

Citing the reason for opting out from accepting CAT 2011 scores, Sheelu Puri, Director, Skyline Business School, New Delhi, said, This year, Skyline Business school is accepting XAT scores also apart from MAT score, there are so many other B-schools also which are relying on CAT 2011 scores this year, but we have opted out CAT scores as we will get enough applications through MAT and XAT. Pankaj Gupta, Executive Director, Integrated Academy of Management and Technology, Ghaziabad, told MBAUniverse.com, We dont feel that CAT will provide us any differential advantage in terms of is not going to provide a different advantage; students have other options also with them. Institutes that have joined the league

Xavier Institute of Management Bhubaneswar (XIMB), which used to accept only XAT scores till this year, will accept CAT 2011 scores as well for the academic year 2012-14. To find out the reason for this, MBAUniverse.com talked to Fr. P T Joseph, Director, XIMB. He said, XIMB will be accepting CAT 2011 scores along with XAT 2012 scores. CAT is undoubtedly a common platform wherein more and more applicants are always expected. When we asked Dr. B.A. Metri, Dean, Strathclyde SKIL Business School, why they will accept CAT score in 2011 in its first year, he said, Since CAT is a common platform for most of the students, so what else can come to the picture?

JRE Group of Institutes, Greater Noida, which is inaugurated this year will accept CAT 2011 scores for the academic year 2012-14. Harpreet Singh, President, JRE Group of Institutions said, CAT is undoubtedly an entrance exam where we can expect the creamiest students. The intellectual capability which exists in students writing CAT is somehow more than the students who write only MAT or other management entrance exams. Apart from that, we were late in getting AICTE approval we have started late. We want to get the finest of the students in our very first batch. Talking to Sanjeev Marwah of ERA Business School, regarding why they have chosen CAT as their medium of short listing the students over other management entrance examination, he said to MBAUniverse.com, We are the corporate anchor by ERA Group. Believing in quality over quantity is always our motto. CAT is undoubtedly one of the finest entrance exams we have in our country, and its evaluation process will help us to get the cream of the students. Being one of the very recent B-schools in our country and will be starting the very first batch, we are of course looking for a good batch of management students.

Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more on CAT 2011