Admissions
The admissions department follows a well-defined and detailed admission process which judges candidates on a number of parameters since empirical research on recruitment and selection shows the efficacy of multiple criteria.
IIMB has found over the years that students who perform well in the academic programme are typically those who have a consistently good academic record during their school, high school and graduation level, besides exhibiting sufficiently high aptitude as measured by CAT (Common Admission Test if the IIMs)/GMAT. Therefore IIMB uses multiple parameters, namely academic performance in school, high school and graduation programmes as well as candidate’s scores in CAT/GMAT to judge the suitability of candidates for the PGP programme. Relevant work experience, if any, is also given weightage. The CAT/GMAT score, over and above being a selection criterion, is also used to establish the minimum level of proficiency that is expected from the candidate in respective faculties as indicated by section-wise minimum scores in the CAT/GMAT. Multiple criteria are used to arrive at a composite score for every candidate, which is used to select candidates for the subsequent stage.
Thus the CAT/GMAT score is one of the more important parameters. The CAT/GMAT score that is used as a cutoff varies from year to year. The admission process includes a personal interview, conducted through remote video conferencing for international students, and an assessment of writing ability.
There are two channels for admissions to the PGP: one for domestic candidates and the other for International candidates. The admission requirements and application processes for each channel are different.
Domestic Admissions are based on the applications received through the Common Admission Test (CAT) conducted by the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) in November every year at various centers in India. Domestic candidates are Indian nationals or foreigners normally resident in India who are in a position to take the CAT. Short-listed candidates attend a written test and personal interview, and provide two letters of reference from persons who know them closely in terms of their academic/professional performance. The final selection is based on the CAT performance, Scholastic Achievement, Work Experience, performance in the Writing Ability Test, and Interview.