Will IIM Visakhapatnam and IIM Bangalore need same CAT 2015 percentile for shortlisting? Wait for surprise

Admission Policy announced by IIM Bangalore for the PGP batch 2016-18 prescribes the same minimum qualifying percentile as was prescribed for IIM Visakhapatnam for its maiden 2015-17 batch. Because of the required high minimum percentile in CAT, IIM Visakhapatnam could not get the desired intake of 60 students and had to be content with 54 students only.

Although the admission policy for the second batch of IIM Visakhapatnam mentored by IIM Bangalore has not yet been announced, the last years policy prescribed the same minimum percentile score in CAT for shortlisting the candidates. If IIM Visakhapatnam goes with the same admission policy in 2016 as adopted in 2015, there could be a further reduction in number of candidates expressing interest and seeking admission in this new IIM that started operation in 2015 only and is yet to record the relevance of its presence in the MBA education market.

Another big factor that requires IIM Visakhapatnam to rationalize and reduce the minimum required CAT 2015 percentile for admission 2016 is the proposed increase in its batch size. For the admission 2016 the prescribed intake by MHRD is 140 students and if the mentor IIM Bangalore sticks to the same minimum required percentile of 90 in CAT 2016 for admission to IIM Visakhapatnam, the newest IIM may again see a dip in number of students seeking admission in it.

IIM Bangalore at a glance
IIM Bangalore is headed by its learned Director Dr. Sushil Vachani. Few important details on IIMB are shared below

Intake in 2016-18 batch: 400
Flagship programmes: PGDM
Acceptable Exam scores: CAT 2015
Fee Structure: Rs 19 Lakhs
Average Placement 2014:Rs19.5 Lakhs
IIM Visakhapatnam: Key facts
IIM Visakhapatnam commenced operation in August 2015 from the temporary premises allotted to it at Andhra University campus and will continue at the temporary campus till the 300 acre campus of IIM Visakhapatnam gets ready.
IIM Bangalore will mentor all activities at IIM Visakhapatnam till it moves to its permanent campus or IIM Visakhapatnam is able to handle these activities entirely on its own. Faculty from IIM Bangalore would be delivering courses at IIM Visakhapatnam during the mentorship period and till IIM Visakhapatnams own faculty are recruited. This may include a few visiting faculty selected by IIM Bangalore to meet their exacting standards. The overall design, quality and delivery of PGP at IIM Visakhapatnam will be to the standards and with direct involvement of IIM Bangalore.

Intake in 2016-18 batch: Proposed to be increased to 140 from 60 (Cabinet GoImeeting June 24, 2015)
Flagship programmes: PGDM
Acceptable Exam scores: CAT 2015
Fee Structure: Rs 10.5 Lakhs
Average Placement: To begin in 2016 for the first batch
Minimum CAT 2015 percentile required
Following is the minimum required percentile in CAT to get shortlisted at IIM Bangalore and IIM Visakhapatnam as was used for PGP 2015-17. It appears that IIM Bangalore would have the same standard and may repeat the last years minimum prescribed score as was used for IIM Visakhapatnam in CAT 2015 for admission 2016-18.

The short list of candidates by IIMB is based on candidates securing minimum section wise and aggregates percentile scores in the CAT. The percentile cut-off scores for CAT 2015 are considered as follows apart from other key parameters. IIM Visakhapatnam is yet to announce its shortlisting criteria

Category

Verbal percentile
IIMB IIMV

DILR Percentile
IIMB IIMV

Quant Percentile
IIMB IIMV

Overall percentile
IIMB IIMV

General
85 85
80 80
80 80
90 90

NC-OBC
75 75
70 70
70 70
80 80

SC
60 60
60 60
60 60
75 75

ST
60 50
60 50
60 50
75 65

DA
60 50
60 50
60 50
65 65

Criteria rationalization needed
IIM Bangalore is the dream B-school for MBA aspirants and has a legacy of high learning and high placement. The B-school is not only top rated one, it is the IIM that may not even shortlist the 100 percentiler in CAT 2015 due to its requirement of high academic profile and work experience. Not only rated among top 3 B-schools in India, IIM Bangalore also figures in the Financial Times world MBA rankings.
On the other hand, IIM Visakhapatnam is a new born less than one year old baby who is yet to make its presence felt in MBA education. The future of IIM Visakhapatnam cannot be predicted at this point of time. It will take many years for IIM Visakhapatnam to come up even to the standard of a private PGDM B-school. IIM Visakhapatnam found it difficult to fill up the seats in its class room in its first batch.

It may not be a rational step to fix the same CAT 2015 percentile as the basis to shortlist the candidates for next phase of admission. IIM Visakhapatnam admission criteria need to be rationalized. Other new IIMs like IIM Sirmaur, IIM Gaya have realized this fact and have reduced their CAT 2015 percentile requirement from 96.3 to 80 and 90 respectively to shortlist the candidates.

In case IIM Visakhapatnam follows the steps taken by other new IIMs, it is possible that it may fulfil the intake requirement of the students in its class room. It is expected that IIM Visakhapatnam may open the gates for candidates scoring 75 to 80 percentile in CAT 2015 and complete the admission process with a full intake of 140 students.