IIM Shortlisting 2027: What CAT Percentile Gets You a Call from Each IIM? Based on Official Data

IIM shortlisting is the Stage-1 filter that converts a CAT score into an interview call. It runs in two steps at almost every IIM.

Step one is elimination. The institute applies a minimum CAT percentile — overall and usually sectional — plus minimum academic eligibility. Candidates below the line are removed. Nothing else about them is considered.

Step two is ranking. Everyone who survives is scored on a composite that combines CAT with academics, work experience and diversity. Candidates are then ranked within category, and the institute calls down the list until it has enough candidates for the number of seats it needs to fill.

That second step is what most aspirants misunderstand. The published cut-off governs step one only. Step two has no published threshold, because the effective bar is whatever the last called candidate scored — and that depends on who applied that year.

Every institute says this in its own words. IIM Bangalore states that the scores of those called for interview were higher than the published cut-offs. IIM Calcutta warns that actual section-wise and overall percentile cut-offs may be much higher, depending on the number of candidates to be called in each category. IIM Kashipur states that the criteria are the minimum requirement and “do not imply entitlement”. IIM Ranchi’s policy is blunter still: every eligible candidate as per its Table 1 may not find a place in the shortlist, and the cut-off figures are “just indicative”.

The composite score formulas differ, but they share a structure: a normalised CAT component plus a normalised profile component.

IIM Ahmedabad publishes the cleanest formula in the system:

Composite Score = 0.35 × (Normalised Application Rating score) + 0.65 × (Normalised overall CAT-2025 score)

which resolves to CS = (AR × 0.35 / 38) + (Overall CAT score × 0.65 / 204)

The divisor 38 is the average Application Rating of the top 50 candidates in the pool — so your profile is scored against the best profiles that applied, not against an absolute scale. The 204 is the CAT scaling denominator.

IIM Guwahati uses the same 65:35 split with different mechanics:

CS = 0.65 × NCAT + 0.35 × NAR, where NAR = (A + B + C + D) / 35

Here A, B, C and D are banded scores for Class 10, Class 12, graduation and work experience, summed and divided by the 35-point maximum.

IIM Shillong also uses 65:35 — 65% total CAT percentile and 35% Normalised Application Rating Score, where NARS is the candidate’s Application Rating Score divided by the average of the top 50 ARS in the pool. Same relative-scoring logic as IIM Ahmedabad.

IIM Lucknow takes a component-weight approach rather than a two-part formula: Scaled CAT 60, Class 12 marks 10, graduation 10, work experience 10, academic diversity 5, gender diversity 5. Its scaled CAT calculation is (candidate’s CAT score ÷ highest CAT score of 2025) × 60.

IIM Bangalore weights CAT 55, Class 10 10, Class 12 10, bachelor’s 10, work experience or professional course 10, and gender diversity 5, applying the standardisation Max[0, min{wt, wt/2 + ((val − mean)/sd) × wt/6}] to each academic component.

The common thread is that your profile is scored relative to the applicant pool, not against a fixed standard. A 78% graduation percentage means something different depending on who else applied.

Published General-category minimums for Batch 2026-28. Read these as the entry to the pool, not the entry to the interview room.

The counter-intuitive finding is that cut-off height and institute rankings and placements are not related. IIM Rohtak asks for 97 and sits 19th on NIRF 2025. IIM Bangalore and IIM Calcutta ask for 85 and sit 2nd and 7th. IIM Kozhikode asks 85 and sits 3rd. A high published cut-off is a volume-management device: it reduces the number of applications an admissions office must process. It says nothing about how hard the institute is to get into once ranking begins.

IIM Sambalpur’s dual figure deserves a note. Its General overall requirement is 90, reduced to 85 for all female candidates and for male candidates with at least one year of relevant work experience.

IIM Ahmedabad’s disclosure is the only place in the Indian system where you can see the gap between the floor and the reality.

A further 8 candidates were considered through the GMAT route for overseas Indian applicants, of whom 3 were shortlisted.

Two things follow. First, clearing 95 percentile at IIM Ahmedabad placed a General-category candidate among 6,106 others, of whom fewer than one in ten received a call. Second, the proportion called rises sharply down the reservation categories, which is the reservation policy working as designed — the pool is smaller, so a larger share of it must be called to fill reserved seats.

IIM Ahmedabad also publishes the minimum composite score at which each category was called in its Stage 2 category-wise round: General 0.605604, EWS 0.529701, NC-OBC 0.511349, SC 0.453585, ST 0.382786, PwD in General 0.467209. On a scale where the maximum approaches 1.0, a General candidate needed roughly 0.61 while an ST candidate needed roughly 0.38. Set against a seat intake of 414, calling 1,308 candidates implies roughly 3.2 interview calls per seat. That ratio is the number aspirants should carry in their heads, not the percentile.

