The prescribed minimum high sectional and overall percentile even in new IIM admission policy has left the flagship maiden academic batch of PGP 2015-17 at 6 new IIMs gasping for suitable candidates to fill in the small intake. From next year the admission intake will increase further in accordance with the directive issued after the decision taken in the Union Government Cabinet meeting held on June 24, 2015.
96.3 OA in CAT needed by new IIM
Except IIM Visakhapatnam which needs 90 percentile in CAT 2014 to shortlist the candidates, IIM Amritsar, BodhGaya, Nagpur, Sambalpur, Sirmaur need a minimum score of 96.3 overall percentile in CAT 2014 to shortlist the candidates. This percentile score is even more than the minimum cut-off percentile announced by IIM Calcutta and IIM Lucknow for CAT 2015 candidates in their admission policy 2016.
Not only this even the candidates from reserved categories need a fairly high percentile score in CAT to get shortlisted by a new IIM.
High sectional CAT percentile not relaxed
Not only the overall percentile in CAT to shortlist the candidates for admission is required by the new IIM, all the 6 of them need a very high sectional percentile with IIM Visakhapatnam at the top. While other 5 IIMs need minimum CAT 2014 sectional percentile at 80, IIM Visakhapatnam need 85 in VALR section.
This sectional percentile is required by top rated IIMs like IIM Calcutta from CAT 2015 takers for admission to their flagship PGP 2016-18 batch.
Candidates not accepting IIM admission offers
Number of candidates who earlier confirmed their interest to the new one or other IIM in Nagpur, Amritsar, Sirmaur, BodhGaya, Visakhapatnam or Sambalpur despite getting selected have refrained from accepting admission offers or have not deposited the requisite admission fee to the respective IIM by the due date.
As a result, most of these IIMs have been releasing more admission offer rounds although they were supposed to be closed much earlier. The irony is that the high percentilers of CAT 2014 now prefer to appear in CAT 2015 and get one of the older IIMs instead of accepting the admission offer from a new IIM.
Not even 60 students in a new IIM
The flagship PGP batch 2015-17 in a new IIM has an intake of 60 to 70 students as against the MHRD’s approved admission intake of 140 students. The irony is that not even the small intake is filled in any new IIM despite being mentored by the top rated older IIM like IIM Ahmedabad, Calcutta, Bangalore, Lucknow, Kozhikode and Indore. In case any new IIM goes by the MHRD’s approved intake of 140 students even in admission 2016, it may not be able to get such a good number of students unless the CAT percentile pegged so high is lowered.
IIM BodhGaya has been able to get only 30 students so far as against its intake of 60 students. IIM Nagpur has an intake of 60 students and is mentored by IIM Ahmedabad. This institute has also fallen short by 5 students as 55 have taken admission as against an intake of 60.
IIM Amritsar mentored by IIM Kozhikode has a gap of 12-14 students as less than 50 students have taken admission as against an intake of 65 students.
IIM Sirmaur, IIM Sambalpur and IIM Visakhapatnam have been releasing their admission offers consecutively but the acceptance response from suitable candidates is lukewarm and it is feared that the first PGP 2015-17 batch at these IIMs will continue with fewer students leaving a gap between admission takers and intake capacity.
A little modification can solve the issue
If any new IIM can lower the required high CAT sectional percentile or does away with high overall percentile or even can lower the requirement of high percentile in one section, more candidates could move forward to take admission in the new IIM.
The strategy can be adopted for the first batch, subsequent batches may not need it. It is not necessary that high sectional percentile all the time could prove very good. For example the highly ranked FMS Delhi shortlists on the basis of overall percentile, still the quality of students at FMS is second to none. A new IIM can follow this process for the first batch and both-the B school as well as the student may find the strategy OK.
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