What CAT percentile is needed for IIM Ahmedabad MBA admission 2027?

The announced minimum for General and EWS is 95 overall percentile. You also need 85 percentile in each of the three sections. The actual interview call score runs much higher than this floor.

Is CAT compulsory, or does IIM Ahmedabad accept GMAT and GRE?

CAT is compulsory for the two-year MBA and MBA-FABM for Indian candidates. GMAT or GRE is used only for MBA-PGPX and the Dubai one-year MBA. Foreign passport holders may use a test centre GMAT under the Supernumerary Quota.

Can final year students apply for IIM Ahmedabad MBA 2027?

Yes, final year students can apply. They must submit a certificate from their principal or registrar confirming their status. Admission stays provisional until the degree marksheet is submitted.

How is the final merit list calculated at IIM Ahmedabad?

For the 2027-29 PGP batch, the Final Composite Score gives 50% weightage to the Personal Interview, 10% to the Analytical Writing Test and 40% to the Normalized Composite Score. The Normalized Composite Score is based on CAT performance and the Application Rating.

Is work experience necessary for IIM Ahmedabad MBA admission?

No, freshers are eligible and are admitted every year. Work experience only adds points to the Application Rating score. You need at least 12 months to score anything, and 36 months to score the maximum 5 points.

Is direct admission or management quota available at IIM Ahmedabad?

No. IIM Ahmedabad admits strictly on merit through the published selection process. There is no management quota, donation seat or direct admission route.

What is the application fee for IIM Ahmedabad MBA admission 2027?

IIM Ahmedabad does not charge a separate MBA application fee. You pay the CAT 2026 registration fee of INR 2,700. SC, ST and PwD candidates pay INR 1,350.

What is the IIM Ahmedabad MBA fee?

The program fee was INR 27,50,000 for the 2025-27 MBA batch. This included tuition of INR 20,10,000. The fee for the 2027-29 batch will be announced later and is subject to revision.

How many students does IIM Ahmedabad admit every year?

IIM Ahmedabad inducted 458 students in June 2026. Of these, 414 joined the flagship MBA and 44 joined MBA-FABM. Intake is not a fixed sanctioned figure and shifts slightly each year.

Does IIM Ahmedabad give extra marks to female candidates?

IIMA awards 3 Gender Diversity Points to all non-male candidates and 0 points to male candidates. These points form part of the Application Rating used in the shortlisting composite.

IIM Ahmedabad Selection Criteria 2027 Revised; What this means for new applicants

IIM Ahmedabad has released its PGP 2027-29 admission policy with major changes. Candidates appearing for CAT 2026 will be judged under the new rules. CAT, academics, work experience and gender diversity still count. But the way these inputs are combined has changed.

Class 10, Class 12 and graduation now share one common scoring table. The six old Academic Categories are replaced by 20 undergraduate disciplines. Composite scores are now normalised within each candidate's own discipline.

The old AC-RC shortlisting system and extra academic cut-offs are gone. CAT's effective weight in final selection rises from 25% to 26%. The full policy is available on iima.ac.in.

Read: IIM Ahemdabad Admission 2027 Begins, Check details here

IIM Ahmedabad Selection Criteria 2027 Revised; What this means for new applicants

What Has Changed in IIM Ahmedabad Selection Criteria 2027-29

The table below compares the 2026-28 policy with the new 2027-29 policy. Five changes stand out.

Parameter	PGP 2026-28	PGP 2027-29
Class 12 rating	Separate tables for Science, Commerce and Arts	One common table for all streams
Graduation rating	Separate tables for each Academic Category	Same common table as Class 10 and 12
Grouping of degrees	6 Academic Categories (AC-1 to AC-6)	20 undergraduate disciplines
Shortlisting method	Top 5% per AC-RC group, plus category merit list	Discipline-wise normalised composite score
Extra academic filters	P threshold and graduation 80th percentile rule	Removed
CAT weight in final score	25%	26%
Application rating weight in final score	15%	14%

Check: IIM Ahmedabad Interview Preparation: What Candidates Faced and How to Prepare

Common Rating Table for Class 10, 12 and Graduation

All three academic stages now use the same point slabs. Earlier, only Class 10 used this table. Class 12 and graduation had stream-wise and category-wise tables.

Marks Obtained	Points (Class 10, Class 12 and Graduation)
55% or below	1
Above 55% up to 60%	2
Above 60% up to 70%	3
Above 70% up to 80%	5
Above 80% up to 90%	8
Above 90%	10

So the top graduation score of 10 points now needs more than 90%. Under the old policy, an engineer needed only above 85%. A Commerce graduate needed above 80%.

