IIM Admission 2025: Eligibility Requirement, Step by Step Admission Process

The first stage towards your IIM Admission journey is to meet following eligibility requirements:

• Minimum 50% marks in graduation in any discipline for General Category
• Minimum 45% marks for SC/ST/PwD category candidates
• Candidates in final year of bachelor’s degree also qualify IIM Admission eligibility criteria. 
• The Eligibility criteria do not prescribe any IIM Admission Age Limit
• You must apply and appear in CAT Exam. If you do not apply for CAT, no IIM will consider you for IIM admission. 

Once you have met the basic IIM eligibility, you are now ready for taking the many steps required for getting the coveted IIM admission. IIM Admission 2025 goes through 4 stages beginning from registering and applying for CAT exam till getting admission offer from IIMs. Check details in table 1 below.

Table 1: IIM Admissions 2025 Stages | MBAUniverse.com

CAT 2024 is the mandatory exam for IIM Admission 2025. To appear in CAT exam, you need to take following steps:

• Register and Apply for CAT exam. CAT Registration fees is Rs 2500. Registration for CAT 2024 has closed on Sept 20, 2024. You can register for CAT 2025 next year. You can also check other MBA Entrance Exam where registration is open. 
• When filling CAT registration form, select the 21 IIMs Programs and interview cities.
• Appear in CAT exam. CAT 2024 exam date is November 24, 2024. Make sure that your CAT Preparation is the best possible so that you score high enough to clear the minimum required CAT Cut Off to qualify in IIM Admission shortlisting process.  

The next stage in IIM admission process is release of shortlist based on CAT score and other parameters. Each IIM has different CAT Cut Offs. Check table 2. A candidate has to clear these cut off score to become eligible to participate in further rounds of IIMs Admission. 

Remember that after meeting these CAT Cut Offs, IIM Shortlist is based on weightage awarded to CAT exam score and other parameters like Academics, Diversity, Work Experience among others.

Table 2: CAT Cut off Required for IIMs Admission

Source: MBAUniverse.com

Out of the 21 IIMs, 11 IIMs will release their individual shortlists while 10 CAP participating New IIMs will release common shortlist for PI round. 

After getting shortlisted for next round of IIM Admission 2025, you need to get ready for GD-PI-WAT conducted by IIMs from January to April. IIM Final admission round awards higher weightage to Personal Interview and Writing Ability Test than to CAT score. Besides, in their final admission process, IIMs award high weightages to academics, diversity factor, Work Experience and achievements of the candidates. Check complete IIM Selection Process in detail.

Based on your performance in PI-WAT round, CAT exam, Profile and other parameters, IIMs release admission offer. Along with the main list of selected candidates, IIMs also release the wait lists. To secure and to avoid cancellation of your seat, you need to pay IIM admission fees as mentioned in admission offer by the stipulated date. 

IIM Fees Payment is an important part of IIM Admission process. Each IIM releases its fee structure in the admission offer before the beginning of the programme and specifically mentions which expenses are not covered in the fee structure. To confirm your seat in IIMs, you need to pay IIM Admission Fees followed by the payment of IIM Fees for the first semester. Recently IIMs have substantially increased their fees. IIM Fees for the newest IIMs like IIM Amritsar, IIM Nagpur is in the range of 15 to 19 lakhs, second generation IIMs fees like that of IIM Udaipur, IIM Tiruchirappalli is in the range of 17 to 20 lakhs and top IIMs like IIM Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta have a fee structure of 24 to 26 lakhs. 

10 new IIMs admission process is completed through IIM Common Admission Process (CAP). Key component of New IIM Admission CAP consists of PI round for final admission in the CAP participating IIMs. The 10 CAP 2025 participating IIMs are IIM Kashipur, Raipur, Ranchi, Trichy, Udaipur, Nagpur, Bodhgaya, Jammu, Sirmaur, Sambalpur. These CAP participating IIMs have common shortlisting criteria followed by  Personal Interview. New IIMs which do not participate in IIM CAP include IIM Shillong, IIM Rohtak, IIM Amritsar, IIM Visakhapatnam conduct their own admission process, instead of participating in CAP. 

For IIM Admission 2025, IIMs have already started the process with the CAT 2024 registration. Shortlisting for Admission process 2025 will begin after CAT 2024 result is out in January. The GD-PI dates for IIM Admission will be from February to April 2025. Important IIM Admission Dates are:

• IIM Admission 2025 Opening Date: August 1, 2024
• IIM Admission Last Date to Apply: September 20, 2024
• IIM Admission Dates for IIM Final Selection Process 2025: February to April 2025

All dates are Tentative

Q: Which exam is for MBA admission in IIMs?
A: IIMs conduct Common Admission Test (CAT) for MBA admission. CAT is the mandatory entrance exam for IIM Admission 

Q: How to get Admission in IIM for MBA Program?
A: You can get admission in IIMs if you satisfy the IIM Admission eligibility criteria, take CAT exam and clear the cut offs and perform well in IIM Selection process.

Q: When MBA admission starts in IIMs?
A: IIM MBA Admission process starts with the beginning of CAT exam registration process from the first week of August. IIM Admission last date to apply is the last date of CAT registration.

Q: What is the IIM Admission Age Limit?
A: There is no IIM Admission Age Limit prescribed by any IIM. Any person who qualifies the IIM Admission Eligibility criteria like 50% marks in graduation and takes CAT exam, can apply for IIM Admission  

Q: What is the IIM Admission Criteria after taking CAT Exam?
A: Post the CAT exam IIM Admission Criteria has two components – Shortlist based on CAT score and Final PI-WAT process.

Q: What is the IIM Admission Fees?
A: Each IIM decides its own Admission Fees which should be paid at the time of accepting admission offer. IIM Admission fees for different IIMs is in the range of Rs.50,000 to Rs.1,00,000.