Planning for IIM Ahmedabad? Check Expected MBA Cutoff & Admission Insights
Srishti Singh
Published On - Jan 17, 2026 01:40PM IST
IIM Ahmedabad has made public the selection and admission process for the PGP 2026–28 through CAT 2025. As the most demanded MBA program in India, IIMA has a very rigorous, methodical and data-driven selection process where CAT percentile is just one factor among many. Only after candidates fulfil the minimum sectional and overall cutoffs and meet very tough academic and profile-based criteria, are they given a call for the Analytical Writing Test (AWT) and Personal Interview (PI).
This post details the CAT cutoff, the application rating system, and the shortlisting process, along with major eligibility criteria, to enable CAT candidates to judge their chances realistically.
IIM Ahmedabad MBA Selection Process 2026: Overview
The admission to the PGP 2026–28 batch at IIM Ahmedabad is carried out in two stages:
Shortlisting for AWT and Personal Interview (PI)
Final selection after AWT & PI
Candidates having a valid CAT 2025 score, applying to IIMA, and fulfilling the eligibility and cutoff criteria are only considered for further evaluation.
CAT 2025 Minimum Cutoffs for IIM Ahmedabad
As an initial step during preliminary screening, candidates must score more than the minimum overall sectional CAT percentile cutoffs and receive good scores in all three sections, including VARC, DILR, and QA.
Category-Wise CAT 2025 Cutoffs
Category
Overall Percentile
Sectional Percentile
General / EWS
95
85
NC-OBC
90
80
SC
85
75
ST
75
65
PwD (General/EWS)
85
75
PwD (NC-OBC)
80
70
PwD (SC)
75
65
PwD (ST)
70
55
Note: Transgender candidates in the General category follow NC-OBC cutoffs. Meeting these cutoffs is mandatory but not sufficient to receive an interview call.
Application Rating (AR): How Profiles Are Evaluated
IIM Ahmedabad really looks closely at the academic regularity of a candidate and the overall quality of the profile when shortlisting candidates for the PGP programme. In order to have an equitable and organized review apart from CAT results, the institute calculates an Application Rating (AR) score for each candidate qualifying for the programme. This score takes into account the candidate's academic track record over the years, work experience, and diversity factors to help IIMA compare candidates from different educational backgrounds in a uniform manner.
E: Gender diversity score (non-male candidates get 3 marks)
The AR score is then normalised by dividing it by the mean of the top 50 AR scores in the applicant pool.
Academic Performance & Work Experience Weightage
Class 10 & 12: Higher percentages receive higher rating points, with stream-wise normalisation in Class 12.
Bachelor’s Degree: Evaluated under different Academic Categories with discipline-specific cutoffs.
Work Experience:
Less than 12 months: 0
12–36 months: 0.20 × (months − 11)
More than 36 months: Maximum score of 5
Shortlisting for AWT & PI: Two-Stage Process
Stage 1: Academic Category-Wise Shortlisting
The first step is the evaluation of the candidates in their academic categories (ACs) to keep a mix of disciplines in the classroom. Rather than producing one merit list, the students are judged according to their educational backgrounds, e.g., engineering, commerce, science, or humanities. Thus, the very best from each academic stream can be almost certainly identified for the Analytical Writing Test (AWT) and Personal Interview (PI) rounds, no matter if the competition is very intense.
Bachelor’s degree marks above the 80th percentile of the respective academic category
Stage 2: Further shortlisting
After excluding the Stage 1 shortlisted candidates, IIM Ahmedabad would select additional candidates category-wise on the basis of the Composite Score provided they fulfill the CAT and academic eligibility criteria. Thus, the representation across categories is kept balanced.
Can You Get an IIM Ahmedabad Call with 99 Percentile?
Just having a very good CAT percentile is not enough for a candidate to expect an AWT-PI call from IIM Ahmedabad. So, a 99+ percentile scorer can miss out if:
They have scored less in the 10th, 12th, or graduation compared to other candidates
Their bachelor’s marks are less than the 80th percentile of their academic category
They have a comparatively weak AR score among their peer group
