MICA Admission 2025: Check Admission Process through MICAT 1 and MICAT 2, Weightage, Cut Offs

Renowned for Creating Leadership in Strategic Marketing and Communication, MICA also offers 1-year Post Graduate Certificate Program, Crafting Creative Communications (CCC), and the 4-year Fellow Programme in Management (FPM). Read this exclusive MBAUniverse.com article to know complete details on MICA Ahmedabad Admission 2024, key USPs, curriculum and pedagogical initiatives, Fee, Placement, selection process and a lot more.

Table of Contents

1. MICA: Key Highlights & USPs
2. MICA Courses & Specializations
3. MICA Fees
4. MICA Seats
5. MICA Placements 
6. MICA Admission 2025: Salient Points 
7. MICAT – MICA Admission Test: Key Highlights  
8. MICA Cut Offs  
9. MICA and MICAT Question and Answer

1. MICA: Key Highlights & USPs

• MICA Ranking: MICA is ranked #32 in the GoI MHRD NIRF Ranking 2024. MICA is known for Strategic Marketing, brand management, research & analytics, advertising, media, digital, and other related domains.
• MICA Placements: Over 100 companies participated in MICA placement. Highest salary was Rs.36 LPA and Average salary increased to Rs.20.09 LPA in MICA Placement 2023.
• MICA Famous Alumni: MICA alumni hold key positions in top organizations across the globe in Brand Management, Media & Entertainment, Digital Communication, Market Research, Advertising, Development Management and Social Enterprise. Some of the notable alumni include – Aditya R Kanthy, CEO and MD, DDB Mudra Group; Amit Sharma, Senior Vice President & Head - Digital Platforms, Prudential Assurance Company, Singapore; Amogh Dusad, Head-Content, Mini TV, Amazon; Amol Gurwara, Country Manager, Kindle, Amazon; Arjoon Bose, International Head of Creative & Growth Ideas (Europe, Australia, Asia & Latin America), General Mills; Arvind Krishnamoorthy, Apple Content & Services - International Business Leadership, Apple; Avinava Banerjee, Global CD Director – Digital Commerce Smart Data & Analytics, Unilever; Dheeraj Sinha, CEO - Leo Burnett, South Asia, Chairman - BBH, India, Publicis Groupe; Kanika Mittal, Business Head, Twitter; Kavita Chaturvedi, Chief Operating Officer, Snacks Business, ITC Limited; Kedar Lele, Executive Director - Customer Development, Unilever; Pankaj Bhalla, Senior Vice President & General Manager, Grooming, Procter & Gamble; Praveen Sharma, COO - Commerce Services, Paytm; Saket Jha Saurabh, Director & Head Entertainment & Music Partnerships, Meta; Shradha Sharma, Founder & CEO, YourStory Media; Sushant Dash, CEO, Tata Starbucks; Vikramaditya Sharma, SVP Analytics, Essence; Vinay Subramanyam, Chief Marketing Officer, Pidilite Industries Limited
• MICA Curriculum: Every year, MICA strives to design and develop cutting edge, innovative and creative programs and courses in collaboration with global advisory groups, industry professionals, MICA Faculty, Staff, Alumni and other institutional partners. MICA’s advanced and innovative curriculum, online learning tools and real-life work projects prepare and groom the students for global career path and industry work. Unique MICA offerings in Culture, Creativity and Entrepreneurship include courses such as Imagining India, Story Telling, Semiotics, Visual Cultures Learning and Industry Insights, Semiotics and Behavioral Architecture. Pedagogy at MICA ensures group interactions, faculty mentoring and a combination of recorded and live sessions. The innovative pedagogy at MICA rests on peer-learning and developing the intuitive traits and emotional intelligence of the participants.
• MICA Batch Diversity (1:1 Ratio): MICA has high batch diversity and men and women account for almost 1:1 ratio in the student body. This diversity is by default and not by design. Nearly half of the students at MICA come from non-engineering backgrounds. This is a unique distinction from other B-Schools.

2. MICA Courses & Specializations
MICA Ahmedabad offers following 2 years full time management programs which are unique in nature and are in high demand from the industry

• 2 Years Full Time Post Graduate Diploma in Management – Communication (PGDM-C)
• 2 Years Full Time Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM)

MICA offers unique specializations. PGDM and PGDM-C programs cater to the industry need for qualified professionals and have MICA’s traditional emphasis on Strategic Marketing and Communication. Both the programs offer same specialization courses. The institute has pioneered program innovations in the areas of Digital Platforms & Strategies, Media & Entertainment, Marketing Analytics, Strategic Communication and Strategic Marketing area.

The specializations offered by MICA include Advertising and Brand Management, Marketing Analytics, Digital Communication Management, Media and Entertainment Management.

The concentration courses are based on a career-building approach, keeping in mind the industry's need for professionals with clear career interests. The courses intend to enable the students to develop specific skills and perspectives in their chosen career paths, within the field of Strategic Marketing and Communication i.e. Brand Management (BM), Marketing Research and Analytics (MRA), Digital Communication Management (DCM), Advertising Management (AM) and Media Management (MM).

