Monday, Jan 26, 2009
Both the hundred percentilers from Bangalore, Ameya Mhatre and Lakshmisha S.K., confessed that they could not figure out why they did not get calls from all the Indian Institutes of Management for admission to the Post-Graduate Programme in Management. Several others, across the country, with 99 and 98 percentiles did not make it to the second round of some institutes.

The trend is that the number of candidates getting calls from all IIMs has decreased over the years. But having scored a perfect score in the screening examination, what more could an institute want? A glance through the individual websites of the seven IIMs gives a clear-cut answer to this question.

As many as 3,557 candidates received a call from IIM-Ahmedabad this year.

The cut-off for those with reservation is lowered to 17 and 25 respectively.

The website gives a comprehensive tabulation of what it calls the composite score - based on CAT score, pre-bachelor's academic performance, all of which varies for each category. However, the institute makes no mention of any weightage to those with work experience.

The lowest CAT score which got a call was reportedly around 98 percentile, as was the case with IIM-Kozhikode.

The IIM-Bangalore website has listed a mathematical formulae based on which the scores for the first stage are prepared.

The break-up for weightages for the second round has also been declared. This institute looks for academic record, work experience and certifications. The cut-off at IIM-Lucknow was 90 percentile, while Shillong - which has a very distinct set of parameters - pegged it at 72.