IIM Admission Criteria 2027: Who Is Eligible, and How Much Does Each IIM Weigh CAT, Academics and Work Experience? Based on Official 22 IIMs Data

Every IIM runs a two-stage assessment. Stage 1 filters on CAT performance and profile to produce a shortlist for IIM interviews. Stage 2 adds the interview and written test to produce a final merit list. The criteria that matter differ at each stage, and the weight given to CAT drops sharply between them.
At IIM Bangalore, CAT carries 55 points out of 100 at the pre-interview stage and just 25 out of 100 after the interview. At IIM Lucknow, CAT falls from 60 to 30. At IIM Calcutta, from 56 out of 85 to 30 out of 100. The exam gets you the call; it does not get you the seat.
Four parameter groups are part of almost every IIM admission criteria framework: CAT performance, past academics, work experience and diversity. What varies is the importance and weightages.

The minimum requirements is close to uniform across the IIMs.

A candidate must hold a bachelor’s degree with at least 50% marks or equivalent CGPA, relaxed to 45% for SC, ST and PwD candidates, from a university incorporated by an act of the central or state legislature, or an institution declared a deemed university under Section 3 of the UGC Act 1956. Foreign degrees require equivalence certification from the Association of Indian Universities.

Professional qualifications are accepted in place of a degree at several IIMs. IIM Bangalore accepts a completed CA, CS, ICWA (CMA) or FIAI. IIM Kozhikode requires at least 50% aggregate in the CA, CMA or CS examination. IIM Guwahati uses the average of Inter and Final marks for CA, ICWA, CMA and CS candidates when computing its academic rating.

Final-year students may apply. If selected, they join provisionally and must produce a completion certificate (typically by 30 June 2026 for the 2026-28 cycle, with final mark sheets by 30 September 2026). IIM Calcutta, IIM Guwahati and the JAP 2026 institutes all use these dates.

Some institutes add additional requirements. IIM Bangalore requires two online reference letters, submitted directly by the referees before the application deadline, with no extension available and no possibility of submitting them separately. 

A few IIMs set a minimum graduation percentage above the national baseline for merit-list inclusion. IIM Raipur requires 60% for General, EWS and NC-OBC candidates, 50% for SC and 45% for ST and PwD. The JAP 2026 common criteria require 50% graduation for General, EWS and NC-OBC, and 45% for SC, ST and PwD, together with 60% in Class 10 and Class 12 for the top three categories.

This is the table most aspirants come for. Every figure below is the published minimum for the General category from the institute’s own Batch 2026-28 admission policy.

Three observations that change how you should read this.

The highest published cut-off is not at the highest-ranked IIM. IIM Rohtak asks 97, above IIM Ahmedabad’s 95 and well above IIM Bangalore’s and IIM Calcutta’s 85. A high published cut-off reflects how an institute manages application volume, not its standing. IIM Rohtak sits 19th on NIRF 2025.

Every institute warns that the published figure is a floor. IIM Bangalore states that the scores of those actually called for interview were higher. IIM Calcutta, IIM Mumbai and IIM Udaipur carry near-identical language. Treat these as necessary conditions, never sufficient ones.

The overall percentile gets the attention; the sectional requirement does the quiet damage.

Nearly every IIM requires a positive raw score in all three sections before any percentile is even considered. IIM Bangalore, IIM Nagpur, IIM Guwahati and the JAP 2026 institutes all state this explicitly. A candidate who leaves a section blank or nets negative on it is out regardless of overall percentile.

Beyond that, sectional minima vary in shape as well as level. IIM Lucknow sets its sectional bar at 85 for all three sections against a 90 overall. IIM Ahmedabad sets 85 sectional against 95 overall. IIM Amritsar is the only IIM with different minima per section: 80 for Quantitative Aptitude, 75 for Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning, and 80 for Verbal and Reading Comprehension.

Three IIMs publish no sectional cut-off at all — Rohtak, Sambalpur and Sirmaur — and IIM Shillong publishes sectional figures with no overall requirement, the inverse of every other institute.

The practical implication is simple. A 96 overall built on a weak DILR section will clear IIM Visakhapatnam and fail IIM Lucknow. Balance across sections widens your shortlist more reliably than raising your overall percentile by two points.

Academic record is where IIM admission criteria diverge most sharply, and where a strong CAT score can be quietly undone.