Note that IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Shillong and IIM Guwahati all land on an identical 65:35 split between CAT and profile, arrived at independently. That convergence is worth knowing: at those three institutes, roughly a third of your shortlisting score is fixed before you sit the exam.

Take a hypothetical General-category candidate: CAT 94 overall, sections 88 VARC, 84 DILR, 91 QA, Class 10 78%, Class 12 74%, engineering graduate at 71%, 30 months of documented full-time work experience, male.

Against the published criteria, this profile’s position varies enormously.

Comfortably clears the floor at IIM Bangalore (85 overall, 80/75/75 sectional), IIM Calcutta (85, 80/80/75), IIM Mumbai, IIM Kozhikode, IIM Guwahati, IIM Visakhapatnam, IIM Jammu.

Clears but only just at IIM Indore (90 overall, 80 sectional) and IIM Lucknow — except IIM Lucknow requires 85 in every section, and this candidate’s 84 DILR fails. A single percentile point in one section removes IIM Lucknow entirely.

Fails the floor at IIM Rohtak (97), IIM Tiruchirappalli and IIM Ranchi (95.25), IIM Ahmedabad (95 overall and 85 sectional — fails on both), IIM Nagpur (95), IIM Udaipur (94).

Then the ranking stage reshuffles even the institutes where the candidate qualifies. At IIM Sambalpur, 30 months of work experience earns close to the full 20 marks, and the Class 12 weight is only 3 — a strong fit. At IIM Indore, Class 12 carries 25 marks and 74% is mediocre — a weak fit despite qualifying. At IIM Calcutta, Class 12 at 74% earns 9 points of 15 and the engineering degree earns 0 of 6 for academic diversity — a middling fit.

The lesson is that the shortlist you receive is a function of fit, not of score. Two candidates with the same CAT percentile and different profiles will receive different calls, and neither result is arbitrary.

More candidates are eliminated by a single weak section than by a low overall percentile.

Nearly every IIM requires a positive raw score in all three sections as a precondition — IIM Bangalore, IIM Nagpur, IIM Guwahati and all four JAP 2026 institutes state it explicitly. A blank or net-negative section ends the application regardless of everything else.

Beyond that, the tightest sectional requirements relative to overall are:

IIM Lucknow: 85/85/85 against 90 overall. Only a 5-point gap. Demands balance.

IIM Ahmedabad: 85/85/85 against 95 overall. A 10-point gap.

IIM Indore: 80/80/80 against 90 overall.

IIM Bangalore: 80 VARC, 75 DILR, 75 QA against 85 overall.

The loosest are IIM Visakhapatnam at 70/70/70 against 82, and IIM Jammu at 72/72/72 against 91 — a 19-point gap that forgives one weak section.

There is also a section-weighting subtlety worth knowing. IIM Bangalore splits its 55 CAT points as VARC 19, DILR 21, QA 15 — DILR carries the most weight, not QA. IIM Sirmaur splits its Scaled CAT Score as VARC 35%, DILR 30%, QA 35%. IIM Indore weights its CAT sectional scores as VARC 16, DILR 16, QA 23, making QA the heaviest there. Which section matters most genuinely depends on the institute.

Shortlists are prepared separately within each category, so you are never ranked against candidates from another category.

All IIMs follow Government of India reservation for Central Educational Institutions: NC-OBC 27%, SC 15%, ST 7.5%, EWS 10%, and PwD 5% as horizontal reservation. IIM Nagpur is the only institute publishing its seat arithmetic — of 340 seats, General 120, NC-OBC 92, SC 51, EWS 34, ST 26 and DAP 17.

The percentile relaxations are large. Comparing General against ST at the same institute: IIM Ahmedabad 95 against 75, IIM Lucknow 90 against 60, IIM Indore 90 against 45, IIM Tiruchirappalli 95.25 against 44, IIM Nagpur 95 against 40.

IIM Ahmedabad applies NC-OBC cut-offs to transgender candidates in the General category. IIM Shillong awards 10 points at Stage 2 to all candidates except those of the gender of maximum proportion appearing in CAT 2025.

A valid category certificate on 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 later changes will not apply.

IIM Kashipur, IIM Raipur, IIM Ranchi and IIM Tiruchirappalli shortlist jointly through the Joint Admission Process 2026, coordinated by IIM Raipur. This changes the IIM shortlisting process in three ways.

