The Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad has made changes to its admission rules for the two-year Post Graduate Programme in Management (PGP), also known as the MBA programme, for the 2027-29 batch.
Under the new admission policy, IIM Ahmedabad will use the CAT 2026 percentile to shortlist students for the Analytical Writing Test (AWT) and Personal Interview (PI). Earlier, the institute used the normalised CAT score for this process.
IIM Ahmedabad uses several factors while selecting students for its PGP programme. These include CAT performance, academic marks, AWT and PI performance.
Admission 2027-29: CAT 2026 Cut-offs
Candidates first need to meet the minimum overall and sectional CAT 2026 percentile requirements to be considered for the next stage.
For General and EWS candidates, the minimum overall percentile is 95, while candidates need at least 85 percentiles in each CAT section.
For NC-OBC candidates, the overall requirement is 90 percentile and the sectional requirement is 80 percentiles. SC candidates need 85 percentiles overall and 75 percentile in each section. ST candidates need 75 percentiles overall and 65 percentiles in each section.
For PwD candidates, the minimum overall percentile is 85 for General/EWS, 80 for NC-OBC, 75 for SC and 65 for ST candidates. Their sectional cut-offs are lower than those for the respective non-PwD categories.
However, simply meeting these minimum CAT cut-offs does not mean that a candidate will automatically receive an AWT-PI shortlist.
CAT Percentile Gets 65% Weightage
IIM Ahmedabad has also changed the way it calculates the composite score for shortlisting candidates for the AWT and PI.
Under the revised system, CAT 2026 percentile will have a 65% weightage. The remaining 35% weightage will come from the Application Rating (AR).
The Application Rating considers several factors, including Class 10 and Class 12 marks, bachelor’s degree performance, work experience and gender diversity.
The composite score is then normalised according to the candidate’s undergraduate academic discipline.
This new method gives more importance to the CAT percentile while continuing to consider a candidate’s academic record and overall profile.
Final Selection Process
Getting shortlisted for the AWT and PI is not the final step in the admission process. Shortlisted candidates will have to appear for both the Analytical Writing Test and Personal Interview.
For final admission, the Personal Interview will have the highest weightage of 50%. The AWT will carry 10% weightage, while the remaining 40% will come from the normalised composite score used during the selection process.
Candidates applying for the two-year PGP must have a bachelor’s degree with at least 50% marks or an equivalent CGPA.
For SC, ST and PwD candidates, the minimum graduation requirement is 45%, subject to IIM Ahmedabad’s specified conditions.
IIM Ahmedabad is expected to release the AWT-PI shortlist in January 2027 after the CAT 2026 results are announced.
According to the institute’s official admission information, the PGP selection process for domestic candidates starts with CAT, followed by the AWT and Personal Interview for candidates who are shortlisted.