• IIM Calcutta operates the most explicit banding. Class 10 marks earn 10 points at 80% and above, 8 points for 75-80%, 6 for 70-75%, 4 for 65-70%, 2 for 60-65% and zero below 60%. Class 12 earns 15 points at 80% and above, scaling down to zero below 60%. Together 25 of the 85 points available at the shortlisting stage (nearly 30% of the score) are decided before you sit a single interview.
• IIM Ahmedabad uses a stream-adjusted threshold rather than a sliding scale. The average of Class 10 and Class 12 percentages must clear 80 for Science, 77 for Commerce and 75 for Arts and Humanities in the General and EWS categories, with lower thresholds by category. Miss it and you are screened out entirely.
• IIM Indore weights Class 12 at 25 points against Class 10 at 10 — the heaviest Class 12 weighting of any IIM.
• IIM Bangalore normalises both boards and weights them at 10 each out of 100.
• IIM Kozhikode redistributes the 15% Class 10 weight proportionately between the CAT index and Class 12 where marks are unavailable, and the 20% Class 12 weight between the CAT index and Class 10.
• IIM Guwahati scores both on a six-band scale from 1 point at 55% or below to 10 points above 90%.
• IIM Jammu gives Class 12 slightly more than Class 10, at a maximum of 3 points against 2.

Raw graduation percentages are not comparable across an engineering degree and a commerce degree, and the better-designed IIM admission criteria say so.

• IIM Lucknow normalises by academic discipline across five buckets — Engineering, Science, Commerce, Arts and Others — using the formula GM = [(candidate’s graduation percentage − μ) / 3σ + 50] × 10/100, bounded between 0 and 10, where μ and σ are the mean and standard deviation for that discipline.
• IIM Bangalore normalises graduation scores and applies the standardisation Max[0, min{wt, wt/2 + ((val − mean)/sd) × wt/6}] across all its academic components.
• IIM Ahmedabad takes a different route, setting the bachelor’s cut-off at the 80th percentile of the applicant pool within each Academic Category. For General and EWS candidates the thresholds run from 69.50 in one category to 84.90 in another — a spread of more than 15 percentage points depending on which academic group you fall into.
• IIM Guwahati bands graduation separately from school marks: 1 point at 60% or below, rising to 10 points above 85%. The effect is that a 72% engineering graduate and a 78% commerce graduate may score identically. If your raw percentage looks modest against a friend’s, check whether you are being compared within your discipline before drawing conclusions.

Work experience is the most commonly misunderstood element of IIM admission criteria, because at most IIMs its value peaks and then declines.

• IIM Bangalore rises linearly and then plateaus: 10x/36 where x is months up to 36, and a flat 10 thereafter — one of the few IIMs that does not penalise longer experience. It then applies a quality multiplier post-interview, scaling the weight from 10 to 5 and multiplying by a panel-assessed quality score on a five-point scale of 0.25, 0.5, 1, 1.5 or 2.
• IIM Lucknow requires more than 6 months before any credit accrues for the MBA, and more than 24 months for the MBA-SM.
• IIM Sambalpur gives work experience 20 marks out of 100 — the heaviest weighting in the system, equal to its Personal Interview weight and half its CAT weight.
• IIM Sirmaur also gives 20 out of 100, against a Scaled CAT Score of 35.
• IIM Tiruchirappalli and IIM Ranchi use a banded scale that peaks and falls: 0 points for 0-5 months, 2 for 6-11, 4 for 12-17, 7 for 18-23, 10 for 24-29, then back down — 7 for 30-35, 4 for 36-41, 2 for 42-47 and zero at 48 months or more. A candidate with four years of experience scores the same as a fresher.
• IIM Jammu follows the same inverted-U: zero at 12 months or less, 4 at 12-18, 7 at 18-24, 10 at 24-36, then 7, then 4, then zero above 60 months.
• IIM Guwahati uses a formula rather than bands: zero below 12 months, then 5×(W−12)/24 from 12 to 36 months, then 5×(60−W)/24 from 36 to 60, then zero. It peaks at exactly 36 months.

The JAP 2026 institutes are unusually strict about what counts. Only full-time remunerative work evidenced by TDS, Provident Fund or Professional Tax qualifies. Explicitly excluded: pre-graduation work, part-time work, projects, internships, articleship, pre-CA/CMA/CS experience, fellowships, unpaid work, salary received in cash or by UPI, work in a partnership firm or sole proprietorship as owner, work in a family enterprise, and work as partner, director or CEO in a company that has paid no GST.