Registration is mandatory and separate from CAT. Candidates who named any of the four in their CAT 2025 form and meet the minimum criteria receive an email invitation to register online. The policy states plainly that candidates lose their candidature if they do not complete registration within the specified window. It is a pre-interview registration, not an interview call.

The eligibility floor is common. JAP 2026 registration requires, for General candidates, 60% in Class 10, 60% in Class 12, 50% in graduation, 75 percentile in each CAT section and 90 overall. For EWS and NC-OBC: 60/60/50 and 60 sectional with 75 overall. For SC: 55/55/45 and 45 sectional with 50 overall. For ST: 55/55/45 and 25 sectional with 30 overall. For PwD: 45/45/45 and 25 sectional with 30 overall.

Shortlisting cut-offs are not yet published. The JAP policy states the PI shortlist cut-off percentiles for each category will be decided later and posted on the JAP 2026 portal. Only IIM Ranchi has published institute-specific figures — 95.25 overall for General, well above the JAP registration floor of 90. [DATA GAP: JAP 2026 PI shortlist cut-off percentiles for all four institutes — confirm before publish]

Shortlisted candidates from all four institutes are merged into a combined pool for the PI, after which each institute prepares its own merit list on its own weightages.

IIM Bodh Gaya, IIM Jammu and IIM Sirmaur use the Common Admission Process 2026, conducting the PI offline.

IIM Bodh Gaya publishes CAP 2026 cut-offs but marks them “for reference only”, to be finalised after the CAT 2025 result: General 75 sectional and 95 overall, EWS and NC-OBC 55 and 52 sectional against 81 overall, SC 45 against 66, ST and PwD 25/25/30 against 42.

IIM Jammu is the only IIM in India publishing gender-differentiated CAT cut-offs. Its male General requirement is 72 sectional and 91 overall. The table carries rows for other genders which are not fully available in the collection. [DATA GAP: non-male rows of the IIM Jammu gender-differentiated cut-off table — confirm before publish]

This is the weakest area of published information across the entire IIM system, and it would be dishonest to present a calendar that does not exist.

What the institutes do state:

IIM Indore: candidates shortlisted for the PI will be informed in January 2026, and individual regret letters will not be sent to those who are not shortlisted.

IIM Kozhikode: the Stage 2 PI shortlist is made available on the IIMK registration portal, with admission offers made around the first week of May 2026.

IIM Lucknow: the composite score and WAT-PI shortlist are published on iiml.ac.in, after which candidates must submit the WAT-PI form online by a stated deadline or be excluded.

JAP 2026: candidates are informed of PI date, time and venue by email and can view it by logging into the JAP 2026 portal.

IIM Bodh Gaya: PI process information will be shared in due course.

IIM Calcutta (overseas route): PI tentatively scheduled between February and April 2026.

The broad pattern from these fragments is that shortlists follow the CAT result in January, interviews run February to April, and offers are made from late April into May. 

If you are shortlisted, three things matter immediately. Complete the institute-specific form within the deadline. IIM Lucknow and IIM Bangalore both exclude candidates who miss it, with no extensions. Assemble originals of every mark sheet and certificate, because IIM Nagpur, IIM Raipur and IIM Kozhikode all disqualify candidates who cannot produce them at the PI. And shift your preparation to the interview, which carries 40 to 48% of the final score at IIM Calcutta, IIM Lucknow, IIM Bangalore and IIM Shillong.

If you are not shortlisted, the arithmetic is worth understanding rather than agonising over. IIM Ahmedabad called 14.8% of the candidates who cleared its screening. Missing a call from one IIM says little about your prospects at another with different weightings, which is exactly why a shortlist built across weighting profiles, rather than down a ranking table, produces more calls.

Note also that several IIMs explicitly reserve the right to relax cut-offs. IIM Kashipur and the JAP institutes both state that sectional and overall criteria may be lowered if the number of shortlisted candidates falls short of requirement in one or more categories. IIM Udaipur states that minimum scores may be reduced or increased to achieve the desired number of candidates.

IIM shortlisting rewards ranking, not just a cut-off. Even a strong CAT percentile only puts you in the pool — IIM Ahmedabad called only about one in seven of the 8,838 candidates it screened. So treat the published cut-off as the floor, not the target: push your CAT score well above it, and strengthen the academics, work experience and diversity that feed the Stage-1 composite. Then match your realistic percentile to the right mix of IIMs. We update this IIM Shortlisting 2027 guide when information is released. Also read: IIM Shortlisting 2027 and IIM Selection Process 2027.