3. MICA Fees
MICA Fees for PGDM-Communication and PGDM programmes is same. Program wise MICA Fees is as below:

Programme Offered	MICA Ahmedabad Fees
Post Graduate Diploma in Management – Communication (PGDM-C)	Rs.23,00,000
Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM)	Rs.23,00,000

*MICA Fees for 2025-27 batch may be revised

4. MICA Seats
Below is shared the MICA Seats for PGDM and PGDM-C programs

Programme Offered	MICA PGDM Seats
Post Graduate Diploma in Management – Communication (PGDM-C)	180
Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM)	36

5. MICA Placements 
MICA Ahmedabad has a consistently high placement record. MICA Placement Report 2024 has not been released. MICA final placement 2023 details are as follows. More than 70 companies participated in Placements 2023 at MICA and set new milestones with a 6% increase in the average salary and 11% increase in the median salary. Key Placement highlights are as below:

5.1 MICA Placements 2023: Key Highlights

• 100% Placements for the PGDM-C and PGDM 2021-23 Batch
• Average salary goes up by 6% at Rs.20.09 LPA in Placement 2023 from Rs.19.01 LPA last year
• Median Salary goes up by 11% at Rs.19 LPA in Placement 2023 from Rs.17.10 LPA last year
• Highest Salary goes down at Rs.36 LPA in Placement 2023 from Rs.57.52 LPA last year
• Gap between MICA Average Salary and Highest Salary narrows down which implies that all the students have been placed at good salary packages
• Average Salary for top 25% goes up at Rs.31.43 LPA
• Total Number of Recruiters were 70+
• Top Recruiters Include Accenture, L'Oreal, Cognizant, Amul, Samsung, Tata
• Companies Participated in Placement 2023 from across the sectors like IT/ITES, FMCG, FMCD, Analytics, Consulting, Retail and others Read More

6. MICA Admission 2025: Salient Points 

1. MICA offers two MBA equivalent programs: PGDM-C and PGDM. Candidates have the choice to opt for the PGDM-C and /or PGDM programme.
2. Candidates who are good at expressing, assessing, and /or conceiving ideas have a better chance of being shortlisted for MICA Admissions.
3. There are 2 phases of MICA admission. MICA admission requires you to appear in CAT/XAT as well its own MICAT exam.

7. MICAT – MICA Admission Test: Key Highlights  

1. MICAT is a Computer Based Test (CBT) used for selection of PGDM/PGDM-C 2025- 2027 batch. 
2. MICAT will be conducted twice a year: MICAT 1 on December 7, 2024 and MICAT 2 on January 25, 2025 
3. Candidates can register and take both MICAT I & II. Better of the two MICAT Scores is considered. 
4. MICAT Exam is held in over 48 test centres across the country.

7.1 MICAT Exam Pattern
MICAT exam consists of 3 sections:

• Section A: Psychometric Test
• Section B: Descriptive Test
• Section C: This section has 4 sub-sections: Divergent and Convergent Thinking; Verbal Ability, Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation and General awareness

7.2 MICAT I and II Registration and Exam Dates

• MICAT 1 Registrations Start Date: September 2024. 
• MICAT 1 Registrations Last Date: November 22,2024 
• MICAT I Exam Date: December 7, 2024 (Saturday)
• MICAT 2 Registrations Start Date: November 25, 2024 
• MICAT 2 Registrations Last Date: January 11, 2025
• MICAT II : January 25, 2025 (Saturday)

7.3 MICA Admission 2025: Merit List and Final Merit List Preparation Process 
Admission to MICA is conducted through a 3-stage filtering process comprising of CAT/XAT/GMAT performance, Performance in MICAT written exam and performance in Group Exercise (GE) and Personal Interview (PI). Detailed below are the steps for preparation of the MICA Final Merit List.

Step 1: Section A (Psychometric test) is first checked. This section is a qualifier.

Step2: Those who qualify in Section A, their relative performance on CAT/XAT/GMAT is considered. A minimum cut-off in CAT /XAT total percentile/GMAT score is considered. Best of the three scores is considered.

Step 3: Those who qualify based from step 2 (CAT/XAT/GMAT performance), their Section C (all sub-sections) of MICAT will be assessed. For this process, Section C scores of all candidates are normalized. The evaluation uses percentile and raw scores for each sub-section and requires a minimum cut-off. Those who qualify through section C, their performance in Section B is the evaluated. Both Sections C & B have a sectional cut-off (percentile and raw scores).

Step 4: Candidates who qualify through Steps 1, 2 and 3 will be considered for GE & PI round which are conducted in Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Delhi, Kolkata or Mumbai. Candidates who appear in GE & PI must be recommended by “majority number of the interview panellists” for getting into the final merit list.

Step 5: All those who meet the criteria described above, their final composite score shall be created based on the following weightage:

Criteria	Wtg
CAT/XAT/GMAT	35%
MICAT	25%
Group Exercise (GE)	10%
Personal Interview (PI)	20%
10th,12th, Graduation	5% (10th-1.75%; 12th-1.75%; Graduation-1.5%)
Extra-Curricular, sports, academic diversity, gender diversity etc	5%

8. MICA Cut Offs  
MICA Cut off is based on overall percentile score of CAT 2023, XAT 2024 or GMAT exam score. Only the candidates above the minimum cut-offs in the overall percentile ranks, and obtaining a positive (greater than zero) raw score in all sections of entrance exam will be considered for all the subsequent stages.

MBA Entrance Exam	Expected Overall Cut off percentile	Remark
CAT 2024	80	Actual cut off are close to 90%
XAT 2025	80	Actual cut off are close to 90%

9. MICA and MICAT Question and Answer 

Q: I can score CAT 90%. Should I apply to MICA/MICAT?
A: MICA is recommended only for Marketing buffs. If you do not have special interest in building a career in marketing, advertising, media and digital businesses, you can look at other B-schools also. 

Q: What is the difference between MICAT 1 and 2? 
A: MICAT 1 and 2 have similar papers. However much more seats are allocated to MICAT 1. So for serious MICA aspirants, MICAT 1 is recommended to understand paper. MICAT paper is quite different from CAT exam. 

Q: Can we give MICAT 2 instead of MICAT 1?
Yes, you can. MICAT 1 and 2 have similar papers. However, for serious MICA aspirants, MICAT 1 is recommended to understand paper. MICAT paper is quite different from CAT exam.

Also Read:
MBA Admission 2025
MBA Placement