The key takeaway is that at most IIMs, 24 to 36 months of work experience is the sweet spot. Beyond four years, experience stops earning points and you are competing on CAT and academics alone.

Several IIMs actively reward a non-engineering background, and the weights are not trivial.

• IIM Calcutta operates the most detailed academic diversity table in the system, scoring 0 for an engineering bachelor’s, master’s or integrated degree; 4 for a non-engineering bachelor’s; 5 for a dual bachelor’s in Law; 2 for an engineering bachelor’s with a non-engineering master’s; 5 for a non-engineering bachelor’s with a non-engineering master’s; 5 for CA, ICWA, CS or FIAI without a bachelor’s; and 6 — the maximum — for those qualifications with a bachelor’s, or with a non-engineering master’s, or for an integrated Law bachelor’s with a non-engineering master’s.
• IIM Lucknow awards 5 points for a non-engineering bachelor’s on the MBA and MBA-SM, rising to 20 points on the MBA-ABM for disciplines listed in its Table 3 — the single largest diversity award anywhere in the IIM system.
• IIM Sirmaur inverts the logic with its Trailblazer score, awarding 5 points for engineering, medical, design, architecture, pharmacy or professional accounting qualifications.
• IIM Tiruchirappalli awards 2% for academic diversity, but only to non-engineering candidates who secured First Class or above in the UG degree.
• IIM Raipur awards 2 marks out of 150, and IIM Indore folds diversity into a combined 7-point Diversity Factor.

Every IIM in the collection that publishes a weightage table awards points for gender diversity, and the amounts are material.

All IIMs follow the Government of India reservation policy for Central Educational Institutions: NC-OBC 27%, SC 15%, ST 7.5%, EWS 10% and PwD 5% as a horizontal reservation. The percentile relaxations are substantial. Comparing General against ST at the same institute:

• IIM Ahmedabad: 95 overall for General, 75 for ST — a 20-point gap

• IIM Lucknow: 90 for General, 60 for ST

• IIM Indore: 90 for General, 45 for ST

• IIM Tiruchirappalli: 95.25 for General, 44 for ST

• IIM Nagpur: 95 for General, 40 for ST

• IIM Visakhapatnam: 82 for General, 40 for ST

PwD relaxations run deeper still. IIM Ahmedabad publishes a separate PwD column throughout, dropping the General PwD overall requirement to 85 and the ST PwD requirement to 65. IIM Tiruchirappalli sets its DAP overall requirement at 30.

Under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act 2016, 5% of seats are reserved for Persons with Benchmark Disabilities, defined as not less than 40% of a specified disability. IIM Calcutta and IIM Mumbai both reproduce the full schedule of qualifying disabilities in their policies.

A valid category certificate as per the applicable Central Government list must be produced at the interview. IIM Guwahati adds that the list as on the last date of CAT registration is binding, and subsequent changes will not be effective.

The Stage 1 shortlisting weightages below show how differently the same candidate profile is read across the system.

The difference between IIMs is striking. IIM Lucknow and IIM Guwahati put 60-65% of the shortlisting decision on CAT alone. IIM Sirmaur puts 35% on it and 20% on work experience. A candidate with a 92 percentile and four years of solid, documented experience has a materially different set of realistic targets from one with a 98 percentile straight out of college — and the criteria tables, not the rankings, are what tell you which is which.

Read your own profile against the weightings rather than against a league table.

• If your CAT score is your strongest asset, target the IIMs that weight it most heavily at the shortlisting stage: IIM Lucknow, IIM Guwahati and IIM Shillong and IIM Calcutta.
• If you have 24 to 36 months of documented full-time experience, IIM Sambalpur, IIM Sirmaur, IIM Raipur and IIM Tiruchirappalli converts into the most points.
• If your Class 10 and 12 records are outstanding, IIM Calcutta and IIM Indore reward them most.
• If your sectional scores are uneven, avoid IIM Lucknow’s 85/85/85 and IIM Ahmedabad’s 85/85/85, and look at IIM Visakhapatnam at 70/70/70 or IIM Jammu at 72/72/72.

IIM admission criteria reward candidates who understand the weightages, not just the cut-offs. Remember the two-stage logic: your CAT score and academics get you shortlisted, but their weight falls sharply in the final merit list. So check each IIM’s eligibility, then match your CAT percentile, academics, work experience and diversity against the parameters that institute actually rewards. We update this guide as 2027 criteria are released. Also read: : IIM Shortlisting 2027 and IIM Selection Process 2027.