Example: An Arts student with 86% in Class 12 earned 10 points earlier. The same marks now earn 8 points. A Science student with 86% gets 8 points under both policies.

Check: IIM Ahmedabad: Admission 2027, Fees, Courses, Cutoff, Ranking, Placement

20 Undergraduate Disciplines Replace Academic Categories

IIMA now places every applicant in one of 20 disciplines based on the bachelor's degree. The Admissions Committee has the final say on this mapping.

Disciplines (1-10)	Disciplines (11-20)
Engineering and Technology	Computer Science and IT
Commerce, Accounting and Finance	Management
Economics	Mathematics
Statistics and Actuarial Science	Pure Sciences
Life Sciences	Medical and Health Sciences
Agriculture and Allied Sciences	Architecture and Planning
Arts and Humanities	Social Sciences
Law	Journalism and Media
Fashion and Design	Hospitality and Food Sciences
Professional (CA/CS/ICWA/FIAI)	Others

For integrated or dual-degree students, the discipline of that programme is used. Any master's degree taken after graduation is ignored for shortlisting.

What Is UG Discipline-wise Normalisation?

Normalisation means a candidate's score is compared with the best scores in the same discipline. IIMA divides each raw composite score by the average of the top 1% raw scores in that discipline. At least 5 and at most 100 scores form this top group.

Illustration: Two candidates each have a raw composite score of 0.80. In Discipline X, the top 1% average is 0.90. In Discipline Y, it is 0.95. The first candidate's normalised score is about 0.889. The second candidate's is about 0.842.

So a candidate competes mainly with peers from the same field. A crowded, high-scoring discipline sets a higher benchmark.

Read More: IIM Ahmedabad Courses & Fees 2027

AC-RC Shortlisting and Extra Academic Filters Removed

Earlier, IIMA shortlisted the top 5% from each Academic Category and Reservation Category group. Candidates also had to clear a Class 10-12 average threshold. For General candidates, this was 80 for Science, 77 for Commerce and 75 for Arts.

A graduation rule also applied. Candidates had to be at or above the 80th percentile of their group. The 2027-29 policy drops all of these conditions.

CAT Weight in Final Selection Rises to 26%

The final score formula now has three parts instead of four. CAT and the application rating are merged into one normalised composite score.

Component	2027-29 Weight	2026-28 Weight
Personal Interview (PI)	50%	50%
Analytical Writing Test (AWT)	10%	10%
Normalised composite score	40%	Not part of the formula
Effective CAT weight	26% (65% of 40%)	25%
Effective application rating weight	14% (35% of 40%)	15%

What Has Not Changed for IIM Ahmedabad PGP 2027-29?

Several parts of the policy remain the same as last year. The CAT percentile cut-offs are unchanged.

Category	Overall Percentile	Sectional Percentile	PwD Overall / Sectional
General, EWS	95	85	85 / 75
NC-OBC	90	80	80 / 70
SC	85	75	75 / 65
ST	75	65	65 / 55

Sectional cut-offs apply to VARC, DILR and QA separately. IIMA may revise these cut-offs based on the applicant pool.

Eligibility: a bachelor's degree with at least 50% marks, or 45% for SC, ST and PwD candidates.
Work experience: 0 points below 12 months. Between 12 and 36 months, points equal 0.20 x (months - 11). Above 36 months earns 5 points.
Gender diversity: non-male candidates get 3 points.
Shortlisting split: 35% application rating and 65% CAT percentile.
Age: candidates must be at least 19 years old on June 30, 2027.

Read More: IIM Ahmedabad Important Dates

IIM Ahmedabad Selection Process 2027-29 Step by Step

The official policy lays out the process in a fixed order. Candidates can follow it in these steps.

Basic filters are applied: CAT 2026 taken, Indian national, age 19 or above, and applied to the two-year PGP.
Raw application rating is calculated as Class 10 + Class 12 + graduation + work experience + gender points. The maximum is 38.
This rating is divided by the average of the top 50 ratings across all applicants.
Raw composite score = 0.35 x normalised rating + 0.65 x (CAT percentile / 100).
The raw composite score is normalised within the candidate's UG discipline.
CAT cut-offs are applied, and the AWT-PI shortlist is prepared with reservation categories represented.
After AWT and PI, the final score = 0.50 x PI + 0.10 x AWT + 0.40 x normalised composite score.

Example: A male engineer has 92% in Class 10, 88% in Class 12 and 78% in B.Tech. He has 24 months of work experience. His rating is 10 + 8 + 5 + 2.6 + 0 = 25.6 points.

IIM Ahmedabad PGP 2027-29 Tentative Dates

IIMA has shared tentative timelines for the shortlist and offers.

Event	Tentative Date
AWT-PI shortlist on IIMA website	Second week of January 2027
Admission offers and waiting list	Second week of April 2027
Offer acceptance formalities	First week of May 2027
Deadline for final-year degree completion	June 30, 2027

AWT and PI will be held in Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai and New Delhi.

Read More:

Which Applicants Are Affected by the New IIMA Criteria?

The changes affect different profiles in different ways. Students report the most confusion around discipline grouping and graduation points.

Engineering and Computer Science Graduates

Engineers were earlier grouped with science and BCA graduates in AC-4. Now Engineering and Technology is separate from Computer Science and IT. A 78% B.Tech score earned 8 points earlier and earns 5 points now. But every engineer faces the same table, and normalisation happens within the discipline.

Commerce, Arts, Law and Medical Graduates

These streams had softer slabs under the old policy. A Law graduate with 68% earned 8 points earlier. The same marks now earn only 3 points. Since comparison is within Law, peers lose points in the same way.

Commerce, Management and Economics are no longer in one group. Each now has its own benchmark.

Freshers and Working Professionals

Work experience scoring is unchanged. Freshers still get 0 points here. With CAT now at 26% of the final score, a strong percentile helps freshers a little more.

Candidates With Weak Class 10 or 12 Marks

The P threshold no longer rejects candidates directly. A low Class 10 or 12 score still lowers the rating. But it is no longer a separate elimination filter.

Candidates With More Than One UG Degree

IIMA calculates a separate score for each discipline the candidate holds. The highest normalised score is used for shortlisting. Example: A candidate with B.Com and LLB gets two scores, and the better one counts.

What CAT 2026 Aspirants Should Do Now?

Aim well above the 95 percentile overall cut-off. Clearing the cut-off alone does not ensure a call.
Score at least 85 percentile in each section. A single weak section ends the IIMA process.
Fill Class 10, 12 and graduation marks exactly as on marksheets. All subjects on the marksheet are counted.
Get equivalence certificates ready for CGPA or letter grades. These are needed at the interview.
Check the degree name entered in the CAT form. It decides the discipline pool.
Prepare for AWT and PI early. Together they carry 60% of the final score.

IIM Ahmedabad Selection Criteria 2027-29 FAQs

Ques. Does IIM Ahmedabad use CAT percentile or CAT score for shortlisting?

Ans. IIM Ahmedabad uses the overall CAT 2026 percentile in its shortlisting formula. The CAT percentile is divided by 100 and carries 65% weight in the composite score.

Ques. How does IIM Ahmedabad calculate the graduation rating for CA, CS and ICWA candidates?

Ans. IIM Ahmedabad calculates the graduation percentage using the average of the Intermediate and Final percentages entered in the CAT application. For FIAI candidates, the aggregate percentage is considered.

Ques. How does IIM Ahmedabad convert CGPA into percentage?

Ans. IIM Ahmedabad first follows the conversion formula provided by the candidate's university. If the university does not prescribe a conversion method, the CGPA is divided by the maximum CGPA and multiplied by 100.

Ques. Can final-year students apply for IIM Ahmedabad PGP 2027-29?

Ans. Yes. Final-year students can apply if they meet the prescribed eligibility requirements. They must complete their qualifying degree by June 30, 2027.

Ques. What is the maximum application rating for IIM Ahmedabad PGP 2027-29?

Ans. The maximum application rating is 38 points, comprising 30 points for academics, 5 points for work experience and 3 points for gender diversity.

Ques. Does IIM Ahmedabad send regret letters to candidates who are not shortlisted?

Ans. No. IIM Ahmedabad does not send regret letters to candidates who are not shortlisted. Candidates need to check the IIM Ahmedabad website for their shortlist status.

Ques. Are the IIM Ahmedabad reservation percentages unchanged for 2027-29?

Ans. Yes. The policy provides reservation of 27% for NC-OBC, 15% for SC, 7.5% for ST, 5% for PwD and up to 10% for EWS candidates.

Ques. Does IIM Ahmedabad prepare its shortlist based on other IIMs' selection lists?

Ans. No. IIM Ahmedabad prepares its AWT-PI shortlist independently. Therefore, the shortlist status can differ from the selection lists of other IIMs.